Federales New Logan Square Location Will Feature a Retractable Roof

Federales, a West Loop bar famous for revelers shooting tequila and then hurling those empty glasses made of ice at a bell, is poised to open another location this spring in Logan Square.

The 8,500-square-foot bar, which happens to serve tacos, is taking over the former Marcello’s Father & Son at Milwaukee and Sacramento avenues. Federales is typically crowded on weekend summer days with customers wanting to snag a space on the patio in West Loop. A rendering of the Logan Square space shows a patio. Management calls it “a lofty, open-air bar concept mixing tacos, tequila, and cocktails under a retractable roof.” The menu would be similar to the West Loop locations, according to a rep. The opening is pegged for a “quarter two 2023” debut.

Beyond Bixi Beer, Logan Square doesn’t have any spots with retractable roofs. The neighborhood continues to change as shown last week when Roundhouse, a sports bar, opened at 2535 N. Milwaukee Avenue. Another bar that brought a little bit of the River North and Old Town sports vibe to Logan Square was the Whale (which struck a chord with a Tribune critic when it opened in 2019).

The transformation is reminiscent of the changes a decade or so ago in Wicker Park when sports bars began popping up in an area mostly known for dive bars. Pop culture sanctuary Club Foot, a bar with a small dance floor and littered with vintage action figures, closed in 2014. Co-owner Lauree Rohrig told Eater at the time that a combo of factors led to her bar’s demise: increased rent, more people using their phones to catch up rather than meeting in person, and a spike in sports bars: “They’d rather go up Division Street, watch the game and eat hot wings,” Rohrig said back in 2014. She would dub those bars as “bro-holes” in an interview with DNAinfo.

Logan Square has already gone through changes including a Target replacing the Discount Mega Mall which stands across the street from the Federales space. Four Corners owns Federales, a concept developed by Au Cheval founder Brendan Sodikoff. Sodikoff and Four Corners have collaborated on opening locations of Small Cheval, which serves a version of the burger made famous at Au Cheval. Federales debuted in 2016 in West Loop.

Four Corners is also linked with Sterling Bay, the company behind the Lincoln Yards development. Early renderings of that project included another Federales location. Four Corners has also opened Federales in Denver and Dallas. Locally, it’s a change from Father & Son, the pizzeria known for tavern-style crusts and chicken wings, which closed in 2019 after 72 years.

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Federales Logan Square, 2471 N. Milwaukee Avenue, planned for a spring opening.