Menyu

Local guide · Illinois

What a Chicago restaurant owner needs, on the menu and on the sidewalk

Chicago drew 56.8 million visitors in 2025, who spent a record $21.5 billion, and every sidewalk café permit in the city runs from March 1 to the end of February. This page covers that permit and the allergen notice Illinois expects on menus, then what Menyu can and cannot take on for a Chicago restaurant today.

Put my menu online from its linkDraft my allergen chart

Café table inside a railed sidewalk café on a Chicago street of brick walk-ups at golden hour, with a red QR code stand, a bowl of albacore ceviche and a margarita
AI-generated illustration

Key facts

Chicago in figures

visitors in 2025, who spent a record $21.5 billion1
56.8 million
residents on July 1, 2025, third in the country2
2,731,585
of residents aged five and over speak a language other than English at home (2020-2024)3
35.4%
restaurants in the MICHELIN selection for Chicago and surroundings, 66 of them with vegetarian options4
100

Neighbourhoods

2.7 million residents across 77 neighborhoods

Chicago had 2,731,585 residents on July 1, 2025, the third-largest city in the country behind New York and Los Angeles, and 0.6% fewer than its April 2020 base. In 2020 it counted about 12,060 residents per square mile. Choose Chicago, the city’s tourism bureau, speaks of 77 neighborhoods.123

In the Census Bureau’s 2020-2024 figures, 35.4% of Chicagoans aged five and over speak a language other than English at home, 29.7% of residents are Hispanic or Latino and 20.9% were born abroad. Hotels and restaurants sold $13.8 billion in the city in 2022.3

For your menu

A neighborhood restaurant lives on regulars: when they can read the day’s changes on their phone, the menu does some of the inviting for you.

Visitors and languages

56.8 million visitors; 92% of leisure travelers plan to return

Choose Chicago counted 56.8 million visitors in 2025, nearly 1.5 million more than in 2024. They spent a record $21.5 billion and supported 135,360 local jobs.1

In the bureau’s 2025 tourism report, 92% of leisure travelers say they plan to return within three years.1

For your menu

A visitor who plans to come back looks your restaurant up again: a menu at a link that never changes is still there the second time.

Local food

Where the 2026 James Beard Awards were handed out

The 2026 James Beard Awards were announced in Chicago, at the Lyric Opera, on June 15, 2026. Jacob Potashnick of Feld won Best Chef: Great Lakes.5

For Chicago and surroundings, the MICHELIN Guide lists 100 restaurants: 1 with three stars, 4 with two, 14 with one, 32 Bib Gourmands and 49 selected addresses. Its filters flag vegetarian options at 66 of them, gluten-free at 55, vegan at 36, halal at 12 and kosher at 7.4

For your menu

More than half of the selection flags gluten-free options: on your menu, that answer belongs next to each dish.

Local rules

The sidewalk café permit, from March to February

The City’s Business Affairs and Consumer Protection department (BACP) issues the sidewalk café permit that lets a restaurant or tavern serve guests on the sidewalk in front of or next to its premises. The café stays on the sidewalk, never in the street or an empty lot; a boundary must enclose it, and pedestrians keep a 6-foot clearance.6

You apply through the City’s permit portal with your Retail Food Establishment or tavern license, your insurance documents, a measured site plan and a photo of the sidewalk. Once the file is approved, you pay through the portal, and the permit and approved plan must be posted on the exterior wall or window of the main entrance whenever you are open.6

Permits run from March 1 to the end of February and are renewed every year, with a bill each year and liability insurance kept current; renewal applications are open now. Questions go to [email protected].67

For your menu

Permits end with February: renew before March 1 so the tables can go out as soon as the weather allows.

Local rules

Illinois: allergens in writing, and a QR code counts

The Illinois Department of Public Health asks restaurants to tell guests in writing when a dish contains one of the nine major food allergens, under section 3-602.12. A notice on the menu or a table tent qualifies, and specials need the same notice as regular menu items.8

A QR code counts as written notification, the department says, but the restaurant should consider whether it suits its guests and keep physical copies for those who ask.8

For your menu

A QR code can carry the allergen notice in Illinois, as long as a printed copy is there for whoever asks.

With Menyu

Where Menyu helps a Chicago restaurant now

Menyu turns your menu into a page behind a QR code in your colors, at an address that never changes. In Chicago it carries translations and a dish-by-dish allergen list today, with prices in dollars and opening hours on Chicago time once you choose both in the settings. The opening status itself reads in French.

Limits

What Menyu does not do

  • The open or closed line on the menu is written in French (“Ouvert · Jusqu’à…”), whatever language the guest reads; the buttons exist in English and French only.
  • Allergens come from the EU list of 14 rather than the nine major allergens Illinois refers to: wheat has no entry of its own, it shows as gluten.
  • Guests cannot pay online: Menyu only opens payment accounts in France.
  • The optional phone field at sign-up takes a French ten-digit number; a Chicago number would lose its +1, so leave it empty.
  • The subscription is billed in euros, even with your menu priced in dollars.

According to the guides

Five Chicago tables from the MICHELIN Guide, one with a 2026 James Beard award

All five belong to the MICHELIN Guide’s current Chicago selection: a Mexican and a Vietnamese Bib Gourmand, a New Orleans-style tavern, a two-star Filipino tasting menu and a starred farm-to-table room whose chef won Best Chef: Great Lakes in 2026.

These five are not Menyu customers and have not been in touch with us. The selection is the MICHELIN Guide’s and the James Beard Foundation’s; on October 21, 2026, each restaurant’s own website showed bookings, a menu or opening hours.

  1. Frontera Grill

    North Clark Street9 · Mexican · $$

    • Bib Gourmand 20254

    The linchpin of Rick Bayless’ restaurants, devoted to regional Mexican cooking, with an ever-changing menu that opens on the Frontera ceviche of Pacific albacore.9

    MICHELIN Guide listingRestaurant website10

  2. HaiSous

    South Carpenter Avenue11 · Vietnamese · $$

    • Bib Gourmand 20254

    Chef Thai Dang and his wife Danielle split the menu into five sections of lesser-known Vietnamese dishes, from goi vit, a duck salad, to ché.11

    MICHELIN Guide listingRestaurant website12

  3. Ina Mae

    Wicker Park13 · Southern, Creole · $$

    • MICHELIN Guide selection 20254

    Named after chef Brian Jupiter’s great-grandmother, with New Orleans classics such as gumbo ya-ya and po’boys at lunch and dinner.13

    MICHELIN Guide listingRestaurant website14

  4. Kasama

    North Winchester Avenue15 · Filipino, contemporary · $$$$

    • 2 MICHELIN Stars 2025416

    Named after the Tagalog word for “together,” Tim Flores and Genie Kwon’s restaurant runs a counter by day and a Filipino tasting menu by reservation at night.1517

    MICHELIN Guide listingRestaurant website17

  5. Feld

    Ukrainian Village16 · Contemporary, farm to table · $$$$

    • 1 MICHELIN Star 2025416
    • James Beard Award, Best Chef: Great Lakes 20265

    Jacob Potashnick sources most products from within a four-hour radius, and the sour cherry trees in the backyard end up on the menu.16

    MICHELIN Guide listingRestaurant website18

Questions

Questions and answers

How do I get a sidewalk café permit in Chicago?

Through BACP’s permit portal. You need a Retail Food Establishment or tavern license, insurance documents, a site plan with measurements and a photo of the sidewalk. The café must stay on the sidewalk, inside a boundary, with 6 feet left for pedestrians. Once approved, you pay online and post the permit and plan at your main entrance.

Questions go to [email protected].6

When does a Chicago sidewalk café permit expire?

At the end of February. Permits run from March 1 to the end of February and are renewed each year, with a yearly bill and liability insurance that must stay current. The City says renewal applications are open now.67

Can a QR code carry my allergen information in Illinois?

Yes. The Illinois Department of Public Health counts a QR code as written notification, and adds that you should consider whether it suits your guests and provide physical copies on request. Menu items and specials both need the notice.

Menyu lists allergens dish by dish, but from the EU list of 14, where wheat appears as gluten. Check each dish against the nine major allergens before relying on it.8

Does Menyu work for a restaurant in Chicago?

Yes, with limits. The menu, its translations, the QR code and the English dashboard work, and in the settings you choose US dollars and Chicago’s time zone, so prices show in dollars and the opening status follows Chicago time. That status reads in French, online payment is limited to accounts opened in France, and orders carry no tip line.

The sign-up phone field is optional and built for French numbers: leave it blank.

Menyu and US restaurants: the full picture
Can my menu be in Spanish or Polish?

The dishes, yes: Menyu translates them into 25 languages, Spanish and Polish included, and you correct the result before publishing. The buttons of the menu stay in English, and the opening status shows in French.

In Chicago, 35.4% of residents aged five and over speak a language other than English at home.3

How does Menyu’s allergen list differ from the US one?

Federal law names nine major food allergens: milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans and sesame. Menyu’s EU list has 14 entries: eight of those nine, gluten in place of wheat, and celery, mustard, lupin, mollusks and sulfites on top.19

The federal allergen rules
Are the Chicago restaurants above Menyu customers?

No. All five come from the MICHELIN Guide’s 100-restaurant selection for Chicago and surroundings, and Feld’s chef also won a 2026 James Beard Award. We have not contacted them; each entry cites its source.45

What would Menyu cost a Chicago restaurant?

The plans are billed in euros, as everywhere, even when your menu shows dollars: €49 a month for Essentiel, €79 for Premium and €149 for Beyond. Essentiel comes with a seven-day trial.

See the plans

Method

How this page was made

This page was put together by the Menyu team, based in Montpellier, France, from the sources it cites, all read on October 21, 2026: the U.S. Census Bureau, Choose Chicago, the City of Chicago’s BACP pages, the Illinois Department of Public Health, the FDA, the MICHELIN Guide, the James Beard Foundation and each restaurant’s website. None of the restaurants is a Menyu customer. The image was generated by AI and depicts no real place. Menyu works for US restaurants with the limits this page states; the page describes the product as it was on October 22, 2026.

Sources

  1. Choose Chicago, Chicago welcomes 56.8 million tourists in 2025, generating a record-breaking $21.5 billion in spendingchoosechicago.com · accessed October 21, 2026

  2. U.S. Census Bureau, Population Growth Holds Steady in Midsized Cities Amid Widespread Slowdowncensus.gov · accessed October 21, 2026

  3. U.S. Census Bureau, QuickFacts: New York city, New York; Los Angeles city, California; Chicago city, Illinois; Houston city, Texascensus.gov · accessed October 21, 2026

  4. MICHELIN Guide, MICHELIN restaurants, Chicago and surroundingsguide.michelin.com · accessed October 21, 2026

  5. James Beard Foundation, The 2026 James Beard Award Winnersjamesbeard.org · accessed October 21, 2026

  6. City of Chicago, Business Affairs and Consumer Protection, Sidewalk Cafechicago.gov · accessed October 21, 2026

  7. City of Chicago, Business Affairs and Consumer Protection, Public Way Usechicago.gov · accessed October 21, 2026

  8. Illinois Department of Public Health, Allergen Requirements for Packaged, Unpackaged, and Bulk Labeling Frequently Asked Questionsdph.illinois.gov · accessed October 21, 2026

  9. MICHELIN Guide, Frontera Grill, Chicagoguide.michelin.com · accessed October 21, 2026

  10. Frontera Grill, Frontera Grill, official websitefronteragrill.com · accessed October 21, 2026

  11. MICHELIN Guide, HaiSous, Chicagoguide.michelin.com · accessed October 21, 2026

  12. HaiSous, HaiSous, official websitehaisous.com · accessed October 21, 2026

  13. MICHELIN Guide, Ina Mae, Chicagoguide.michelin.com · accessed October 21, 2026

  14. Ina Mae Tavern, Ina Mae Tavern, official websiteinamaetavern.com · accessed October 21, 2026

  15. MICHELIN Guide, Kasama, Chicagoguide.michelin.com · accessed October 21, 2026

  16. MICHELIN Guide, Feld, Chicagoguide.michelin.com · accessed October 21, 2026

  17. Kasama, Kasama, official websitekasamachicago.com · accessed October 21, 2026

  18. Feld, Feld, official websitefeldrestaurant.com · accessed October 21, 2026

  19. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Food Allergiesfda.gov · accessed October 21, 2026