Story thread · 2 reports / 2 sources

A Chicago couple was poised to open a new Lincoln Avenue bistro. Then the city shut down their street

suntimes.com · 6d · first reportShare

On a recent August morning, Mary Nedbalski, co-owner of the forthcoming Gunny’s Pub on Lincoln Avenue, went to work, only to discover that the city had shut down the street outside. The surprise street shutdown could last until October — poor timing for a bar and bistro set to open Sept. 16. This wasn’t the first setback that Nedbalski and her husband, Marty O’Connor, faced in opening their new Lincoln Park neighborhood bar and restaurant. Approximately two months earlier, the city began replacing the sewer line along a three-block stretch of Lincoln Avenue starting at Racine Avenue and Diversey Parkway. Owners Marty O’Connor and Mary Nedbalski sit in Gunny’s Pub, a new Midwestern bistro in Lincoln Park. Candace Dane Chambers/Sun-Times Business owners were told the work would be finished in July, O’Connor said. But the severe storms that hit the city on Fourth of July weekend caused a giant sinkhole, and the pipes beneath Gunny’s filled with gravel and debris. Now, Gunny’s is in an une