A ‘Milk Bar’ Is Coming to Hubbard Street in River North

Hubbard Street should soon have a new bar that appears to focus on sweets from one of the co-owners of Shore Club, the restaurant/club at North Avenue Beach. A spokesperson confirmed that JoJo’s Milk Bar is on its way inside the short-lived Coco Champagne Lounge space at 23 W. Hubbard Street. Coco lasted eight months before shuttering in August 2017.

An Instagram page announced that “something sweet is coming to Hubbard Street.” The spokesperson didn’t have many details other than Robbie Schloss, one of the investors in Shore Club, is involved. Another Shore Club partner, Nick Thayer, is included on the bar’s liquor license application, which also lists the business as two floors. Shore Club opened in August 2017, a partnership with the Chicago Park District.

The Instagram posts use hashtags for “milkshake,” “cake,” “desserts,” “diner,” and “chicagogrammers,” so over-the-top boozy or non-boozy milkshakes and sweets could be on the docket. They also use “#fall” so the opening could be coming very soon. Stay tuned for more concrete details when they become available.

The spokesperson said the project is from Castle Hospitality Group, a company without any presence on the web. It does appear that We Cre8 Design, the same firm which handled design duties for Shore Club, will be working on JoJo’s Milk Bar. It’s listed as one of the company’s clients on its website.

The similarity in names may bring comparisons to Milk Bar, the highly acclaimed bakery chain founded by pastry chef extraordinaire Christina Tosi in 2008 in New York. Milk Bar falls under David Chang’s Momofuku banner and there are nine locations in New York plus outlets in Washington, D.C., Las Vegas, and Toronto.

Chicagoans may know Schloss from a video shot last year from Wrigley Field. He and wife Kirsten Barrish Schloss made their pregnancy announcement that featured a cameo from comedian Bill Murray. Murray was sitting next to them watching the Cubs in the playoffs.

Stay tuned for updates.