Glenview's Biggest Restaurant Room Is Closing While Downtown Fills Up With Smaller Ones

"A 700-seat restaurant made sense in the 1960s," Hackney's co-owner Mike Masterson told the Journal & Topics in August. "It doesn't in 2026."

With that, the Masterson family announced that Hackney's on Lake, at 1514 E. Lake Ave., would close permanently in September after 71 years. The family is putting its effort into Hackney's on Harms at 1241 Harms Rd., which has 72 seats inside and a 144-seat patio. Masterson thanked everyone who came "for celebrations, school banquets, first jobs" over those seven decades. Then he said the line that frames the rest of this post: "Still, it was not an easy decision."

Glenview isn't losing those seats. Within about four miles of Glenview Road and Waukegan, they are moving into smaller buildings, several of them helped along with village money. And the restaurant names Glenview has known longest are staying by getting smaller or joining the new projects.

Where the seats went this year

Seat counts are the most useful way to see the change. The figures below come from local reporting between March and October 2026.

Add up the three new rooms on Glenview Road at full weekend capacity and you get roughly 615 seats. That's still fewer than Hackney's on Lake held in one building. Count Lago and the new total reaches about 820, spread over four kitchens with four owners and four different menus. For comparison, Jackman & Co., another downtown Glenview restaurant, has 110 dining room seats, 66 bar seats and 88 on the patio, according to the Journal & Topics.

So Glenview has a similar number of seats as before. What's different is where they are and how big each room is.

A historic building, reopened with winter in mind

The Glen View House, the brick building at 1843 Glenview Road, is the biggest of the new downtown rooms. Glenview's first village board meeting was held there in 1899. The gastropub that last used the building closed effective March 27, 2023, after thanking the village for "a great 12 years."

The building sat empty for about three and a half years. Then Foxtail at Glen View House opened in mid-August. It's the Glenview location of Foxtail on the Lake in Des Plaines, and its managing partner and part owner is David Villegas. Villegas told the Journal & Topics, "We will keep the exterior's appearance as close as possible to the current look. We won't touch much." Most of the work went into the inside. Workers dug the basement four feet deeper to fit a prep kitchen and added covered patios at the front and back. The owners worked with the Glenview History Center on preserving the building, and they changed the name to "Glen View," two words, to match how the building was branded in 1899.

The patios matter most for the colder months. General manager Duke Ross told Glenbrook South's student paper, The Oracle, that the restaurant has heated floors and screens that lower from the outdoor patios, so those spaces can stay open in winter. He also said he celebrated his 21st birthday at The Glenview House. The menu is Mediterranean with coastal influences. It runs from a hummus, labneh and muhammara "Fox Trio" to a raw bar, an orzo "paella" and a 20-ounce bone-in ribeye. Announced hours are 3 to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 3 to 9 p.m. on Sunday.

Across the street at 1822 Glenview Rd., Zenzi Den opened May 19. It's an izakaya-style restaurant from Ballyhoo Hospitality, the group that also runs Jackman & Co. The menu covers robata-grilled entrees, noodles and sushi. Hiring and training manager William Flores told The Oracle that the restaurant is adding seats gradually as the staff settles in.

Spiro's chose to get smaller

Spiro's Deli has a long history in Glenview. It opened in 1962 on East Lake Avenue, spent 27 years there, and then moved to 1210 Waukegan Rd. This year it moved again, to 1880 Glenview Rd., at the corner of Lehigh Avenue across from the Glenview Public Library.

The owners tore down a former dry cleaner and built a new 1,400-square-foot restaurant. It has counter service and 25 seats. The Oracle photographed owner Peter Nestos in front of a stained glass sign at the new location, which opened in early September. The menu is the same as before: hot and cold sandwiches, burgers, pitas and salads.

Spiro's and Hackney's reached a similar conclusion in different ways. The Mastersons kept the smaller of their two locations. Spiro's built a smaller restaurant from scratch, on a corner that now sits a short walk from Foxtail, Zenzi Den and the library.

The village helped finance the new block

None of this happened by accident, and none of it is a secret. The Journal & Topics reported in March that the wave of downtown openings was "supported by a series of municipal grants and forgivable loans." The plan goes back to the 10-month Glenview Connect initiative, which led to a downtown strategic plan adopted in August 2021.

Here's how the support has worked for each project:

• Spiro's Deli. In September 2024, village trustees approved a 10-year, $595,000 forgivable loan toward the $1.25 million project.
• Foxtail at Glen View House. Villegas described it as a public-private partnership with a village grant of about $2.9 million. Villegas and investors Mike Canning, Tim Canning and Beth Luppo are paying the rest.
• Jackman & Co. The Journal & Topics reported that it opened with significant financial help from the village.
• Cerca. This 62-unit mixed-use building at 1850 Glenview Rd. stands on the former Bess Hardware site. The village sold that land to the Drake Group for $1.81 million in 2020 and provided more aid later. The project was delayed for several years by lawsuits challenging it, all of which were unsuccessful.

Village President Mike Jenny and other officials have said the incentives are a necessary tool for revitalizing downtown. Cerca held its ribbon cutting June 17. Its ground floor has about 7,000 square feet of retail space. That retail space is the next one to watch on this block.

The old names are joining the new projects

The last part of the pattern shows up on Waukegan Road. Lago is an Italian steakhouse from chef Fabio Viviani, and it's set to open at 1808 Waukegan Rd. by November. Trustees approved it in the spring and granted its liquor license in August. The two-story, 10,119-square-foot building will seat about 205, with private dining on the second floor.

One of Viviani's partners on the project is Bill Stavrou, whose family has run the Valley Lodge Tavern in Glenview since 1997. Former race car driver Romeo Kapudija is the third partner. "Glenview has supported Valley Lodge for nearly seven decades, so I understand how important it is for a restaurant to become part of the community rather than simply operate in it," Stavrou said.

Something similar is happening on Lake Avenue. Macushla Brewing Co., which members of the Masterson family opened next to Hackney's about a decade ago, is staying open after the restaurant closes, with food trucks taking over from the Hackney's kitchen. Masterson said the Lake Avenue property will be listed for sale. At Harms Road, the update covers the bar, lobby and booths, and he said the goal is "a classic but updated look that keeps the charm and history of our roadhouse roots."

The downtown restaurants also feed the street's events. When Blocktoberfest took over Glenview Road between Church and Pine on Sept. 26, the announced food vendors included Jackman & Co., Coarse Italian and Tallowing, the restaurant at 2528 Waukegan Rd. that held its Chamber ribbon cutting in July. A block away, the Glenview Art League unveiled a new mural at Shoppers Row, 1746 Glenview Rd., in mid-September. It celebrates the village's river and natural spaces.

On the calendar through Thanksgiving weekend

• Saturday, Oct. 24, 8 a.m. to noon. The Glenview Farmers Market's last day of 2026, run by the Glenview Park District at Historic Wagner Farm, 1510 Wagner Road.
• Saturday, Oct. 31. The deadline for groups to apply to march in the holiday parade.
• November. Lago's target opening on Waukegan Road.
• Saturday, Nov. 28, 4 to 6 p.m. Holiday in the Park & Parade, hosted by the Glenview Chamber. The parade starts at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church, heads west on Glenview Road, and ends at Jackman Park, 1011 Lehigh Ave. The park will have Santa, hay rides, a kids' train ride, carolers, cookies and hot chocolate. It's free.

The parade passes Spiro's new corner, Zenzi Den, Foxtail and Cerca on its way to Jackman Park, all of which have opened since May. For the first holiday season since the Glen View House reopened, Foxtail's heated patios will be lit up along the route.

If you own a home near Glenview Road or Lake Avenue and want to know what the new restaurants, Cerca's ground-floor retail and the Hackney's property sale could mean for your street, Dana Pierson-Emering is glad to go through it with you. Let's connect, and I'll put together a personalized home valuation that accounts for what downtown Glenview looks like this fall.