HUMBOLDT PARK — An empanada joint is taking over the former home of Grandma J's Local Kitchen.
Signs for "Arepas Empanadas," which will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner, were recently posted on the storefront at 1552 N. Kedzie Ave., which is a stone's throw away from the neighborhood's namesake park.
On Tuesday afternoon, workers were seen renovating the storefront.
Both the menu and the opening date are unclear. Attempts to reach the owner were unsuccessful Tuesday.
It marks a new start for the former Grandma J's, which made headlines for being a target of three separate acts of vandalism. In the first incident, an anonymous anti-gentrification message was scrawled on the door: "Get out of Humboldt Park / Don't gentrify us / We won't be Wicker Park."
Grandma J's closed in November after five years in business. The owner said she was forced to close due to a lack of business — not because of the repeat vandalism.
"It's no secret owning your own business is hard work. And I have done the best I could," she previously wrote in a Facebook post. "I cannot financially keep this business open and running anymore by myself. I have a sweet little girl that relies on me to take care of her and she is my world."
