Wake ‘n Bacon, the floral-draped, Instagrammable brunch spot in Lakeview that markets itself as one of Chicago’s most photo-worthy dining destinations, was hit with a failed inspection and is currently temporarily closed after a Chicago Department of Public Health complaint inspection on June 17 turned up over 50 live cockroaches, more than 300 dead flies, a dish machine sanitizing at literally zero parts per million, sausage patties sitting at 55 degrees in a reach-in cooler, and unlicensed residential roach killer stashed in the dry storage. That’s not a rough day — that’s a catastrophic one.
What the Inspector Found
The June 17 inspection — triggered by a complaint, not a routine visit — was a 28-violation pile-up that hit nearly every critical category in Chicago’s food safety code. The cockroach count alone was enough to define the report: inspectors documented more than 50 live roaches in the dishwash and food prep areas, inside the compressor of a reach-in cooler, on the floor, on containers, and along the walls, per the Chicago Department of Public Health inspection record. Alongside that, over 300 dead small black flies were found throughout storage on food containers, the floor, and paper goods.
The sanitation failures compounded from there. The low-temperature dishwashing machine was registering zero chlorine — meaning it was running dishes through hot water and nothing else — and was tagged out of service on the spot. The three-compartment sink was backing up: water released from the second basin was flooding back into the first and third. Pork sausage patties in the reach-in cooler were measured at 55.4°F, well above the 41°F maximum required for cold holding; the person in charge was instructed to discard and denature them. And residential boric acid roach insecticide — the kind sold at hardware stores and explicitly prohibited in commercial food spaces — was sitting in dry storage. Citations were issued for all of the above.
Then there was the bacon curing. Inspectors found that Wake ‘n Bacon — which, as its name implies, takes bacon seriously — was actively curing bacon and other products in the prep kitchen without the required variance from the city to conduct specialized processing. No variance documentation was found on site. Both the curing and variance violations received citations, though the CDPH consolidated them into a single violation count. The restaurant’s certified food safety manager was also not on site at the start of inspection while eggs were being cooked, a priority foundation violation under Chicago Municipal Code §7-38-012, and a citation was issued for that as well.
A Pattern, Not a One-Off
The June 17 inspection was a complaint visit — but it also cited continued non-compliance from a routine inspection conducted on October 30, 2025 (CDPH report #2626271). That prior inspection had flagged excessive ice buildup in chest freezers on the second floor storage area, tin foil being used as a shelf liner in the prep area (not a cleanable surface), damaged and missing floor tiles throughout the kitchen, stairwells, and second-floor storage, missing wall tiles near cooking equipment, peeling paint behind the dishwashing machine, clutter on the second-floor storage area creating potential pest harborage, and an unused two-door cooler sitting next to the dish machine that was never repaired or removed. None of those core violations were corrected in the eight months between the two inspections, which itself earned a citation under priority foundation violation #7-42-090…