Trattoria Lo So Chicago: Bailey Sullivan + Monteverde Open in Bucktown

Trattoria Lo So Chicago is the night Bucktown has been waiting years to hear named out loud — Monteverde's Sarah Grueneberg, partners Jaime Canete and Rob Mosher, and rising-star chef Bailey Sullivan opening a second Italian house on Armitage, built for charcoal smoke, dried pasta from Italy, and a quieter room than the West Loop pastificio that made them famous.

If you have ever left Monteverde wishing for one more seat, one softer volume, and a neighborhood trattoria that still felt like their kitchen, this is the announcement that lands. Trattoria Lo So — Italian for something close to "the trattoria I know" / "the one I know" — is aimed at early 2027 (Block Club) or winter 2027 (Tribune / Chicago magazine), at 2044–2048 W Armitage Ave in the former Jack & Ginger's, plus a new building where the old patio used to sit.

What is Trattoria Lo So Chicago?

Trattoria Lo So Chicago is the Monteverde team's sophomore restaurant: a Central Italian trattoria in Bucktown with about 120 seats and a 17-seat bar, designed for live-fire cooking and dried pasta rather than Monteverde's famous fresh pastificio show.

The name is affectionate, not invented-for-branding fluff. In Italian, lo so nods to "the one I know" — the neighborhood place you already feel like you belong to. That is the promise Grueneberg has been describing while walking the unfinished space: a room that connects to people who live nearby the way Le Bouchon already does around the corner.

Where is Trattoria Lo So opening in Bucktown?

Trattoria Lo So will open at 2044–2048 W Armitage Ave in Bucktown — the former Jack & Ginger's bar plus a new adjacent building erected over the old patio.

A skylight vestibule is meant to link the two structures the way Italian families sometimes grow into the next doorway and keep cooking. Neighbors within a few blocks include Class Act, Pompette, Mirra, and longtime staple Le Bouchon — which is exactly the kind of dense, walkable dinner map that makes a trattoria announcement feel like a neighborhood event, not just another West Loop satellite.

When does Trattoria Lo So Chicago open?

Trattoria Lo So Chicago is targeting early 2027 per Block Club Chicago and winter 2027 per the Chicago Tribune / Chicago magazine report. No public reservation book has opened yet.

Bucktown has been living with the construction rumors for roughly two years — Monteverde staying quiet even as the gut renovation and second building went up. Speculators floated pizza. Others guessed Southern cooking for Grueneberg's Texas roots. The reveal is Italian again — and intentionally not a pizzeria.

Who is cooking at Trattoria Lo So?

Bailey Sullivan will helm the kitchen as executive chef. Sarah Grueneberg stays involved as creative director and wants Sullivan to shine.

Sullivan has been running day-to-day at Monteverde, was a Top Chef finalist, and was named a 2026 James Beard Emerging Chef finalist. Partners Jaime Canete and Rob Mosher complete the ownership team that opened Monteverde at 1020 W Madison in the West Loop in 2015. Monteverde still lives at monteverdechicago.com and @monteverdechi — the house that proved Chicago would line up for pasta with a modern hand and a traditional heart.

Grueneberg's public framing is generous and clear: she will shape the creative direction; the Bucktown kitchen is Sullivan's stage.

What will Trattoria Lo So Chicago serve?

Trattoria Lo So Chicago will lean Central Italy — Abruzzo, Lazio, Le Marche, Umbria — with dried pasta from Mancini Pastificio Agricolo, a robata-style charcoal grill, wood-oven casseroles, and no pizza.

That dried-pasta choice is a real pivot from Monteverde's fresh pastificio. Mancini grows its own durum wheat; the shape and bite will read more trattoria than tasting-menu flour theater. Live fuel is the other headline: meats, fish, and vegetables over a Japanese-style robata charcoal grill, plus wood-oven-fired casseroles once the new ventilation system is doing its job.

Like Monteverde, Lo So plans a custom balsamic batteria — barrels aging vinegar on site (Andrea Bezzecchi has been named in some coverage of the Monteverde-style setup). Wines, artisanal spirits, and amari from small producers in Italy and the United States are part of the pour list as described in the press release coverage.

Menu details are still conceptual. Grueneberg has floated pastas al forno and freeform lasagne, grilled meat skewers as starters, and soft-serve ice cream sundaes for dessert — the kind of early sketch that makes you hungry before a single dish is plated. Expect prices a touch lower than Monteverde, with a few more seats.

The Central Italy map is the tell. Abruzzo, Lazio, Le Marche, Umbria sit between the regions American menus already over-index — Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna up north, Campania down south — so Lo So is aiming for the middle of the peninsula: mountain and coast, grilled meat and baked pasta, dried shapes that hold sauce without needing a pastificio window as the whole show. When Grueneberg talks about freeform lasagne or soft-serve sundaes, she is not locking a menu; she is sketching the kind of night that feels generous and a little playful once the grill is lit.

What will the Trattoria Lo So room feel like?

Trattoria Lo So is being designed by Karen Herold / Studio K Creative (also Monteverde) for cozy nooks, quieter acoustics, tile floors, wood paneling, bentwood bistro chairs, and that skylight vestibule between buildings.

Monteverde is open floor plan, high ceilings, and a joyful roar. Lo So is being built for a residential street: acoustics as a real investment, little corners instead of one big stage, a timeless neighborhood trattoria vibe rather than a pastificio spectacle. If you want the Monteverde flavor of hospitality without needing to shout across the table, this is the room they are describing.

Walk the unfinished shell in your mind the way Grueneberg has been walking guests through it: two buildings, a soft hinge of light between them, tile that will someday catch the scrape of chairs, wood paneling that should warm up once the lights go low. This is not a concept restaurant begging for a skyline backdrop. It is a Bucktown address asking to become habit — weeknight pasta, a birthday robata plate, the bar seat you claim when you only have an hour.

An exterior rendering from Studio K Creative has already circulated with the announcement — the first visual of how Armitage will read when the scaffolding finally comes down.

How does Trattoria Lo So compare to Monteverde?

Trattoria Lo So is the quieter, charcoal-forward Central Italian sibling: dried pasta instead of Monteverde's fresh pastificio, more seats, slightly lower prices, and a Bucktown address instead of West Loop Madison Street.

Monteverde since 2015 has been the West Loop Italian that GQ once ranked among America's best new restaurants and that still lands on "best of" lists a decade later. Lo So is not a clone. It is the same team's second language — still Italian, still balsamic-obsessed, still Sarah's creative orbit — but tuned for live fire, dried shapes, and a neighborhood night out.

Press contacts for Monteverde remain through the house site and teammv@monteverdechicago.com; Lo So does not yet have its own public booking channel.

How do you get a table at Trattoria Lo So Chicago?

You cannot book Trattoria Lo So Chicago yet. There is no public Resy, OpenTable, or Tock listing as of the September 2026 announcements — only the early/winter 2027 target and the construction site on Armitage.

When a booker goes live, that is the moment this story jumps from "save the address" to "set the alarm." Until then, the move is simple: follow @monteverdechi, watch monteverdechicago.com, and keep Bucktown on your calendar for early-to-winter 2027.

Why Trattoria Lo So Chicago matters for a night out

Bucktown already eats well. What Trattoria Lo So Chicago adds is a Monteverde-caliber Italian night with charcoal smoke in the air, a quieter room for conversation, and a chef Chicago has already been watching — Bailey Sullivan — finally with a dining room of her own.

Picture the walk down Armitage after dark: tile underfoot, bentwood chairs, a skylight vestibule, pasta from Abruzzo and Umbria on the board, something from the robata smelling like dinner you planned weeks ahead. That is the night this opening is selling. Not a West Loop victory lap. A neighborhood trattoria you hope becomes the one you know.

Frequently asked questions

What does Trattoria Lo So mean?

Trattoria Lo So roughly translates from Italian as "the trattoria I know" or "the one I know" — a name meant to feel like a familiar neighborhood table.

Is Trattoria Lo So related to Monteverde?

Yes. It is the second restaurant from Sarah Grueneberg and partners Jaime Canete and Rob Mosher, with Monteverde executive chef Bailey Sullivan leading the kitchen and Grueneberg as creative director.

Will Trattoria Lo So serve pizza?

No. Press coverage is explicit: no pizza. Expect dried pasta, robata-style grilling, and wood-oven casseroles instead.

Who designed Trattoria Lo So?

Karen Herold of Studio K Creative — the same designer behind Monteverde — is shaping the Bucktown room.

Where can I read more about the announcement?

Primary coverage is from Block Club Chicago (Sep 17, 2026) and the Chicago Tribune / Chicago magazine piece (Sep 15, 2026), plus the house site at monteverdechicago.com.

Trattoria Lo So Chicago: Monteverde’s Bailey Sullivan Brings Live-Fire Central Italy to Bucktown