TV Restaurants

What Happened to Big & Littles After Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives?

Closed verified

As of September 2026, Big & Littles has closed — confirmed via chicagobusiness.com, January 2024.

Primary source
chicagobusiness.com ·
Secondary source
Yelp ·

Last verified

What the source shows: Crain's Chicago Business reports the Belmont Avenue location closed in January 2024, and Yelp's listing for that address is marked closed as of a March 2026 update.

  • Season / episode Season 12, Episode 12
  • Original air date
  • Address 1034 W Belmont Ave, Chicago, IL 60657

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Note on this show: Described as staged/scripted by Wikipedia's article, citing a 2012 realityblurred.com report. Surface this note on every record.

What happened after Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives?

On Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives (S12E12, 'Pizza, Pancakes & Pork,' aired November 7, 2011), Guy Fieri sampled fish and chips, foie gras fries and po'boy sandwiches at Big & Little's, a small Chicago restaurant chain known for gourmet fast-casual seafood and burgers. The featured location operated from 1034 W Belmont Ave in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood. According to Crain's Chicago Business, Big & Little's closed its Belmont Avenue restaurant in January 2024, leaving the chain with a single remaining outpost. Yelp's listing for the Belmont Avenue address is marked closed as of a March 2026 update. The web domain once used by the Belmont Avenue restaurant no longer belongs to the business and now resolves to an unrelated site with no connection to the former restaurant.

Travel Channel's Food Paradise featured Big & Little's in its "Best In Chow" episode, a River North quick-serve spot on North Orleans Street known for pairing a burger counter with a seafood fry station, serving fish tacos, po' boys, and foie gras fries alongside its burgers in a fast-food-style, counter-service setting. The restaurant first drew national attention on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives in March 2011. A Tripadvisor listing for the Orleans Street address, updated in 2026, continues to show it operating as an active restaurant, and the business's Facebook page, under the name BIG & little's Restaurant, also remained active online. Search listings additionally point to two further Chicago locations, on West Belmont Avenue and North Milwaukee Avenue, though their current operating status was not independently checked here.

Mystery Diners' Aug. 28, 2013 episode "Wine on Wheels" (Season 4, Episode 7) featured Big & Little's, a bring-your-own-bottle restaurant in Chicago. According to Food Network's episode listing and companion recaps on IMDb, co-owners Gary and Tony asked investigator Charles Stiles to look into rumors that staff were illegally selling alcohol to customers at the BYOB restaurant. Undercover Mystery Diners Siera and Destiney found a mobile liquor cart parked on the street outside and traced it to the restaurant's own manager, who was running the alcohol sales as a side business with a friend, Enrique; the recaps describe the operation as close to drawing police attention. In the on-camera confrontation, Stiles had the manager fired and told to keep his friend off the property. Wikipedia's article on the series, citing its sources, notes that the show carries a credits disclaimer stating that events may be re-enacted for dramatic purposes, and cites a television critic who described the show's scenarios as implausible and its resolutions as staged. This appearance is tracked here as an additional TV credit for the business already profiled on this site as Big & Little's; that existing profile carries the current status and address for the location. At the time of filming, Big & Little's operated as a build-your-own-burger, BYOB restaurant in Chicago, according to the same episode recaps.

Featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives

Season / episode
Season 12, Episode 12
Original air date
Episode title
Pizza, Pancakes & Pork
What was featured
fish and chips, foie gras fries, and po'boy sandwiches
Role
Featured restaurant
Name on the broadcast
Big & Littles
Season / episode
Season 14, Episode 9
Original air date
Not confirmed
Episode title
Best In Chow
What was featured
Big & Little's combo burger-and-fried-fish sandwiches and gourmet fast-food menu
Role
Featured restaurant
Name on the broadcast
Big & Littles
Season / episode
Season 4, Episode 7
Original air date
Episode title
Wine on Wheels
What was featured
A manager's side business selling liquor from a parked cart
Role
Featured restaurant
Name on the broadcast
Big & Littles

Frequently asked questions

Is Big & Littles still open in 2026?

As of September 2026, Big & Littles has closed — confirmed via chicagobusiness.com, January 2024.

What happened to Big & Littles after Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives?

On Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives (S12E12, 'Pizza, Pancakes & Pork,' aired November 7, 2011), Guy Fieri sampled fish and chips, foie gras fries and po'boy sandwiches at Big & Little's, a small Chicago restaurant chain known for gourmet fast-casual seafood and burgers. As of September 2026, Big & Littles has closed — confirmed via chicagobusiness.com, January 2024.

Is Big & Littles permanently closed?

As of September 2026, Big & Littles has closed — confirmed via chicagobusiness.com, January 2024. We publish a closure only with a dated source behind it, and we say plainly when it has not been independently confirmed.

Where is Big & Littles located?

1034 W Belmont Ave, Chicago, IL 60657. That is the address on the record as of September 7, 2026.

What season and episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives featured Big & Littles?

Season 12, Episode 12 of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, first aired November 7, 2011. The episode is titled “Pizza, Pancakes & Pork”.

Every status on this site carries a confidence label and a date, and names the source it rests on. Read the Editorial & Corrections Policy for what each label means and how quickly we act on corrections. The questions above are generated from this record's own published fields — we never publish a question we cannot answer from the data.

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Visit info

Address
1034 W Belmont Ave, Chicago, IL 60657
Venue type
restaurant

Businesses change fast. Always confirm directly with the restaurant — call ahead, or check its own current website or social media — before making plans around anything on this page.

Sources

  • chicagobusiness.com — https://www.chicagobusiness.com/restaurants/big-littles-restaurant-shuts-down-belmont-ave-location/
  • Yelp — https://www.yelp.com/biz/big-and-littles-restaurant-chicago-2
  • Tripadvisor — https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g35805-d2650241-Reviews-BIG_little_s_Restaurant-Chicago_Illinois.html
  • Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/bignlittles/
  • foodnetwork.com — https://www.foodnetwork.com/restaurants/il/chicago/big-littles-restaurant
  • foodnetwork.com — https://www.foodnetwork.com/shows/mystery-diners/episodes/wine-on-wheels
  • imdb.com — https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3147068/
  • imdb.com — https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3147068/plotsummary/
  • Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystery_Diners

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