And over the weekend, it became the place where his life was taken away.
"He just wanted a place where we could have brunch, karaoke, and games," said Waukegan resident Jurnee Iverson. "I really haven't come to terms with it yet, because it's the exact opposite of what he was striving for."
The presence of a heartbroken community decorated the shuttered Waukegan restaurant on Monday, deepening the reality that Kirkwood is forever gone from behind these business walls.
"It just doesn't seem real to me that he's not there," said Lake County Board member Mary Ross Cunningham.
The 51-year-old's restaurant, 41 14 Forty One Fourteen Steaks and Seafood at 2120 North Green Bay Road, is the place where the Lake County, Illinois coroner says he was stabbed multiple times on Saturday night. He later died at Vista Medical Center East.
According to court documents, it began with an argument between Kirkwood and a manager during a gender reveal party the business was hosting.
That's when, prosecutors say, a 16-year-old boy stabbed Kirkwood with a kitchen knife before leaving with 21-year-old Iziah Gonzalez.
Gonzalez was taken into custody at a hospital and charged with murder.
Former Waukegan Mayor Sam Cunningham grew up with Kirkwood and joined a prayer vigil remembering his close friend, who he says was killed while hosting a gender reveal party at his business.
"For something to have happened where that celebration moves to this," Cunningham said. "For him to have lost his life in the place where he spent most of his life."
Family members told ABC7 that the business owner was a father of four and the son of former Waukegan Ald. Roudell Kirkwood, who helped to run the restaurant with his son.
"I know how it feels, because I lost a child," Cunningham said. "You live with it every day. You can't get it out of your mind."
Waukegan police are leading this investigation.
"He didn't deserve this, and his family his family didn't deserve this," Iverson said.
Two others are listed as co-defendants in court documents but have not been charged. Gonzalez is being held on no bond.
According to the notice on the building, a hearing is scheduled for Wednesday morning to determine whether the restaurant will be allowed to reopen.