Bocadillo Market

Bocadillo Market is a Spanish café and supper club on Grand Avenue in the West Town neighborhood of Chicago. By day it sells bocadillos, the Spanish sandwiches on long bread rolls, and on weekend nights it serves family-style dinners.

Chef James Martin, who grew up in Washington, D.C., first came to Chicago to cook at North Pond. He went on to kitchens such as Jean-Georges in New York and Bourbon Steak, Vidalia and Restaurant Nora in Washington before returning to open his own place. He runs it with his wife Jessica Neal, co-owner and creative director. Bocadillo Market opened in 2021 on Clark Street in Lincoln Park as a café and market by day with table service at night. Early in 2025 it left that address, and in the summer it reopened in a Grand Avenue storefront that it shares with the pasta maker Gemma Foods.

Warm baguettes come out at the counter, and the sandwiches made from them are wider and heartier than the usual Spanish version. The first menu paired jamón serrano with Mahón cheese and offered versions with eggplant, chorizo, crispy calamari or smoked lamb. Small plates include patatas bravas and eggplant croquetas, and an almond pie has a following of its own. Many ingredients come from Spain, and the counter also sells shelves of Spanish groceries next to coffee and pastries.

Supper works differently from the daytime counter. On Friday and Saturday nights everyone sits down together at one long table for a single seating of 26, and the kitchen sends out paella and tapas for the whole group. Guests bring their own wine. At the Lincoln Park restaurant the dinner menu included a paella of Cádiz tuna with squid ink and foie gras on Spanish French toast.