Sandwiched between several longtime nightlife institutions is the future site of yet another Team Market Group culinary endeavor — and it now sports a facade recently made-over with a little Mills 50 flair.
Construction boarding outside the unfinished Mills Avenue-facing building has been blasted with the message “Eat the rich” in the past week. It comes as the area continues to endure a fast-changing business landscape and old-versus-new power imbalance.
Hospitality and nightlife management company Team Market Group announced in 2022 plans to open a new live-fire cooking restaurant called Eastwood in the space at 1024 N. Mills Ave., formerly an office machine warehouse. It’s located just steps from longstanding nightspots and live music hubs Grumpy’s Underground, Uncle Lou’s, Will’s Pub and Lil Indie’s.
Team Market Group’s armada of high-end and high-priced eateries has grown significantly in recent years, garnering talk of gentrification and price amplification. Newly opened have been plant-based burger joint Plantees, downtown taqueria Taco Kat and Milk District’s Primrose Lanes Restaurant and Bowling Club, which made headlines for its $15 hotdog, much decried by critics (though declared delicious by our own restaurant critic).
The 3,300-square-foot restaurant is set to feature a custom wood-burning grill, large-scale smoker and an indoor-outdoor cocktail lounge. It mirrors the recent influx of upscale restaurants, absinthe bars and meaderies, all in stark contrast with the cheap Asian eats and live-music dives that have long flourished in the neighborhood.
Some have taken to social media to question whether the message is simply a call-out against gentrification, or if it specifically targets TMG.
“No, a specific statement would be ‘deny, defend, depose’ written on three hot dogs,” one Reddit user wrote.
Eastwood was originally slated to open at the end of 2024.
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This article appears in Jan 8-14, 2025.
