CHICAGO — For 75 years, the corner of West 35th and South Halsted streets in the city’s Bridgeport neighborhood was home to the landmark Bridgeport Restaurant. The eatery shuttered in 2022 and sat vacant until this summer when a bright pink diner took its place, bringing smiles to a corner of town that once was a source of great pain for the family who bought it.
It was just outside the restaurant some 47 years ago that young Erik Nance sat in a car while his father and grandfather were beaten on the corner in a racial attack.
“They said we’re a Black family on the wrong side of the street,” Nance recently recalled. “A mob of people just started hitting him with bats.” Nance’s grandfather ran to the doors of the Bridgeport Restaurant for help, only to be turned away and the door locked in front of him.
When a ‘for sale’ sign was posted on those same doors, Nance and his family knew it was time to change the script. So they bought it, redecorating with a fresh coat of bubble gum pink paint and neon lights and gave it a new name.
“I was proud to try to change the narrative of the story that really haunted so many people in our family,” Nance said.
Since opening with a soft launch last week, customers have packed the booths in the new Stussy’s Diner for stacks of pink pancakes and lavender milkshakes. In every corner of the walls is a nod to each family member with a part in the story: the niece who bakes the pastries, the cousins and cook in the back, and the frilly, pink-loving daughter for which the diner is named.
“Everyone is welcome here. We don’t discriminate against anybody,” co-owner Dahlia Beckett said. “We don’t hold grudges. We just want to be a light.”
A grand opening for Stussy’s Diner will be held September 12.