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

Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, Season 12, Episode 12 Aired November 7, 2011

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.

Food Paradise, Season 14, Episode 9

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, Season 4, Episode 7 Aired August 28, 2013

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.