Last summer, Christian Diaz was walking with his aunt past all of the new restaurants and bars along Logan Square’s Milwaukee Avenue when she made a striking remark.

A Mexican immigrant who has lived in the area for decades, Diaz’s aunt said “some of the restaurants made her feel like a cockroach,” said Diaz, an organizer with the community group Logan Square Neighborhood Association.

“I think what she meant is that spaces in Logan Square, the neighborhood is gentrifying, we’re seeing the inequality that is prevalent. We’re seeing it clash. All of a sudden, people from lower income backgrounds have to share space from higher income backgrounds and the disparities are so much more jarring,” Diaz said.

Today, Logan Square is arguably the most cogent example of gentrification in Chicago, which has manifested into a growing crop of trendy new restaurants and bars. And for some, it’s a cautionary tale.

The brand of restaurant that’s become prevalent in Logan Square — defined by farm-fresh ingredients and cool vibes — is popping up now more than ever in Pilsen, another historically Latino neighborhood several miles south of Logan Square. Over the last year, S.K.Y. Restaurant, HaiSous and Furious Spoon have all opened along the 18th Street corridor.

It’s troubling to anti-gentrifiers who say Pilsen is on the fast track to losing its Mexican identity and becoming Logan Square, which has lost more Hispanic residents than any other neighborhood in the city in recent years.

Visible change

In cities across the country, hip new restaurants and bars are often seen as drivers of gentrification, perhaps because they’re such visible signs of change. While many experts say that these new establishments are merely a symptom — not the cause — of gentrification, there is a link between new restaurants and development.

John J. Betancur, professor of urban planning at the University of Illinois at Chicago and co-author of the study, The Trajectory and Impact of Ongoing Gentrification in Pilsen, said new residents beget new establishments.

“As residents get displaced and Pilsen increasingly becomes home to other groups and also a destination for tourists, the retail shifts to serve the new residents and visitors. Even restaurants offering Mexican food in Pilsen or owned by Latinos have been catering to visitors and gentrifiers,” Betancur said in a written statement.

Take Logan Square, for example. About 10 years ago, when rents started going up significantly, farm-to-table restaurants and craft cocktail bars began taking root in the neighborhood. Today, Logan Square is not only home to more than a dozen new establishments, offering tasting menus and craft cocktails galore, but also several major new developments, including the 11-story and 15-story tall MiCa Towers.

By that logic, Pilsen could be next — and some folks aren’t having it.

This past October things came to a head when a group of anti-gentrifiers, led by LA-based Defend Boyle Heights, verbally attacked Charles Ford, the general manager of S.K.Y. Restaurant. They accused him and his team of pushing out poor residents and “putting lives in danger.” The clash, which brought police to 18th Street, was recorded on video. The next day the anti-gentrifiers took it a step further and tagged the restaurant building with a message that shook the neighborhood: “Get out” of Pilsen.

Months later, community leaders like Byron Sigcho, executive director of Pilsen Alliance, are still grappling with the incendiary message.

“Every change has an effect”

“We definitely don’t want to generate more racism or hatred among neighbors. We want to create good relationships,” said Sigcho, whose group did not have a hand in orchestrating the confrontation. “We are trying to bring people together. Everybody has fear, but how do we move forward if we don’t come together?”

Stephen Gillanders, chef-owner of S.K.Y. Restaurant, said he’s able to see the situation more clearly after a few months of reflection. He’s a chef with a fine dining pedigree who’s worked with Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises and Jean-Georges Vongerichten.

At the time of the clash, Gillanders, a Filipino chef who named the restaurant after his Korean wife, told DNAinfo, “There’s a false understanding of who we are.” Now, after months of conversations with community leaders, he said he’s more understanding.

“Frankly, after a long time of having conversations since then, I understand the concerns and issues they have,” Gillanders said. “We came in with a confidence knowing that it was just my wife and I who owned it. There’s no corporation behind us. There’s no ill intentions or malicious plans we have to Columbus the area. But we should have been more proactive about getting that out.”

Making S.K.Y. approachable to residents is one way. Its tasting menu tops out at $49 per person. That cost is strikingly more than what locals would pay for dinner at local fast-food and quick-serve restaurants like Pollo Express. But S.K.Y., when compared to its fine dining peers, offers a tasting menu that costs less than those of competitors along Randolph Restaurant Row and elsewhere in the city. For example, Eater Chicago’s restaurant of the year, Elske, offers a tasting menu for $85, and that’s considered affordable among fancy restaurants.

ChiResists refused to be interviewed for this story. The anti-gentrification group made a November post on Facebook claiming that S.K.Y. is “playing the victim.”

As unpleasant as it was, the clash fostered a constructive dialogue between the S.K.Y. team and the community, which wouldn’t have happened otherwise, according to Sigcho, whose group helped put on a town hall meeting so neighbors could hash it out.

“We talked to some of the business owners,” Sigcho said. “I think there’s an acknowledgement now. They said, ‘I didn’t know the situation was this bad… 10,000 residents displaced, 5,000 evicted.’ Every change has an effect. We want change to be inclusive and fair.”

“It was only a matter of time”

Danny Gutierrez Jr., whose family owned Nuevo Leon, the oldest Mexican restaurant in the neighborhood, said new restaurants like S.K.Y. are welcome so long as they provide affordable options.

“If you’re going to [bank] on people coming in from outside the neighborhood, you’re starting off on the wrong foot,” said Gutierrez, who opened a new Mexican restaurant with his family called Canton Regio, 1510 W. 18th Street, after a fire shut down Nuevo Leon.

But offering high-quality food at affordable prices is easier said than done, Gutierrez admitted. With rent prices going up and quality expectations at an all-time high, new restaurateurs are faced with an unique challenge.

“If I had to pay rent, there’s no way I’d survive,” Gutierrez said.

Meanwhile in Logan Square

Furious Spoon didn’t see as much backlash when it landed in Pilsen March of last year, but the same can’t be said of its Logan Square location.

When the ramen joint took over 30-year-old Mexican restaurant El Charro, 2410 N. Milwaukee Avenue, it was a sharp example of a trendy eatery replacing a Mexican-owned establishment, and many neighbors weren’t pleased.

“I resent how unfriendly those businesses are to families,” said Diaz with Logan Square Neighborhood Association said of Furious Spoon and the string of new bars along the Milwaukee Avenue corridor, many of them offering cocktails for more than $10.

“I think with the restaurants, with the buildings that are popping up that are predominately studios and one-bedrooms, it seems like the neighborhood is changing to cater to a very narrow group of customers. The people who we work with wonder: Where are the families supposed to live? And where are the families going to go for food and entertainment?”

“We’re trying to help ease the pain in that neighborhood as much as possible.”

Anshul Mangal, managing partner at Furious Spoon, said while he’s “very sympathetic” to those feelings, he believes his restaurant has had a positive impact on the neighborhood. He pointed to providing jobs to local residents, spurring more restaurant and bar openings and increasing safety as a few examples. Another project Mangal was involved with, Deadbolt, was also criticized for uprooting The Two Way, a dive bar that was around for about 50 years.

“It was only a matter of time before (another) restaurant replaced El Charro,” Mangal said. “The reality was a new landlord had come in and bought the building and they had risen the rents significantly, and it wasn’t feasible for El Charro to be there.”

When Mangal and his partners opened a location in Pilsen, they set out to address gentrification head-on by partnering with local charities and offering free bowls of ramen, he said. From 2000 to 2014, Pilsen lost about 10,000 Hispanic residents, according to the most recently available U.S. Census data. By contrast, Logan Square lost about 20,000 Hispanic residents during the same time period.

Opening a dialogue

It’s an approach Sigcho supports as the head of Pilsen Alliance, a self-described social justice organization with a mission of providing quality public education and affordable housing to the working-class Hispanic residents of Pilsen.

“These conversations need to be intentional,” he said. “Right now, nobody is talking to each other, nobody is introducing themselves.”

Sigcho added: “We’ve reached a tipping point [in Pilsen]. I can’t tell you the number of people who come into my office on a daily basis who received an eviction notice. It’s a horrible experience to be kicked out of their place. Now people feel like they can’t even enjoy a meal here anymore. It’s like they don’t belong there.”

Mangal is aware of those concerns and said he’s trying to work with locals. He points to charitable donations and free meals given out during holidays. It’s unclear if the strategy is effective, but they’ll keep trying.

“We’re trying to help ease the pain in that neighborhood as much as possible,” Mangal said of the Pilsen location.