A brand new sports bar called 14Forty Sports Grill and Bar will be making its debut in North Lawndale, located at 1440 S. Kedzie Ave.
The newest development comes after owner Shatondrea Cox received a $184,000 Community Development Grant, which is part of the Chicago Recovery Plan, according to Block Club Chicago. After three attempts, Cox finally received the grant to help open this new establishment, hopefully in September 2023. The Army veteran plans to move the bar and grill in the building formerly called Zip Enterprise, which was one of several bars Cox said her family ran in the neighborhood.
Running a bar is nothing new for Cox’s family, as her aunts and uncles have all owned bars. Additionally, Cox’s grandparents owned the building before it was known as Enterprise and ran it as a bar under a different name in the ’80s. Now Cox, who is currently in the Reserves and serves as a financial analyst, will continue her family’s tradition of owning a bar with the help of this grant, which will cover about 75 percent of construction costs. She plans to hire 12-16 workers for 14Forty Sports Grill and Bar.
“I just want to bring the community back because I remember, as a little girl, we could cross the street to get to anything that we wanted,” Cox tells Block Club Chicago. “We need to bring stuff back to our community, so we don’t have to go outside of our community for these things. It would be extremely empowering.”
