WICKER PARK \u2014 A tasting menu restaurant that helped launch the career of one of Chicago\u2019s most prolific chefs is transitioning to a residency-based model that will offer a different chef-driven concept every few months.<\/p>\n
Coach House \u2014 located behind the restaurant Lilac Tiger at 1742 W. Division St. \u2014 will hold its final day of service under founding chef Zubair Mohajir on Feb. 14.<\/p>\n
But the restaurant isn\u2019t going anywhere. On Feb. 19, chef Junho Lee will bring his contemporary Korean concept Haru Haru to the space, where he will craft different menus over the next few months as the inaugural participant in Coach House\u2019s residency program.<\/p>\n
Mohajir launched Coach House in 2021. It\u2019s located in a former carriage house behind what was previously Wazwan, Mohajir\u2019s South Asian street food spot that later became Lilac Tiger.<\/p>\n
Since then, Mohajir has become one of Chicago\u2019s best known up-and-coming chefs. With various partners he also opened Mirra in 2024 in Bucktown and Sarima Cafe last year in Wicker Park, and he has appeared on \u201cTop Chef\u201d and \u201cChopped.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mohajir is also working on a new restaurant in Lincoln Park to open this spring that will focus on cuisine spanning from Southern Spain to India and East Asia.<\/p>\n
Coach House had long faced limitations with its scaled-back kitchen and 140-year-old building, and Mohajir recently realized he was beginning to outgrow the space, he said.<\/p>\n
But instead of closing, he decided to keep the restaurant going by launching the residency program to give less-established chefs a place to cook and grow their brands \u2014 a position Mohajir was in just a few years ago when he was doing pop-ups across the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I\u2019ve squeezed every single ounce that I can out of [Coach House], with having two induction burners and an electric oven,\u201d Mohajir said. <\/p>\n
The residency program is \u201cfor chefs and entrepreneurs that are trying to start their own business and gather some momentum,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mohajir, 41, grew up in India and Qatar before moving to the Chicago area as a middle schooler. <\/p>\n
He often helped his mom cook as a kid when she took catering jobs out of their house, but he ended up working as a banker for several years before getting laid off during the Great Recession. Mohajir then transitioned to restaurants, working at the Pump Room and at cooking jobs in California and elsewhere.<\/p>\n
He launched Coach House in 2021 on a temporary basis. It ended up becoming a permanent home for his fine-dining Indian cuisine.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was the first spot that, as a chef, I had a consistent address,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was the first Indian tasting menu in Chicago.\u201d <\/p>\n
In 2024, Mohajir followed Coach House with South Asian-Mexican restaurant Mirra. Sarima Cafe, which blends Filipino and Indian flavors across both sweet and savory items, opened last summer near the heart of Wicker Park.<\/p>\n
His upcoming Lincoln Park restaurant will highlight the cuisine of the \u201cSpice Road\u201d from Southern Europe to East Asia. Mohajir is again collaborating with Coach House chef de cuisine Jacob Dela Cruz on the concept, which will feature a restaurant in the front and a speakeasy in the back.<\/p>\n
Coach House is located behind the restaurant Lilac Tiger at 1742 W. Division St. Credit:<\/span> Provided<\/span><\/p>\n Haru Haru\u2019s stay at Coach House will begin in February with a Lunar New Year menu, to be followed by revolving menus through June.<\/p>\n After that, new chefs will set up at the restaurant about every four to six months, Mohajir said. Unlike with many other pop-ups, the chefs will be able to access the resources of an already established restaurant, including front-of-house staff, ordering accounts and marketing.<\/p>\n The residency program is a new concept at Coach House where different chefs will take over the restaurant for a few months to showcase their cuisine and grow their brands.<\/p>\n New chefs will take over Coach House every four to six months.<\/p>\n The chefs will have access to the resources of an already established restaurant, including front-of-house staff, ordering accounts, and marketing, and they will be paid as if they were a chef at the restaurant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Introduction to Coach House’s Transformation WICKER PARK \u2014 A tasting menu restaurant that helped launch the career of one of Chicago\u2019s most prolific chefs is transitioning to a residency-based model that will offer a different chef-driven concept every few months. The Final Day of Service Coach House \u2014 located behind the restaurant Lilac Tiger at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36360,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-36359","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dining"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/bcc-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2026\/01\/coach1.jpg?w=1920&resize=1920,1248&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36359"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36359"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36361,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36359\/revisions\/36361"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Haru Haru’s Residency<\/h3>\n
Conclusion<\/h2>\n
FAQs<\/h2>\n
What is the Residency Program at Coach House?<\/h3>\n
How often will new chefs take over Coach House?<\/h3>\n
What kind of support will the chefs receive during their residency?<\/h3>\n