For 21 years, the address at 35 S. Washington Street meant one thing: Catch 35, the seafood restaurant that anchored that corner of downtown until it closed in June 2025. A closing like that leaves a strange kind of quiet on a block that's used to full patios and a line at the host stand. For months, the space sat there, a landmark with no name on the door.
It reopened this year as The Belmont American Steakhouse. If you've eaten at The George, the upscale tavern that opened a few blocks away on Washington Street earlier this year, you might notice something familiar about The Belmont before you even sit down. That's because both restaurants have the same owner behind them: Will Cullen, whose Empire Restaurant Group also runs Empire Burgers + Brew and Fiamme. Cullen told NCTV17 he was working through permitting to get The Belmont open as quickly as possible, aiming for a summer opening on the strength of a menu built around what the group describes as elevated dining paired with a warm, approachable atmosphere. It's now listed as open on the Downtown Naperville Alliance's own business directory, alongside The George.
That's the detail worth sitting with before you plan your next dinner out. This isn't a case of several unrelated operators independently deciding downtown Naperville was worth a bet this year. It's one local group picking up two of Washington Street's most visible corners in the same stretch of months, with a shared playbook behind both.
The George's Playbook, and Why It Probably Travels to The Belmont
The George opened at 245 S. Washington Street earlier this year, co-owned by Dave Miller and Will Cullen. The origin story, as Miller has told it, started on a ski trip to Big Sky, Montana, where he and Cullen (with their wives, who helped shape the eventual direction of the space) spotted a rustic American tavern that stuck with them.
What makes The George more than another new tavern is how specifically local the concept became once they got home. The team worked with the Naperville Historical Society to research the city's own past and found that George is a name that shows up again and again in Naperville history. The restaurant is named for four of them. One is George Pradel, the city's mayor for 20 years, who also served as Naperville's 13th police officer, a detail the restaurant built directly into its menu. The Badge 13 Burger is stamped tableside with a cast-iron replica of Pradel's original badge before it reaches the table. Another is George Knoch, the namesake behind Knoch Park.
That kind of specificity, tying a burger to a real badge number tied to a real mayor, isn't incidental. It's the group's approach: take a marquee corner, root the concept in something the neighborhood already recognizes, and build a menu (the signature George Dip is a prime rib French dip finished on the flat-top; the Bourbon Maple Glaze Salmon is hand-cut most mornings) around it. If The Belmont follows the same logic on a corner that already carries 21 years of its own history, the smart move is to expect a steakhouse that leans into what that address meant to people, not a generic concept dropped into a vacant space.
The Rest of the Corridor Is Moving Independently
Not everything new downtown traces back to Empire Restaurant Group, and it's worth being precise about that rather than overstating a single owner's footprint. A few blocks over, Lennon's took over the old Craftsman building at 16 W. Jefferson Avenue and built out a three-floor concept, with the top floor, L3, operating as its own distinct space. Smaller additions have filled in around it downtown: Le Macaron brought its French pastry counter, and Slyce of NY opened at 215 S. Washington Street. On the Downtown Naperville Alliance's own business listings, The White Sheep has opened as a breakfast-and-brunch concept, and Two-Nine, a martini lounge, opened above Potter's Place.
The practical read for anyone deciding where to spend a Friday night this fall: Washington Street between roughly Jefferson and Benton now has two full-service concepts under one ownership group bookending it, with Jefferson Avenue filling in around them with smaller, independently owned spots. If you liked the pergola patio at The George, you now have a second reason to walk that same stretch of Washington. If you're after something that isn't part of that group's footprint at all, Jefferson Avenue is where to look.
The Weekend That Actually Marks the Turn
None of this happens in a vacuum. Downtown Naperville's fall calendar gives you a reason to be walking those blocks anyway, and this year's lineup is dense enough that it's worth mapping out rather than discovering one event at a time.
The season's hinge point is the weekend of September 19 and 20, when the Naperville Art League's Riverwalk Fine Art Fair takes over the brick paths, fountains, and bridges along the river. This is its 41st year, with more than 100 juried artists showing original painting, sculpture, photography, jewelry, ceramics, glass, fiber, and woodwork, and it draws over 40,000 visitors into a downtown that already has more than 100 shops and over 60 restaurants within easy walking distance of the riverwalk.
From there, the calendar moves fast:
- October 2 and 3 brings Oktoberfest to Naper Settlement, with a heated tent, German food and beer, and live music that shifts from oompah on Friday to a mix of oompah, polka, pop, and country on Saturday.
- October 9 is an author evening at Anderson's Bookshop with bestselling writer Brad Meltzer and illustrator Christopher Eliopoulos.
- October 17 brings culinary creator Nara Smith to Anderson's Bookshop for a Saturday morning event.
- October 18 is the Harvest Soup & Chili Stroll, a walking event through downtown built around exactly what it sounds like.
- October 23 is the West Suburban Symphony's 80th season opener, "Rhapsodies," at Wentz Concert Hall.
- October 24 splits the night two ways: Howlin' at the Moon, a 21-and-over Halloween event at Naper Settlement with costume contests and live performers, and a heartland rock show from Sons of Chicago, also at Wentz Concert Hall.
- October 25, the Sunday before Halloween, is Halloween Happening at the Grand Pavilion on the riverwalk, alongside the annual Halloween Hop, both built for families with younger kids.
- Naper Settlement has also added a brand-new Family Spooktacular, a two-day event designed for kids roughly ages 3 to 12, its first year on the calendar.
That's a lot of separate organizations, the Naperville Art League, Naper Settlement, Anderson's Bookshop, the West Suburban Symphony, all running programming into the same six weeks. If you're mapping out a weekend, the practical move is to treat October 24 as a fork: the family-friendly version of the night is at Naper Settlement, the adult version is there too, and Wentz Concert Hall has its own separate draw.
Why This Is Worth Tracking, Even If You're Not Selling Anytime Soon
None of this is a pitch to buy or sell a house. It's a read on what's actually changing on the ground in a downtown that a lot of Naperville residents walk through without necessarily clocking who owns what. But it's also the kind of texture that ends up mattering later, when a friend asks what's good to eat downtown, or when you're the one giving a visiting relative the tour and want to sound like you actually live here.
The Lori Johanneson Team keeps an eye on this corridor for the same reason any of you might: because it's the front door to the town we work in every day. If you're weighing a move in or around Naperville down the road, whether that means trading up for more space, downsizing out of a longtime family home, or figuring out how a neighborhood like this one actually lives day to day, the Lori Johanneson Team is a good group to talk to when the timing is right. Until then, the Belmont's patio and the Riverwalk Fine Art Fair are both worth your Saturday.
