Owners of El Xangarrito offer popular Lincoln Square restaurant for sale

LINCOLN SQUARE – The couple behind El Xangarrito has put the restaurant up for sale.

Owners Rogelio Benitez and Erika Marroquin opened El Xangarrito, 4811 N. Rockwell St., in 2020. Since then, it has become a popular destination for neighbors.

The BYO restaurant has opened and closed a few times since then, and now its owners have decided to put the business up for sale, Marroquin told Block Club.

“We gave buyers the option to either start their own concept there or keep our name and food as is (and then essentially be under new ownership if they decide to keep the name and menu),” Marroquin said in a text message.

The couple decided to sell the business for personal reasons, but it will remain open for the foreseeable future, Marroquin said.

The owners of El Xangarrito have a lease for the 4811 N. Rockwell St. location and are simply selling the business, she said.

The owners hired real estate agent Helen Kouklah to put the business on the market, wanting to be “as discreet as possible” and assuming the business would be listed on a special real estate website for people looking to buy a restaurant, Marroquin said.

However, Kouklah posted a public ad on Facebook Marketplace on Tuesday that was shared on Reddit on Wednesday, sparking neighborhood curiosity about what was going on with the space.

When Block Club shared Kouklah’s Facebook marketplace listing for the business with the owners, they were surprised because they had planned to notify customers only if a buyer was found, Marroquin said.

“We don’t know how long this process will take… we expect it could take a few months or up to a year (depending on how negotiations go),” Marroquin said in a text message. “But we don’t want this to get out of hand before we get something set and done.”

When reached via Facebook Messenger on Thursday, Kouklah confirmed to Block Club that the business remains for sale and declined to answer questions about why the listing was being put on the market.

This is not the first time that the restaurant’s future has been uncertain.

In 2023, the couple surprised their neighbors by announcing that they would close the restaurant for good – but hinted that a new project was underway.

Less than two months later, the couple reopened the restaurant and planned a possible expansion into the larger neighboring store at 2558 W. Lawrence Ave.

Those plans were put on hold because the couple decided to sell the restaurant, Marroquin said.

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