Until this fall, weekday mornings at the South Shore Cultural Center didn't come with breakfast. In January 2025, Eater Chicago listed Nafsi's hours as Wednesday from 4 to 9 p.m. and Thursday through Sunday from 3 to 10 p.m. Brunch ran only on weekends. For most of the week, it was a dinner room on the lake.
Now there's a breakfast counter four mornings a week, and it carries a name many South Siders will recognize. Five Loaves started in South Shore, spent more than twenty years in Chatham, and has come back to the neighborhood where it began. The Cultural Center now has weekday mornings, and several of its quieter daytime dates line up with them.
A Name That Left South Shore And Came Back
ABC7 Chicago reported in 2018 that the restaurant, then owned by Constance Simms-Kincaid, began in South Shore before moving to Chatham, where it operated at 405 E. 75th St. By the time the 75th Street location closed in 2021, Block Club Chicago put its run there at more than two decades.
The comeback was announced in a fall restaurant roundup from WTTW. WTTW wrote that Nafsi was "helping to revive a South Side stalwart" by bringing in Five Loaves to handle breakfast and brunch in the Cultural Center, starting September 22. The original restaurant had spent most of its life a few miles inland, on a commercial strip. It now shares a lakefront landmark with a dinner restaurant. That change of setting is the real news here.
Four Mornings, Five Hours
Nafsi's reservation page on OpenTable describes the new service this way:
"Join us Wednesday - Saturday from 8 AM–1 PM as Nafsi welcomes the next generation of Five Loaves Kitchen Corner."
Plan around a few details in that listing. Breakfast doesn't run Sunday through Tuesday, so a weekend visit means Saturday. Service ends at 1 p.m., so this is a morning-and-early-lunch spot. The page takes reservations for parties of 1 to 12. That's handy when relatives are in town and you want somewhere better than a chain booth.
Nafsi's own dinner and brunch schedule has changed since Eater's 2025 listing, so check the current hours on the reservation page before planning an evening around them. The Five Loaves window above is the schedule shown on that page as of this fall.
What The Name Was Known For
Two outlets wrote about the Chatham restaurant in 2018. Their lists overlap enough to show what regulars came back for.
- Lemon-zest pancakes with house-made buttermilk syrup, singled out by the Chicago Defender and served daily, according to ABC7
- Salmon croquettes, which ABC7 called salmon patties
- The Turkey Cristo and a catfish po' boy, both named in the Defender review
- Weekend shrimp and grits, thick-cut French toast and breakfast potatoes, from ABC7's rundown
- "Tiger Woods" sweet tea, which the Defender praised by name
That was the Chatham menu. The new listing promises "familiar flavors" and "refreshing iced tea," which sounds like a nod to the old tea. Still, look at what's on the table before you order from memory.
Nafsi Built The Room First
None of this would work without the restaurant that was already there. Eater Chicago covered Nafsi as a fall 2024 addition to the Cultural Center. It's a Black-owned, Southern-inspired restaurant with chef Dondee Robinson in the kitchen, set in a restored lakefront building that started out as a country club. WTTW's 2024 profile identified Donnell Digby as the owner.
Eater's menu notes included fried green tomatoes, chicken and waffles, and catfish and grits, plus weekend brunch with live jazz and a weekday happy hour. Those dishes sit naturally next to a breakfast menu built on pancakes and salmon croquettes. Bringing in Five Loaves fills the weekday mornings Nafsi wasn't serving without changing what the room is. Nafsi also runs a weekly Tuesday night called Tuesdays with Jukie & Friends, with rotating tacos and drink specials, so the dining room now has some kind of service on most days of the week.
The Rest Of The Building Keeps Daytime Hours
Some of the Center's other offerings line up with the breakfast window, and some don't. The Chicago Park District runs much of its programming here in daylight on weekdays, and the South Shore Cultural Center Park Advisory Council holds its meetings on Saturday mornings. Here's how the next few weeks look from this Thursday on:
| Date | At the Cultural Center | Five Loaves open? |
|---|---|---|
| Tuesdays through Dec. 8 | Adult Hatha Yoga, 2 to 3 p.m.; teen Acting, 4 to 5 p.m. | No, Tuesday is off |
| Wednesday, Nov. 4 | Luminaria de la Vida gallery hours, noon to 2 p.m. | Yes, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. |
| Saturday, Nov. 14 | Advisory Council annual meeting and election, 10:30 a.m. | Yes, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. |
| Saturday, Dec. 12 | Advisory Council monthly meeting, planned | Yes, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. |
The Tuesday classes don't overlap with breakfast at all. The two Saturday meetings fall inside the breakfast window, and the November 4 gallery hours overlap it for one hour. On those dates, you can eat breakfast and attend in one visit without moving the car.
One Wednesday, Start To Finish
Luminaria de la Vida is a ceramics exhibition by Vida Radick. It opened October 18, and its last listed gallery hours are Wednesday, November 4, from noon to 2 p.m. That makes November 4 the clearest example of how the building now works across one morning.
- Late morning: Sit down at Five Loaves before the 1 p.m. close.
- Noon: Walk over to the gallery when it opens and see Radick's ceramics before the exhibition ends.
- After 1 p.m.: Head outside to the South Shore Nature Sanctuary on the same grounds.
The overlap from noon to 1 p.m. covers the gallery opening and the end of breakfast service. There are no other listed gallery hours after that date, so the timing matters.
What The Lakefront Offers Into November
The Park District describes the South Shore Nature Sanctuary as six acres of dune, beach, wetland, pond, woodland, prairie, savanna and shrubland. It's also a stopover for birds during spring and fall migration. In late fall, that makes it the best part of the grounds to walk after breakfast. The volunteer group behind the sanctuary posts its workdays on the South Shore Nature Sanctuary site. Its third-Saturday schedule is the one to watch if you'd like to help maintain the habitat.
The Park District's page currently lists South Shore Beach as closed. The South Shore golf course is a 9-hole, 2,720-yard, par-33 layout with Lake Michigan views. The Park District hasn't posted a closing date for the season, so check the course page before you bring clubs to a Saturday breakfast.
Five Loaves serves from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday, at 7059 S. South Shore Drive.
If you're curious how a lakefront landmark with a full morning-to-evening schedule affects life on the surrounding blocks, I'm glad to talk it through over a stack of pancakes. Tina Hollins follows South Shore one opening at a time and can tell you what this kind of daily life means for owning a home nearby. Schedule a Consultation whenever you're ready.
