Before Gallagher Way, the Cubs office building, and the sweeping redevelopment of Wrigley Field, there was a little doughnut shop that generations of Chicagoans remember: Yum Yum Donuts.
At 3639 N. Clark Street, in the shadow of the Friendly Confines, Yum Yum Donuts shared a modest building with Byron’s Hot Dogs. It was an unlikely but beloved combination: doughnuts and coffee alongside Chicago-style hot dogs, just steps from one of baseball’s most recognizable landmarks.
A neighborhood favorite in the shadow of Wrigley Field
Yum Yum belonged to an earlier Wrigleyville, when the streets around the ballpark were less polished and the businesses serving Cubs fans were part of the neighborhood’s everyday fabric. A black-and-white photograph taken in the 1990s, preserved in our original 2019 post, captures the storefront before it disappeared. The photographer remembered the shop as busy with regular customers.
In a June 26, 2001 Chicago Tribune story, Byron Kouris discussed the uncertain future of the business he co-owned with Mike Payne. The Cubs were considering redevelopment of the land, and the lease had shifted to month-to-month. Kouris hoped to find another nearby location if the building had to go, but noted how expensive the neighborhood had become for this kind of business.
What stood there before Yum Yum?
The story of this small corner reaches much further back than doughnuts. The land west of Wrigley Field was once associated with railroad tracks and coal yards, part of the industrial landscape that surrounded the ballpark for decades. The site was very different from the landscaped public gathering place visitors know today.
Wrigley Field itself opened as Weeghman Park in 1914, originally home to the Chicago Whales of the Federal League. The Cubs moved in for the 1916 season. Over the decades, the stadium expanded and the neighborhood around it evolved, but the land immediately west of the ballpark retained a very different character from today’s plaza.
Before Yum Yum, the property also housed a Henry’s Hamburgers drive-in, which remained into the early 1970s, according to Wrigley Field historian Stuart Shea. The succession of businesses tells its own story: from industrial land to a drive-in, to the Yum Yum and Byron’s combination, and finally to a major entertainment development.
The old Wrigleyville, in photographs
These archival photographs from Southport Corridor’s own collection show the ballpark and surrounding streets before the extensive 21st-century redevelopment. They help explain why so many longtime Cubs fans remember the old neighborhood with affection.
For another remarkable comparison of the changing neighborhood, see our earlier feature, What a Difference Almost 100 Years Can Make at Wrigley Field. A 1950s aerial comparison published by Bleed Cubbie Blue also shows the former coal-yard landscape west of the park.
How Yum Yum disappeared
By 2001, plans to redevelop the Cubs-owned triangle property had put the future of Yum Yum and Byron’s in doubt. A 2004 neighborhood planning newsletter already referred to the former Yum Yum Donuts, indicating that the shop had closed by that time. The exact final day of business has not been independently established.
The old building was later demolished as the Cubs continued considering how to use the property. Plans evolved over many years, eventually becoming part of the broader transformation of Wrigley Field and its surroundings.
From Yum Yum Donuts to Gallagher Way
The Cubs’ multiyear 1060 Project, carried out from 2014 to 2019, modernized the ballpark and helped reshape the surrounding area. The public plaza originally called the Park at Wrigley opened in 2017 and later became known as Gallagher Way. Today the property is a gathering place for baseball fans, neighborhood events, concerts and seasonal activities.
It’s a striking transformation. Where customers once stopped for coffee, doughnuts or a hot dog, crowds now gather in a carefully designed public space beside Wrigley Field. The redevelopment has given the area a new identity, but the old photographs preserve an important part of its history.
Do you remember Yum Yum Donuts?
For longtime Chicagoans, the appeal of places like Yum Yum wasn’t just what they served. It was the routine: meeting someone before a Cubs game, grabbing a bite on Clark Street, and seeing the same familiar storefront season after season.
Did you ever stop at Yum Yum Donuts or Byron’s Hot Dogs before a Cubs game? What do you remember ordering — and what else do you miss about the old Wrigleyville? Share your memories in the comments.
Sources and additional historic photo collections
- Chicago Tribune, June 26, 2001 — Yum Yum/Byron’s Hot Dogs
- Bleed Cubbie Blue — Wrigley Field aerial comparison
- Wikimedia Commons — Former features of Wrigley Field
- Wikimedia Commons — Gallagher Way construction photographs
- Wrigley Field: 100 Years, 100 Photos — historical photo collection
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