The comings and goings of downtown Naperville continue, this time with the closure of a restaurant in a prime location off Washington Street plus the end of a local breakfast spot.
Bev’s
Bev’s at 245 S. Washington St. closed on Dec. 7, according to Will Cullen, owner of Empire Restaurant Group, which had been operating the casual fine dining restaurant. Amid Bev’s closure, Empire plans to launch a new concept in the same property as it still maintains a long-term lease in the building, Cullen said.
Empire is “still working out” a lot of the details for what the new concept would look like but it would be a “different vibe in general” from Bev’s, Cullen said.
Bev’s opened in early 2022. Empire acquired the property after Jimmy’s Grill closed and left the space vacant. Initially, the restaurant group — which also owns Empire Burgers + Brew on Chicago Avenue — intended for Bev’s to be a temporary pop-up while construction on a much larger restaurant to be called Cali’s was done around it.
However, high construction costs and damage to business amid the city’s ongoing Washington Street Bridge replacement made pursuing a larger restaurant not feasible, Cullen said in a call Tuesday.
Speaking to the impact of nearby infrastructure improvements especially, Cullen said, “Washington Street being under construction put a lot of pressure on the business.”
When the city was completing bridge construction and downtown streetscape work at the same time through last year, business at Bev’s was down about 40%, Cullen said.
Looking ahead to Empire’s new concept, Cullen said there will “definitely be additional buildout,” with the idea being that the property will be “gutted on the inside.”
As for Bev’s, Cullen recognized it was “more of a temporary thing” but added, “We wished it would have been able to hold on for longer.”
“I guess that’s the way it works sometimes,” he said.
Effin Egg, Sweet Home Gelato
Downtown Naperville has recently said goodbye to two other eateries: Effin Egg at 22 E. Chicago Ave. and Sweet Home Gelato at 50 S. Main St., according to Katie Wood, executive director of the Downtown Naperville Alliance.
Effin Egg, which opened in 2023, closed about six months ago, Wood said in an email Tuesday.
Both businesses closed for “various reasons,” Wood said. Meanwhile, Wood noted that both spaces have been released or are in the process of being leased.
In January, Sweet Home Gelato announced its closure in a social media post.
“Thank you Naperville for sharing your moments, smiles and energy with us,” the post read.
Prairie Cannabis
Outside of downtown, a new retail cannabis dispensary has opened in unincorporated Naperville. Prairie Cannabis celebrated the grand opening of its new location at 4S120 Route 59 on Feb. 6, according to a news release.
Jonah Rapino, Director of Marketing at Prairie Cannabis, said in the release that the dispensary, which is at the border between Naperville and Warrenville, was “excited to officially join the local business community.”
An Illinois-based company, the new Naperville dispensary is Prairie Cannabis’ first retail location but the company plans to expand further, with an additional location launching in Chicago later this March, the release said.
