One Winnetka Restaurants and Shops Opening: What to Expect

"With all of the retail space now leased, One Winnetka continues to outpace our original assumptions," John Murphy, chairman and CEO of Murphy Real Estate, said last October. Almost a year later, the four-story building at Elm Street and Lincoln Avenue has topped out. Streetscape installation is scheduled to run through December, and the Village expects the ground-floor spaces to go to tenants only this month.

The project isn't stalled. One Winnetka was always scheduled to open in layers: the building first, then the street, then the apartments, then the shops, with the restaurant last. The biggest change since approval sits at the most visible corner downtown. The space at Elm and Lincoln, first drawn as a public plaza, is now a seasonal dinner patio for a Ballyhoo Hospitality restaurant, and the name on that restaurant has changed too.

The order things happen in

The Village's summer report and The Record's coverage lay out a sequence. Read in order, the dark storefronts are the plan working as intended.

1. January 21, 2025. The Village Council gives final approval after more than a decade of proposals.
2. May 2025. Walsh Construction, the general contractor, begins site mobilization.
3. June 16, 2026. Trustees unanimously replace the planned plaza with outdoor restaurant seating.
4. August through December 2026. Public improvements are installed, including the streetscape.
5. October 2026. Ground-floor spaces are expected to be handed over to tenants.
6. December 2026. The full project is expected to reach substantial completion.
7. Early 2027. Commercial tenants are slated to begin opening.

Today is October 4, so the project sits between steps five and six. The Village report carries no issue date, and its October handoff and December completion targets are forecasts, not confirmed milestones. Still, the gap between a tenant getting its keys and opening its doors is when interiors get built. A storefront handed over this month that stays papered through the holidays is following the schedule the developer published a year ago.

Who gets the keys

Six businesses signed on for the Elm Street-facing ground floor. The Record's original headline said seven, but the story and the Village's own list both name six.

Only two of the six serve food. Fare already has several Chicago locations, and when the lease was announced it had another coming to Oak Park. Its menu runs from breakfast through bowls and smoothies, so it covers daytime hours. That matters because of the planned hours for the larger restaurant next door.

No tenant has published a specific opening date. Every source points to the same early-2027 window.

The corner that changed

In the plans the Village approved in January 2025, the Elm and Lincoln corner was a public plaza with four maple trees. On June 16, trustees approved what was filed as a "minor change": a 17-table, 74-seat dining area for Ballyhoo's restaurant, enclosed by planters filled with native grasses and plantings.

Community Development Director Scott Mangum told the council the restaurant plans to open at 4:30 p.m. and close at 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and at 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Under that schedule, the downtown corner is a dinner room. It fills in the late afternoon and stays quiet through the morning and lunch hours, when Fare will be serving a few doors down.

The patio follows the calendar as well. Winnetka's outdoor dining season runs April 1 to November 30. Off-season, most of the planters go into storage and a few stay out year-round for appearance. If tenants begin opening in early 2027, the corner's first full season of outdoor dining would start the following April at the soonest.

The size of the patio also grew. Earlier reporting described the restaurant as seating 200 inside and 40 outside. The approved patio holds 74, nearly double the earlier outdoor figure.

Ballyhoo's attorney, Christopher Canning, told trustees the dining area would bring more activity to the area than a plaza would. He said the dining experience Ballyhoo offers across the North Shore "is specifically what your residents want," pointing to Winnetka's caucus survey.

The trade came with conditions. Four magnolias will be planted on private property next to the building in place of the four maples. Ballyhoo will also contribute $20,000 toward buying and installing electric vehicle chargers, plus $5,000 to plant up to five more trees elsewhere in the village, possibly at the former post office site.

An earlier adjustment shows how closely the building is being fitted around this one tenant. In February, trustees approved a six-inch encroachment into the public right-of-way on Elm Street. The restaurant's floor plan had changed enough that its door now sits flush with the facade instead of in a recessed entry, so it swings out over the sidewalk when fully open.

The name on the door

When the plaza vote happened, the restaurant didn't have a usable name. Ballyhoo had announced it as Arkadia in late 2025. At the June 16 meeting, Canning said the group was choosing a new name because the original one could not be used, and he gave no reason.

The new name is Café Kosta. The building's own leasing site lists "Cafe Kosta Restaurant by Ballyhoo Hospitality" first among its on-site retail. Ballyhoo's restaurant list shows Café Kosta in Winnetka, marked "COMING 2027." Its landing page offers a mailing list and one line, "Gather Around the Hearth," which fits the live-fire concept announced last year. Neither page names a chef or describes a menu, and no opening date more specific than 2027 has been published.

Café Kosta will be Ballyhoo's second restaurant in the village. Pomeroy, the group's French bistro at 844 Spruce Street, opened in 2021. The group's North Shore list also includes Sophia Steak, Pizza By Sal and Buck Russell's in Wilmette, DeNucci's in Highland Park and Jackman and Co. in Glenview.

Upstairs may arrive before downstairs

The three floors above the shops hold 59 rental apartments. The leasing team is taking tour requests, and its contact page lists 515 Lincoln Avenue. Its floor plans show some units marked "Available Now," with lease links defaulting to October 5, 2026, and many others listed for January 15, 2027. We found no report confirming that anyone has moved in yet. If the leasing dates hold, though, the building's first residents could be living above Elm Street before the businesses below them open.

The 151 enclosed parking spaces are split between the ground and lower levels. Thirty-nine are set aside for commercial customers and employees. During construction, the Village's parking map for the surrounding blocks designates business-employee and commuter zones. It also notes that overnight parking is not allowed from November through April.

Why a few more months barely register

Before this plan, the site went through a 2018 approval that was rescinded in 2019 after the developer missed project deadlines. A separate CA Residential proposal was withdrawn after its first review in January 2020. Settlement agreements in November 2021 ended the litigation, and original developer David Trandel returned with a new designer, OKW Architects, and a new partner, Murphy Development Group. The current four-story design, a joint venture of Murphy Development Group and Christopher Merrill, won preliminary approval in March 2024 and final approval in January 2025. Next to that history, the stretch between an October key handoff and an early-2027 opening is the most predictable part of the project. The next date to watch is December's substantial completion, followed by Ballyhoo announcing an opening date for the restaurant at the corner.

When the corner of Elm and Lincoln shifts from construction site to dinner patio, the homes around it get a new piece of their story, and telling that story well is where we focus. If you own near downtown Winnetka and want to know how a finished One Winnetka affects your home's value, Abbie Homes Group can walk you through it. Request Your Home Valuation.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.