Drive down Glenview Road this month and you'll pass three storefronts wrapped in construction paper, each one about to reopen as a restaurant. It looks like a boom. It isn't quite that. Spiro's Deli has been feeding this town since 1962. The Bagel opened its first counter in 1950. The building that's about to become Foxtail at Glen View House has been standing on this corner since 1878, and the village charter was reportedly signed inside it in 1899. None of what's landing downtown this month is new. It's older than the parking lots around it, and it's arriving on a timeline the village started building five years ago.
That's the thing worth understanding if you live here. The wave everyone's noticing this August isn't a coincidence of good timing. It's the payoff of a specific plan, funded with specific dollar amounts, aimed at bringing specific legacy businesses back to a downtown that residents told the village they wanted revived.
The Corner That's Waited Since 1878
The most anticipated opening is also the oldest building. Foxtail at Glen View House takes over 1843 Glenview Road, a structure built in 1878 that has served at various points as a restaurant, tavern, hotel, house of worship and government center. It sat vacant after the previous Glenview House closed in March 2023. Foxtail's owners, Tim Canning and David Villegas, are the same team behind the well-liked Foxtail on the Lake in Des Plaines, and the village backed the project with a $1.4 million economic development grant alongside a $1.5 million loan at 5 percent interest over ten years. That's not a small bet on a Mediterranean menu. It's a bet on preserving a building the Glenview History Center considered significant enough to help oversee during renovation.
The restaurant confirmed on its own site that doors open August 20, with a roughly 7,000-square-foot interior split across two floors, seating for about 250, and a double-decker patio with a retractable louvered roof designed to open in good weather and close in bad. As the team put it when they announced the date:
"We're excited to open our doors on August 20th!"
Thirty Years on Waukegan, Then a New Address a Block Away
Spiro's Deli isn't new to anyone in Glenview. It's been a fixture since 1962, spending 27 years on East Lake Avenue before moving to 1210 Waukegan Road three decades ago. This month it's relocating again, this time to the northeast corner of Glenview Road and Lehigh Avenue as part of the same downtown push. Village officials confirmed in early August that electrical work was finishing up after ComEd restored power to the new building, with a move-in target of mid-August. Once open, Spiro's will extend its hours to 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., and the menu isn't changing. The Bomber, chicken pita, Italian beef, poor boys, gyros and burgers are all making the move with it.
The point isn't that Spiro's is reinventing itself. It's that a 64-year-old business chose to relocate into the middle of a redevelopment zone rather than sit it out on the edge of downtown, which tells you something about how much confidence long-standing operators have in what's happening here.
The North Shore's Longest Empty Chair
The most emotionally loaded return belongs to The Bagel. Founded in 1950 by Holocaust survivors Elsa and Herman Golenzar in Chicago's Albany Park neighborhood, the deli became a North Shore institution during its 31-year run inside Skokie's Old Orchard Mall before closing in 2018. Owner Marvin Barsky, now 81, has spent eight years fielding requests from former regulars asking when the deli would come back to the suburbs. This year he signed a letter of intent for a 5,000-square-foot ground-floor space inside Cerca, the new 62-unit apartment building at 1850 Glenview Road, with a target opening of Labor Day weekend. The new location will seat up to 150, include a party room with a liquor license, and employ around 35 to 40 people. Rocio Carreras, whose father has worked as The Bagel's head chef for decades, will run it as general manager. The original Lakeview location on Broadway isn't going anywhere, so this is an addition to the map, not a swap.
Barsky has been candid about what's driving the decision:
"I feel real confident that, hopefully, we can bring back some of our old customers."
What's Actually Landing, and When
| Business | History | New Address | Target Opening |
|---|---|---|---|
| Foxtail at Glen View House | Building dates to 1878, vacant since March 2023 | 1843 Glenview Road | August 20, 2026 |
| Spiro's Deli | Operating in Glenview since 1962, 30 years on Waukegan Road | 1880 Glenview Road (at Lehigh Avenue) | Mid-August 2026 |
| The Bagel | Founded 1950, absent from the suburbs since its 2018 Old Orchard closure | 1850 Glenview Road (inside Cerca) | Labor Day weekend 2026 (target) |
Three institutions, three different decades of Glenview history, all converging on a three-week stretch between mid-August and Labor Day.
Why It's Landing All at Once
This didn't happen by accident. In 2021 the Village Board adopted an Economic Development Strategic Plan and Downtown Strategic Plan built on a ten-month resident engagement process called Glenview Connect, which included board workshops, open houses, a virtual site tour, focus groups and a public survey. The overwhelming request coming out of that process was for a wider mix of local and high-end restaurants downtown, not more of the same chains. The village then hired a retail recruiter and began offering the kind of financial incentives that got Foxtail, Spiro's and The Bagel to commit.
The current wave isn't the first round either. Jackman & Co. opened along the North Branch of the Chicago River in July 2025. Ovvio Italian Taverna, previously known as Bar Trullo, opened in December 2025 at the former filling station site on Waukegan and Grove. Hometown Coffee & Juice, which already had locations in Glencoe, Lake Forest and Winnetka, opened downtown in November 2025 across from the Metra station. Smoque BBQ, the well-regarded Chicago barbecue spot, is slated to begin construction in 2026 at a revised site on the southwest corner of Waukegan and Grove. What residents are seeing this month is round two of a plan that's been quietly running since 2021.
The Parking Lots Tell the Same Story
The village didn't just fund restaurants. It funded the infrastructure to support the crowds it expected them to draw. A commuter lot near Depot Street and Grove Street is being rebuilt to add about 20 spaces, along with new sidewalks, lighting and stormwater improvements. The former Patio Shops site at Glenview Road and River Drive has already been converted into a 60-stall public lot open every day of the week. A new shared parking agreement with Colonial Court on Glenview Road adds another 70 spaces during evenings and weekends, timed specifically to peak dining hours. None of that gets built for a downtown that isn't expecting to be busy.
What This Means If You Live Here
If you've felt like downtown Glenview has been under construction for years without much to show for it, this month is the answer. A building dating to 1878, a deli dating to 1962 and a bagel counter dating to 1950 are all opening within about three weeks of each other, in spaces the village spent real money preparing for exactly this outcome. Residents can watch it happen just by walking Glenview Road this month. The Foxtail patio, Spiro's new counter and The Bagel's return to a lox platter near the Metra are all part of the same plan residents asked for back in 2021, finally arriving at once.
If you're the kind of person who pays attention to what a downtown's evolution says about the neighborhood around it, that instinct is exactly what makes a good long-term homeowner. The AVE Group spends as much time tracking what's happening on Glenview Road as we do tracking closed sales, because the two are never as separate as they look. If you're weighing a move to Glenview or just curious what a season like this one does to property values nearby, schedule a free consultation and we'll walk you through it.
