Christian Hunter reopens Hooligan in Logan Square
After Time Out Market's abrupt closure killed his Fulton Market debut, the Michelin Young Chef Award winner reopens his grandmother-cuisine project a year later.
Christian Hunter's long-delayed restaurant finally has a room: Hooligan, his "grandmother cuisine" project with restaurateur Tyrone Redic Jr., opened in Chicago's Logan Square on Thursday, 1 October.
Hunter, who won the Michelin Guide's 2023 Young Chef Award for his tasting-menu restaurant Atelier, is one of only two Black chefs in the US to hold a Michelin star. He was also a James Beard Award finalist for Best Chef: Northeast while running Community Table in rural Connecticut.
The original Hooligan was set to open inside Time Out Market Chicago's Fulton Market food hall in November 2025; Hunter and Redic Jr. had already hosted pre-opening dinners when Time Out Market announced in January that it was shutting the hall entirely, scrapping the plan with no warning to vendors.
A Michelin Young Chef Award winner swaps a tasting menu for his grandmother's cooking, six years later.
Grandmother cuisine, reworked
"With this evolution of Hooligan, I keep coming back to grandmother cuisine," says Hunter, who grew up in Lexington, Kentucky, and cooked through the Hudson Valley, coastal Rhode Island, Charleston and rural Connecticut before landing in Chicago. He describes the menu as a neo-Midwestern bistro built on classical French technique and Great Lakes ingredients.
The vidalia à la vinaigrette pairs roasted sweet and candy onions, garlic, shallots and leeks with a tarragon-mustard dressing, finished with leek oil, a dish Hunter ties to his grandfather's garden. The chicken liver parfait reworks hot water cornbread, a Southern pan-fried corn cake, into a hushpuppy alongside pimento cheese and chicken liver mousse.
A six-year wait for the right room
Hooligan now occupies 2528 North California Avenue, the Good Fortune space that closed in early 2020 after a well-reviewed run and sat empty through the pandemic. "For six years, it's been waiting for us," says Redic Jr., whose own résumé runs through Charlie Trotter's, Grace and Celeste.
Hunter's Michelin-star profile puts him in different company than most Logan Square openings; he is among the Chicago chefs the city's awards circuit now tracks closely. Whether a neighbourhood bistro format can hold that tasting-menu audience is the test Hooligan's second act still has to pass.
