Hyde Park Yusho Delayed Until Summer; Owner Matthias Merges Not Backing Down Despite Dispute

Interior of Matthias Merges' A10 restaurant, which opened in Hyde Park in 2013. (Photo: A10)

The thing about living on the South Side is that many residents tend to be stuck in their ways. And stubborn. And don't like change. That's why I moved as soon as I could to the rapidly changing Near West Side more than 10 years ago.

So it's pretty admirable that Matthias Merges (Billy Sunday, Yusho) pushed forward with A10, a restaurant and cocktail lounge that's quite revolutionary in this part of town. In fact, he's done pretty well with a full house almost every night of the week.

Merges was set to open a second Yusho location in Hyde Park in February, however, there have been some roadblocks, according to DNA Info:

"Merges planned to open the second location for his Logan Square restaurant Yusho in February at 1301 E. 53rd St., but was delayed when he discovered that alcohol sales were banned on the block and neighbors did not want to change it.

"The University of Chicago narrowly gathered enough signatures from neighbors to overturn the ban, but was then faced with a lawsuit from neighbors who claimed the university botched the process."

See, this is what I'm talking about. People want nice places in their 'hood—which will only bring more $$$ into the community—but then they don't want to compromise.

Thankfully, according to the article, these particularly stubborn neighbors finally backed down and dropped the lawsuit. The restaurant is set to open in late summer. It's just unfortunate that it had to go down this way.