A landmark clubhouse on Lake Michigan
Our Story
Quick answer
Nafsi South Shore Beach sits inside the South Shore Cultural Center, the former South Shore Country Club clubhouse, a Chicago Landmark since 2004 and the site of the Obamas' 1992 wedding reception. The restaurant opened in fall 2024 in the former Parrot Cage space.
The building
The South Shore Cultural Center began as a country club on the lake. Its Mediterranean Revival clubhouse is the home of Nafsi today. The Chicago Park District has run the property for decades, and it is a public lakefront park with a beach, a golf course and a nature sanctuary.
Building facts
- Built as
- The clubhouse of the South Shore Country Club, designed by Marshall and Fox in Mediterranean Revival style.
- Public since
- The club was liquidated in 1973 and the Chicago Park District bought the property in 1975 for $9.775 million.
- Renamed
- South Shore Cultural Center.
- Chicago Landmark
- Designated May 26, 2004.
- Wedding reception
- Barack and Michelle Obama held their wedding reception here on October 3, 1992.
- Before Nafsi
- Nafsi occupies the former Parrot Cage restaurant space, once the Washburne Culinary Institute's teaching restaurant.
- The park
- A public beach, a nine-hole golf course, a nature sanctuary and the Paul Robeson Theatre.
Sources: Wikipedia, City Cast Chicago, Chicago Park District
A hall inside the South Shore Cultural Center
Nafsi
Nafsi opened in fall 2024 in the former Parrot Cage space inside the building. Press coverage at the time called the restaurant “Nafsi 1916.” Interiors are by Future Firm, as reported by What Now Chicago.
Nafsi is run by a South Side team.
Brunch collaboration with Nafsi. Five Loaves menu: ask your server or call.
The kitchen cooks Southern favorites and seafood from scratch. See the menus or read our press page for coverage of the opening.