With Loud Music And Rowdy Crowds, Neighbors Say West Loop Restaurant Is More Like A Club

WEST LOOP — A West Loop restaurant is coming under fire from neighbors and city officials who say it has been operating as an unauthorized nightclub, with loud music blaring late at night, brawls spilling into nearby streets and trash like liquor bottles from patrons littering the area — including outside a Chicago Public Library branch next door.

Residents described months of late-night problems outside Habibti, formerly known as Akilia Cosina, 116 N. Aberdeen St., during a virtual community meeting Monday hosted by the city’s Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection.

Residents said they have been woken up repeatedly by music, cars and crowds outside the business, while others said they have witnessed fights, drug use, trash and people urinating and vomiting near the library and nearby apartment buildings. Police said there have been hundreds of calls for service to the business location over the past year and a half.

Separately, 60 residents have signed a letter demanding Habibti’s licenses be revoked, which expire this winter.

Now, the city is stepping in.

On Monday, an attorney from BACP ordered Habibti to make numerous changes to reduce noise, improve public safety and prevent loitering after hours. It’s one of several meetings set to take place to enforce a new plan of operation for the business, short of revoking its license, city officials said.

Those changes include requiring its operators keep doors and windows closed after 10 p.m.; maintain security footage; attend CAPS and aldermanic meetings; create a community complaint phone number; and turn the interior lights on at full brightness during closing.

Separately, Habibti is facing a pending licensing disciplinary case with the city alleging it already violated an earlier plan of operation by selling tobacco products without a license, failing to comply with police and more, according to public records.

Owner Fadi Akileh, though, denies the allegations and said at the meeting that he was not running an unlicensed nightclub.

“We aren’t doing anything wrong,” he said during the meeting.

Akileh maintained later in an interview with Block Club that his business’s issues stem from hostile neighbors, selective enforcement by the city and a biased process.

“At the end of the day, I’m not going to sit here and think a different way. Our patrons are Black, [the neighbors] are white. There’s nothing else to talk about,” Akileh said. That claim was denied by both the local alderperson and neighbors.

The business first made waves with neighbors in fall 2024, after a sign that read, “Bear Naked Social,” appeared on its facade. 

The sign was removed at the request of then-Ald. Walter Burnett Jr. (27th), after constituents thought that name was too provocative, especially considering its proximity to the library next door. Akileh changed the name to Akilia Cosina and Burnett then green-lit the restaurant’s pending liquor and public place of amusement licenses, allowing it to operate.

At the time, Akileh told Block Club Chicago he wanted the business to be “a restaurant more than anything,” despite its public place of amusement license, which allows it to stay open until 2 a.m. during the week and 3 a.m. Saturdays.

When Akilia Cosina opened later that fall, it branded itself as a “Chicago-first” sports experience, bringing premium sports channels and an affordable, Mexican-inspired menu ranging from breaded wings to grilled skirt steak.

This past January, Akilia Cosina rebranded as Habibti. Its menu now features Mediterranean-style food with meat skewers and wings, in addition to kefta and chicken shawarma wraps, according to its website.

Residents, though, told city officials Monday that Habibti is not operating like a restaurant. Several pointed to online reviews and social media posts showing features more common to a late-night lounge like bottle service, party promoters and a club-like setup.

“Imagine living in your home and knowing that at least three nights out of the week, you won’t be able to sleep,” said Katie, a nearby resident who did not give her full name, during Monday’s meeting.

Another neighbor, who said she is expecting her second child “any day now,” became emotional when describing the sleepless nights she says the business has caused. Her husband expressed concern about potential violence outside. Another resident on the call described hearing patrons fighting and threatening to “kill each other.” None gave their names at the meeting.

274 Police Calls

Since 2025, the Chicago Police Department has received 274 calls for service at 116 N. Aberdeen St., 134 of them since Habibti rebranded in January, Officer Carla Duda-Malinski said during the meeting.

Ninety-five of those calls occurred between Feb. 20 and May 20, according to Ald. Walter Redmond Burnett’s (27th) office. Most of them — 62 — were noise-related. Ten were for premise checks, five were for large gatherings, two were for a person with a gun, two were for assault and two were for criminal damage. 

Burnett told Block Club Chicago his office receives complaints about Habibti about once a week.

“The biggest piece for me is the rowdiness and how much it extends into the street,” Burnett said, adding neighbors have also complained about bottles and other trash being left outside in addition to vomit.

Burnett said the problems are especially concerning because Habibti is next to the West Loop library: “Even though it’s not open at the same time, it’s not a great look for a children’s public library.”

The alderman said he’s personally heard music from the business three or four blocks away when walking past. He said he previously asked Akileh to make changes, including making the business “less clubby” and reducing bottle service. 

But instead, he feels like Akileh did the opposite.

“They lied. Let’s call a spade a spade,” Burnett said. 

“I like to give businesses an opportunity to take risks and make an investment in the community,” Burnett continued. “But at what point do we say they are bad businesses?”

During Monday’s meeting, Akileh apologized to neighbors but denied the business is operating improperly, saying Habibti is a small company trying to make it in the neighborhood.

“By no means do we not care. We do care,” Akileh said.

Akileh said the business opens at 5 p.m., has security and has food sales that exceed liquor sales — something he will be forced to prove to BACP. He also pushed back against noise complaints, saying the business is soundproofed and stays under the city’s decibel limit.

In the phone call with Block Club, Akileh denounced complaints brought up by neighbors, attributing the reports of vomit and trash to unhoused people who live in the alley.

“We have videos ourselves. It’s not us. There’s bums that live in the back,” Akileh said.

Block Club reviewed more than a dozen screenshots from nearby residential surveillance cameras that show alleged Habibti and Akilia Cosina patrons entering the alley and urinating, patrons loitering outside the business holding cups, cars blocking the alley and street, in addition to photos of vomit directly outside the West Loop library.

He also pointed to other “restaurants/clubs” in Fulton Market that he says operate similarly, but don’t get hit with enforcement from the city.

Videos from inside the club posted on social media and reviewed by Block Club show people dancing on tables, standing shoulder to shoulder and drinking straight from liquor bottles. The videos show little to no food being served. However, Akileh said food often sells out and he has his own videos of people eating food inside.

Akileh maintains that criticism of the business is tied to the fact that many of its patrons are Black.

“Our patrons are African American … something this community doesn’t have,” Akileh said.

Burnett pushed back against suggestions that neighborhood concerns were rooted in race, saying the complaints are about business conduct, not its patrons. He pointed to other businesses in his ward that have a majority BIPOC clientele that don’t have enforcement issues.

“It’s disrespectful to utilize that as a crutch,” Burnett said.