HUMBOLDT PARK — The owner of a restaurant vandalized with anti-gentrification demands last week wants to thank the anonymous tagger: The last seven days has been her busiest week since opening three years ago.

“It kind of blew me away,” owner Layla Malia said Tuesday. “When I [posted] the picture I wasn’t thinking anything of it — I was just thinking, ‘who does this?’



Graffiti that appeared outside Grandma J's last week. [Facebook/Grandma J's]

But the neighborhood came out in support of Grandma J’s Local Kitchen, 1552 N. Kedzie Ave., after finding out her restaurant was vandalized June 2, Malia said a week after "Get out of Humboldt Park / Don't gentrify us / We won't be Wicker Park" was written on her window in black sharpie.

The sharpie scrawls came as a surprise to the staff at Grandma J’s and Malia, an on-and-off Humboldt Park resident of 20 years who is now raising her young daughter within walking distance of the restaurant named after her mother. Its namesake, Grandma J, was a grandmother of six who helped design the shop’s interior ahead of the restaurant's 2012 opening.

“But the response was amazing,” Malia said. “It blew me away all week — just the support from everyone in the neighborhood; different ages, different ethnicities — I was very grateful.

Well who would of thought by someone putting black Sharpie to my window would create so much buzzzz. I want to thank... Posted by Grandma Js Local Kitchen on Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Ironically, new support came from locals who weren’t aware of Grandma J’s and stopped by over the weekend for the restaurant's comfort food-laden brunch, Malia said — which helps, she added, being a small business owner.

While the seven days following the markings on her window were the busiest in Grandma J’s history, Malia noted that the 606 grand opening this past weekend and her three-year anniversary on June 6 didn’t hurt either.

But the response to the sharpie tag was especially meaningful.

“It makes me feel good about my community. The people supporting the restaurant has been amazing,” she said. “I thank the person — whoever tagged my window.”

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