The Bear left fans everywhere calling their loved one’s “Chef,” and drinking out of large stock plastic cups. Indeed, the Hulu original topped charts and gained a fan base weeks after its pilot release earlier this year. Shameless star Jeremy Allen White plays the award-winning chef Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto, who just inherited his late brother’s sandwich shop in the inner city of Chicago. With a cast of lovable misfits playing the kitchen crew, including Ebon Moss-Bachrach (The Punisher, Girls), Ayo Edebiri (Dickinson, What We Do in the Shadows), and Liza Colon-Zayas (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, In Treatment).
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The show focuses on mental health, specifically anxiety and grief, after the death of a family member, healing past trauma and finding your family, all wrapped up in beautiful cinematography and the love of food creation. What’s more, the show also sheds light on something that is happening in every city across the nation: the cause and effect of gentrification, particularly in post-2020 COVID-19 lockdowns in Chicago. Now, whether this was the showrunner’s goal, The Bear still captures the story of gentrification in urban spaces, and how it helps some communities but ultimately can harm others in the process.
What is Gentrification?
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It is very simple to watch The Bear at face value, as a beautiful, albeit tense, love letter to the food industry and those behind the counter, with stellar cinematic techniques and great performances. On a deeper level, it is about grief and survival and the side effects of perfection. And then, on an even deeper level, it touches on the reality of gentrification. So, what is gentrification? The official definition, according to Green Law, is “the process whereby the character of a poor urban area is changed by wealthier people moving in, improving housing, and attracting new businesses, typically displacing current inhabitants in the process”. In short, making an area more upscale and expensive and changing the whole dynamic of the community.
How is Gentrification Affecting Urban Spaces?
Gentrification definitely benefits those who establish new businesses, typically “fancier” and more expensive, in certain areas, but it ultimately hurts those whose roots are deep in that community, cannot compete with the new businesses, and are therefore displace from their own neighborhoods. Some positive effects are higher revenues, which could mean nicer establishments and better looked-after residential areas. On the downside, though, the higher prices make it harder for locals to maintain their rent prices, or gas, or do not want to pay triple what they’ve been paying their entire life and find a new place to call home. This displaces locals, but also uproots the history and culture these urban spaces have bred for years.
How Gentrification is Portrayed in The Bear
So, how did The Bear unintentionally stumble upon this problem and work it into its hit show? The main character, Carmy, initially moved out of the city of Chicago to pursue his culinary career. He was trained by the best professionals in the industry and became one of the best young chefs in the world. After returning to his hometown and taking over his brother’s sandwich place, he and Sydney (Edebiri), who was also classically trained in the culinary world, decide to change things up and added more high-end items to the menu. This process of gentrification is shown through the slow change of how Carmy begins to run his restaurant and going against how his brother initially ran it. This upsets the cooks and shows how locals can be opposed to change. Another big opposer is his brother’s best friend Richie, who is constantly telling Carmy that he needs to continue to do things the way his brother Mike ran things. Naturally, there is constant opposition from Carmy, Sydney, and Richie as they fight tradition, what they were taught in other restaurants, and what they ultimately want to accomplish.
Another subplot point is that Sydney wants to start making more high-end dishes that you wouldn’t find at a sandwich place in Chicago, and Carmy seems hesitant at first. Sydney serves it to a food critic, unbeknownst that he was one, and that dish is suddenly in high-demand and all sorts of people are coming to order that dish, not just the regulars the shop runs on. This begins the trajectory of the restaurant getting back on its feet, but also causes a standstill because the regulars who had eaten at this shop all their lives want the classic that they came for. This shows the good and the bad side of the gentrification of the restaurant.
Funnily enough, White got his start on another South Side classic, Shameless, following a family growing up on the south side of Chicago. This show also touched on the city’s gentrification in its later seasons and how it was affecting those who lived there, how they benefited but also how it hurt them. The Alabi Bar, a famous spot in this series, tried to mold and change with the trendiness of the times, but would gain different patrons only to lose their regulars. It is always an interesting touch when a work of fiction meshes with the current tribulations of today, dating the work and also using it as a social commentary, and The Bear comments on gentrification in a way that is not overbearing, but also makes the audience think.
