Walk down Washington Street this month and you'll count at least four storefronts that didn't exist a year ago. A steakhouse where a seafood restaurant used to be. A tavern with rooms named after former mayors. A three-floor concept a few blocks over on Jefferson. Each one gets its own local news segment, its own grand-opening night, its own line of regulars discovering it for the first time. Taken together, they read like proof that downtown Naperville's restaurant scene is expanding in every direction at once.
Several of those openings share an ownership group.
One Group, Six Concepts, Two Blocks
Will Cullen opened his first restaurant, Empire Burgers + Brew, at 48 W. Chicago Ave. in 2016. It became downtown's late-night anchor, known for its retractable rooftop deck overlooking the DuPage River, one of the only setups of its kind in the area. Cullen has since expanded Empire to a second location in Lombard and added Northcott Liquorette at 40 W. Chicago Ave., the sports bar concept Hizemans, and The George American Tavern at 245 S. Washington St. to his downtown Naperville footprint. When The Belmont American Steakhouse opened at 35 S. Washington St. this past summer, local coverage identified it as the sixth concept under Cullen's Empire Restaurant Group.
The Belmont is the one worth slowing down on, because of where it landed. That address belonged to Catch 35, a seafood restaurant that had operated at the Washington Street entrance to downtown for 21 years before closing in the summer of 2025. When Cullen's group took the space, they gutted the front of house and built something deliberately old-fashioned: reservation-only tables, a walk-in bar, a 42-ounce tomahawk steak sourced from Blackwell Farms in Kentucky and Chatel Farms in Georgia, and an executive chef, Zac Rogers, who co-founded the concept alongside Cullen and partner Dave Miller. Miller and Cullen also built The George together, naming its rooms and its signature Badge 13 Burger after George Pradel, Naperville's mayor for two decades, and working with the Naperville Historical Society to trace other local Georges worth honoring, including George Knoch, for whom Knoch Park is named.
Here's the shape of downtown's newest dining row, mapped by who actually signs the lease:
| Restaurant | Address | Behind It | Space's Prior Life |
|---|---|---|---|
| Empire Burgers + Brew | 48 W. Chicago Ave. | Empire Restaurant Group (Cullen), opened 2016 | flagship build-out |
| Northcott Liquorette | 40 W. Chicago Ave. | Empire Restaurant Group | — |
| The George American Tavern | 245 S. Washington St. | Empire Restaurant Group (Cullen, Miller) | new concept, opened earlier in 2026 |
| The Belmont American Steakhouse | 35 S. Washington St. | Empire Restaurant Group (Cullen, Miller, Chef Zac Rogers) | former Catch 35, closed 2025 after 21 years |
| Lennon's | 16 W. Jefferson Ave. | Jeremy Stolberg, independent | former Craftsman / Barrel House / AltaVida |
Several of downtown's most talked-about restaurants share an ownership group. That doesn't make them interchangeable. Empire is a late-night burger and rooftop crowd. The George leans into local history and a family-friendly patio. The Belmont is reservation-driven and deliberately slower, built to feel, as Cullen has described it, like a return to an era when a steak dinner wasn't rushed. The openings include several restaurants associated with the same group, alongside an independently owned concept.
An Independent Addition to Downtown's Dining Mix
The fifth entry in that table matters precisely because it breaks the pattern. Lennon's opened in July 2025 at 16 W. Jefferson Ave., in a space that had cycled through three previous concepts, The Craftsman, Barrel House, and AltaVida, before owner Jeremy Stolberg took it over and built three distinct dining floors under one roof. Stolberg's stated goal was the opposite of a fast-casual turn-and-burn: he wanted a place where people would linger rather than clear the table for the next reservation.
Lennon's is one of several recent changes downtown; the next notable shift is in retail.
A Nearby Retail Change
The changes aren't limited to dining. In January, Eddie Bauer closed its downtown Naperville location as part of a wave of store closures the retailer reported nationally. Katie Wood, executive director of the Downtown Naperville Alliance, confirmed the space had already been leased before the doors even shut, with an announcement on the new tenant still pending.
Why the Timing Actually Matters This Month
None of this would carry much weight if it weren't about to collide with the calendar. The 41st annual Riverwalk Fine Art Fair runs September 19-20, 2026, drawing more than 100 juried artists and an estimated 40,000 visitors along the Riverwalk and Jackson Avenue, free to attend and hosted by the Naperville Art League. That footprint runs directly past the same stretch of Washington and Jefferson where four of the five restaurants above now sit.
For a resident, that overlap is the practical takeaway. The Belmont books tables by reservation, with only bar seats open to walk-ins, which means fair weekend is not the night to show up hoping for a table without planning ahead. The George's patio and Empire's rooftop will be competing for the same overflow crowd once the fair lets out. Lennon's three floors give it more flexible capacity than most of the newer openings, which may make it the more forgiving option if you're deciding late. These restaurants sit along the same blocks that an estimated 40,000 fair visitors are expected to walk through.
Knowing which restaurants share an ownership group adds context to downtown's restaurant news and can help with reservation planning before the fair.
If you're the kind of Naperville resident who tracks these shifts for their own sake, that same instinct for reading a neighborhood closely is exactly what the Niki Rocco Group brings to a home search or a listing strategy in this market. When the time comes, request a free home valuation and put that same local read to work for you.
