Last June, Catch 35 turned off the lights at 35 S. Washington Street after twenty-one years. This June, a construction fence went up on the same footprint, and by the time Naper Nights kicks off its second July weekend, that same corner is scheduled to reopen as a steakhouse called The Belmont. The same group behind it is already running two other downtown rooms and putting a third floor of programming on top of a Jefferson Avenue building that residents have watched sit half-quiet for years.
If it feels like the pace of new downtown openings has accelerated in 2026, it has. But the story is not really about the number of ribbon cuttings. It is about who is doing them, and how a resident who already knows every block of Jackson and Jefferson can plan a summer of first visits without ever leaving a six-block radius.
The group quietly anchoring three corners
The Belmont American Steakhouse is being opened by Will Cullen through his Empire Restaurant Group. That same group owns Empire Burgers + Brew, Fiamme, and The George, the American tavern that opened last year at 245 S. Washington Street with co-owner Dave Miller. Cullen told NCTV17 in January that the team was still working through permits and pushing to have The Belmont open by summer.
Read that lineup as a map, not a list. Empire now sits on Washington near Chicago Avenue (Empire Burgers), on Washington near the Riverwalk (The George), and, if the summer opening lands, on the north Washington block that most downtown foot traffic crosses on the way to Water Street (The Belmont). Add Fiamme on Jefferson, and the group has a room within a two-minute walk of almost any downtown event footprint.
The George is the useful preview here. Its owners worked with the Naperville Historical Society to name the restaurant and its rooms after real people who shaped the city. The Badge 13 Burger is a nod to George Cradle, the thirteenth officer on the Naperville police force and later a twenty-year mayor; the bun is stamped at the table with a cast-iron replica of his badge. The George Dip, a flat-top griddled prime rib French dip on house French bread with aged white cheddar, has been the bestseller since opening. If The Belmont carries even half of that historical-detail approach into a steakhouse format, it will not read like a chain arrival.
What actually opened, and where
Here is the working shortlist a resident can save for a summer of first visits. Every address is downtown unless noted.
| Spot | Where | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| The Belmont American Steakhouse | 35 S. Washington St. | Steakhouse in the former Catch 35 space, targeting a summer open |
| Lennon's | 16 W. Jefferson St. | Three-floor American concept in the old Craftsman building |
| L3 (Lennon's third floor) | 16 W. Jefferson St. | Separate third-floor concept above Lennon's |
| Slyce of NY | 215 S. Washington St. | New York style pizza plus chicken and gyro bowls |
| Le Macaron | 23 W. Jefferson Ave. | French patisserie |
| The George | 245 S. Washington St. | American tavern, opened last year, still on most residents' to-try list |
| Bombay Eats | Freedoms Commons | Indian, first-time Restaurant Week participant this year |
| CAVA | 448 S. Route 59, Unit 112 | Mediterranean fast-casual, opened January 7 |
Katie Wood, executive director of the Downtown Naperville Alliance, told NCTV17 that more than fifteen businesses opened downtown in 2025, with at least four more arriving in the first quarter of 2026. Lilly Pulitzer and Free People are the retail arrivals residents will notice fastest at Main Street Promenade, 55 S. Main Street, and they matter for restaurant-goers because they extend the reason to walk the north end of Main between dinner and dessert.
The Jefferson Avenue cluster is the pattern worth noticing. Lennon's, L3, and Le Macaron are all within one block of each other on Jefferson between Main and Washington. That block was not a destination two summers ago. It is now the shortest walk in downtown that puts a full dinner, a rooftop drink, and a pastry stop on the same sidewalk.
Pairing the openings with the July event stack
The city's July calendar is where the map pays off. The middle two weekends stack four major events that all funnel through the same downtown parking garages, which the city keeps free.
- July 11, Saturday. Naperville Ale Fest Summer Edition at Naper Settlement, 523 S. Webster Street, with general admission tastings from 1 to 5 p.m. and early entry at noon. The fest is twenty-one and over. This is the day to book a late dinner at Lennon's or The George on the walk back north.
- July 12, Sunday. Water Street Fine Art and Fine Craft Show on Water Street, 135 Water St., steps from The Belmont site and directly on the Riverwalk. Slyce of NY on Washington is the shortest lunch detour.
- July 17 to 19. Park After Dark returns to Central Park at the Naperville Community Concert Center, 104 E. Benton Avenue, for a free family weekend of music and interactive art. Le Macaron sits three blocks west if the line at any downtown ice cream spot has spilled onto the sidewalk.
- July 17 and 18. Naper Nights at Naper Settlement, tickets $25 for adults and $15 for kids four to twelve, music 5 to 10 p.m., with the ZZ Top and Doobie Brothers tribute on Friday. The Latin Art Walk runs the same weekend through downtown, giving families an untelevised second option if the Settlement lawn is full.
- August 14 and 15. The final Naper Nights weekend. By this point The Belmont should be open, and its Washington Street corner is the natural pre-show reservation.
- September 4 to 7. Last Fling over Labor Day weekend, running through downtown, capped by the Labor Day parade on the 7th.
The free garages matter more than they used to. Between the four July weekends above, a resident who parks once and walks can hit every one of the 2026 restaurant openings on foot.
The Route 59 side, and why Block 59 changes the math
CAVA opened January 7 at 448 S. Route 59, Unit 112, and it hires between twenty-five and forty people per location. Its opening donation event supported Food Rescue US Chicagoland, which is a small but useful signal about what Route 59 tenants are trying to be right now.
More significant for residents who live west of Washington: the city's 2026 special events calendar adds a six-week Thursday series at Block 59, the dining and entertainment district off Route 59. That is the first time a Route 59 corridor has been programmed by the city like a downtown event footprint. Anyone who has been driving to downtown on Thursdays out of habit should give it a summer to see whether the shorter drive holds up.
Restaurant Week is the tell
The thirteenth annual Naperville Restaurant Week ran January 23 to February 8, 2026. Monica Conners, president of the Naperville Development Partnership, framed it as support for restaurants during the year's slowest dining stretch. Nearly seventy restaurants joined in 2025. What is worth watching in the 2026 list is the newcomer roster. Lennon's, The George, and Bombay Eats participated for the first time. Anthem Ale House at Naperville Crossings, a 2025 newcomer, came back. Morton's in Freedoms Commons has been in every year since the event started.
A first-year Restaurant Week showing is a soft launch by another name. If a new spot uses its January prix fixe to work out the kinks, the first honest read on the kitchen is usually April through June, right when the summer event calendar starts filling downtown sidewalks. This is why 2026 is a better year than most to actually try the new rooms rather than saving them for a birthday.
A short summer assignment
Pick one Jefferson block spot, one Washington block spot, and one Route 59 spot. Try them across the July event stack rather than on a random Tuesday. That is the difference between adding restaurants to a list and understanding what downtown looks like now.
If you are thinking further out than dinner reservations, whether that means selling a home whose value is quietly tied to a walkable downtown or buying into a neighborhood where the restaurant map is still moving, that same close attention to what is actually opening on which corner is exactly the read you want on your side of the transaction. Contact Carrie Bowen — your trusted real estate partner for Naperville and the western suburbs.
