New Restaurants in Downtown La Grange IL: Fall 2026 Updates

"We're not Disney," Design Review Commission Chairman Kurt Volkman said on July 24, during a heated debate over a planned sushi restaurant's facade. Then the commission approved it. The restaurant was My Sushi at 23 S. La Grange Road, and its owner was aiming for a September opening. It's now October 5. We found no public confirmation that My Sushi has opened. The same is true for the other two restaurants announced for downtown this summer.

The downtown changes you can actually walk into right now happened differently. A home décor shop moved out of a booth in an antique mall and into a storefront. A bakery that has been on La Grange Road since 2007 rebuilt its interior and patio without ever closing. A sushi restaurant with about 15 years downtown is expanding into the space next door. In 2026, downtown La Grange is growing mostly from inside.

Three Storefronts, Three Paper Trails

Each of the three incoming restaurants has left a public record: a commission vote, a license recommendation, a renovation report. Here is what that record shows as of early October.

My Sushi has the least public information of the three. As of late July, the owner had not been publicly identified, and no menu or concept had been released beyond the name. The sign design submitted to the village offers one clue. It reads "My Sushi ALL YOU CAN EAT." In recent years the storefront has housed The Art Stop, Urban Mutt pet supply and SoTish cafe and gallery. Wheelys Coffee Lounge next door has stayed open through all of that turnover. At the meeting, structural engineer Jonathan Robinson argued that the commission was skipping its own visual compatibility standards. Commissioner Lindsay Hanson replied that compatibility is open to interpretation and doesn't rule out creative design.

Crepas Culichi has the longest paper trail. Owners Estefany Garcia, Lorena de la Torre and Yency Garcia already run the original Crepas Culichi in Oak Park. They also had a Berwyn location, which closed in 2023. On May 11, Estefany and Yency Garcia told the Liquor Commission they had been looking at La Grange for years. They said they moved quickly when the 50 S. La Grange Road space came up, because it had a full kitchen. They plan to open seven days a week with breakfast, brunch and lunch, and may add dinner later if demand is there. The commission voted 3-0 to recommend that the Village Board create a Class A-3 restaurant license for them. The proposed menu they submitted to the village includes savory crepes such as chicken tinga and poblano. Forbidden Noodles was in that space for about seven years before it closed last fall.

Woow Hot Pot is a little different. It's new, but it comes from a familiar operator.

The Growth That Already Happened

When Patch called Woow Sushi on June 24, the person who answered said the hot pot restaurant planned for 37 La Grange Road was three to four months away and renovation had started. Hot pot is a meal of meats and vegetables simmered in a pot at the table. Woow Sushi, at 35 La Grange Road, has been downtown for about 15 years, and its only other location is in Algonquin. The space it's moving into belonged to Steak + Vine, which closed earlier this year after about a decade in La Grange. A three-to-four-month estimate from late June points to sometime between late September and late October, so this one isn't late yet.

Swell House followed a similar path. Owner Jess Engledow started in 2025 with Swell Vintage, a small booth inside Jackson Square Mall, and opened her storefront at 46 S. La Grange Road in April 2026. The shop sells vintage, antique and modern pieces, including lighting, textiles, artwork and furniture. The name changed from Swell Vintage to Swell House as the stock grew beyond vintage. It held a grand-opening ribbon cutting on June 3. Engledow tested her taste and built a customer base in a booth a few blocks away, and then moved onto La Grange Road.

At the south end of the strip, Balkan Bakery at 541 S. La Grange Road made the biggest physical change of the three. The renovation added indoor and outdoor seating, a pergola and patio, new display cases and a new logo with a stork on it. The bakery stayed open the whole time because the work was done after hours. Owner Marija Pejkovic has been with the bakery since it opened in 2007 and took it over from her mother-in-law in 2020. The stork refers to Svojnovo and Babin Most, the Serbian towns where she and her husband are from. The new menu was set to launch in early September. It adds hot panini and toast sandwiches, salads and snack bowls, and the longtime staples stay. "What happens when ajvar, kulen, and kajmak meet the modern sandwich and salad formats people already love?" is how Pejkovic described the idea behind it. Later this year, the bakery plans to launch The Gourmet Vault, an online store that will ship Balkan products nationwide.

All three businesses had something the newcomers don't: they were already operating downtown. Their customers, their staff and, for two of them, their buildings were already in place before the changes began.

Why Opening Downtown Takes So Long

Each new arrival has to work through a series of village approvals. Design review handles facades and signs. The Liquor Commission recommends licenses to the Village Board. We didn't find a public record of the Board's final vote on the Crepas Culichi license or an announced opening date. Under all of it sits a zoning code that, as La Grange Daily reported in April, hasn't had a serious update since 1991. Under that code, a bowling alley or a children's play space needs a special permit. Uses like trampoline parks and video arcades fall into categories the code treats as prohibited. When an escape room wanted to open, the code had no category for it at all. The village had to amend it to create a special permit, and only for one commercial district.

The village has budgeted $190,000 to rewrite the code. Proposals were due April 6, and the Village Board was expected to award a contract in June. We didn't find a public report confirming that award. The rewrite comes out of La Grange Forward, the comprehensive plan adopted in November 2024. That plan describes La Grange as a place families drive to for an evening out.

The building where Swell House began is changing too. The Village Board approved a four-story condo project that requires demolishing Jackson Square at 112 E. Burlington Avenue.

What's Left on the Downtown Calendar This Month

These are the October dates that are already confirmed, whether or not any of the three restaurants opens this month:

1. Skeletober, all of October. The La Grange Business Association's skeletons are back for a second year, with a skeleton scavenger hunt, shop deals, photo spots and seasonal drinks and treats at restaurants.
2. Lizzie Selle Studio's "Joyful Art Meets Fashion Fall Open House," Saturday, Oct. 10. It's on the LGBA calendar. Check with the studio for the time.
3. La Grange Farmers Market, Thursdays through Oct. 29. That leaves four market Thursdays this season.
4. Trick-or-treating, Saturday, Oct. 31. The sources don't agree on the start time. The Village of La Grange's calendar lists 3 to 8 p.m. La Grange Daily reported 2 to 8 p.m. for La Grange, La Grange Park, Western Springs and Countryside, based on a La Grange Park announcement. Check the village's page before you put out the candy bowl.

The LGBA's first downtown Oktoberfest was scheduled for Sept. 25–27. The association's three holiday events, Hometown Holiday, the Sweets Stroll and the Holiday Walk, are all still listed as "INFO COMING SOON."

If you own a business or a home along La Grange Road and want to understand how storefront turnover, the zoning rewrite and the Jackson Square project could affect your block, Deidre Rudich follows these village decisions closely. Schedule your complimentary market consultation, and we'll go through what's moving on your stretch of downtown.