Chicago fire investigators are treating a Sunday morning fire at Habibti restaurant in the West Loop as arson after two people broke in through the front door.
Chicago police and fire officials responded to a fire at Habibti, a restaurant and bar at 116 N. Aberdeen St. in the West Loop, at about 5:43 a.m. on Aug. 16, 2026. Firefighters extinguished two separate fires inside the building, no injuries were reported, and police classified the incident as arson. Security footage shows two people arriving in a silver SUV, smashing a hole in the restaurant's glass garage door and spending about four minutes inside before flames were visible through the windows.
Chicago fire investigators are treating a fire that broke out early Sunday at Habibti, the West Loop restaurant and bar at 116 N. Aberdeen St., as suspected arson after security footage captured two people breaking into the building and starting flames inside.
Police officers and firefighters responded to the scene at about 5:43 a.m. Sunday, according to Chicago police. Firefighters extinguished two separate fires inside the property. No one was injured, the Chicago Fire Department said. As of Monday, the department's Office of Fire Investigation was still working to determine the exact cause, though police have already classified the incident as arson.
Exterior security footage shared with Block Club Chicago shows a silver SUV with no visible license plates pulling into the alley just south of Habibti at about 5:30 a.m. Two people got out from the passenger side and rear passenger side doors and walked to the restaurant's front garage-door entrance. Less than a minute later, a loud bang can be heard as one of them smashed a hole in the glass door. The two spent roughly four minutes inside before flames became visible, reflected in the windows of a building across the street.
The pair then got back into the SUV and drove north on Aberdeen Street, according to the footage. Seconds later, the SUV returned heading south, stopped briefly in front of the restaurant, then drove off again. It came back once more around 5:35 a.m., heading north and stopping near Randolph Street. One person got out and went back inside Habibti. The SUV began honking, and the driver cracked the door open and yelled "Let's go" before the person ran out and got back in. The SUV then fled north on Aberdeen.
Habibti owner Fadi Akileh did not respond to a request for comment.
The fire is the latest problem for a restaurant that has drawn sustained complaints from West Loop residents and Ald. Walter Burnett Jr. (27th) over how it operates. Habibti sits next door to the West Loop public library, and neighbors say it operates more like a late-night club than a restaurant, with loud music, public drinking, fights and crowds spilling into the street after close.
Those complaints, tied to the business when it was still called Akilia Cosina, have prompted a series of community meetings organized by Burnett's office and the city's Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection. The business affairs office did not respond to a request for comment Monday.
At the most recent of those meetings last month, an attorney for the city, Marianne Rieger, told Akileh the restaurant could eventually lose its business license if it does not resolve the disturbance complaints. The meetings are not formal legal proceedings, but they are meant to set corrective steps for a business before the city considers moving to revoke its license.
Neighbors have sent the alderman's office material they say documents patrons urinating outside, loitering in the street after closing and leaving behind trash. Akileh has repeatedly blamed the problems on homeless people near the restaurant, and has also said the complaints are racially motivated because many of his customers are Black. Burnett, who is Black, has rejected that characterization and said residents' complaints reflect real safety and quality-of-life concerns.
Habibti also faces a separate licensing disciplinary case with the city alleging it violated an earlier plan of operation, including selling tobacco products without a license and failing to comply with police. A hearing in that case, originally set for July 16, was pushed back after the restaurant had not yet retained legal counsel. It is now scheduled for Sept. 10.
Fire investigators have not said whether they have identified the two people seen in the security footage or determined a motive for the break-in. The disciplinary hearing over Habibti's business license, set for Sept. 10, remains on the city's calendar.
