Libertyville's Newest Businesses Are Built to Make You Stay
September 10, 2026
September 10, 2026
When Ivy Sukenik was designing her new coffee shop in Libertyville, she didn't want to offer to-go cups at all. Her brother and business partner, Stu, talked her out of it. She wanted people to sit down, order at the counter, and stay. He wanted the shop to survive its first month.
That tension between a business owner's instinct and a customer's habit turned out to be a preview of something bigger happening in Libertyville this year. Two of the most talked-about openings in town, a coffee shop and a restaurant, were both built around the same bet: that people in this village don't want fast, they want to linger. And if you look at how Libertyville actually fills its calendar in September, that bet isn't a gamble. It's just catching up to how the village already behaves.
Frunchroom Collective opened its doors on February 17, 2026, at 1193 S. Milwaukee Avenue in the Greentree Plaza, in the space next to Burt's Deli near where Bakers Square used to be. The name comes from Chicago slang for a front room, the place in a house where people gather and stay a while, and Sukenik and her brother Stu Nitzkin built the whole concept around recreating that feeling for people who don't have one at home.
The shop pours coffee from Tala Coffee Roasters, which has been roasting in Libertyville for about eight years and runs its own cafe on Liberty Drive along with locations in Highwood and Winnetka. But coffee is only the entry point. Frunchroom has dedicated rooms you can reserve for a sports viewing party, a board game night, or a private gathering. It hosts wellness classes, drop-in writing sessions, and pop-up vendors like local baker Bake 350. The owners have said publicly they want Libertyville High School students to treat the space as their own, at a time when Sukenik has noted teenagers often struggle to find anywhere that makes them feel welcome. Sukenik's stated goal for the space was simple: she wanted people to feel "cozy, warm and welcomed." Not served quickly. Welcomed.
That almost-skipped to-go cup wasn't a footnote. It was the whole design philosophy showing itself before the doors even opened.
At the corner of School Street and Milwaukee Avenue, in the middle of downtown, a different kind of staying-power bet opened this spring. Kozy Restaurant & Bar took over a storefront that has seen a lot of turnover. In 2018, hometown chefs Nick and Theo Dimitrious opened Chrissoulas there with reimagined Mediterranean food. That became West Side Ramen. Then in the summer of 2025, the brothers closed it to chase a new venture, their third food concept in seven years. By spring 2026, Jay Lim, an Arlington Heights restaurateur who also owns Naomi Sushi, had turned the same corner into Kozy, a modern Korean dining room and bar.
Kozy isn't chasing lunch-rush traffic. It's open Tuesday through Thursday from 4:30 to 9 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 5 to 10 p.m., closed Sunday and Monday, no daytime hours at all. Job postings for the restaurant describe it plainly as a date-night and social dining spot, built for people who plan to sit, order shareable plates, and stay through a cocktail or two. Lim has said he chose that specific corner because of Libertyville's downtown character and its track record of supporting independent restaurants, and he's not wrong that the corner has history. It's just history that runs in cycles. The concepts that treated that address as a quick-turn location didn't last. Whether Kozy's slower, reservation-driven model changes that pattern is still an open question, but it's a deliberate bet in a spot that has punished the opposite one before.
Put the two openings side by side and the pattern is hard to miss. A four-dollar coffee shop and a reservation-only dinner spot, both on Milwaukee Avenue, both decided this year that the way to win in Libertyville wasn't speed. It was giving people a reason to stay in the room.
If that sounds like a coincidence between two business owners, look at what the village itself has scheduled this month. None of it is built for a quick errand.
Meanwhile, the parts of the village calendar built for quick transactions are closing down. Adler Pool wrapped its 2026 season today. Independence Grove's canoe launch closes for the year on September 30. The balance of what's actually open in Libertyville right now is tilting hard toward the events where the whole point is to stay put.
None of this is Libertyville discovering something about itself. MainStreet Libertyville, the nonprofit behind most of these events, was founded in 1989 and now runs more than 55 days of community and retail events every year. The Thursday market has been doing the same thing, on the same day of the week, for 45 years running. Long before anyone opened a coffee shop with reservable rooms or a Korean restaurant with a strict evening-only schedule, this village had already built its identity around Cook Park, long dinners, and events designed to be lingered in rather than checked off.
What changed this year is that two new businesses finally built their hours, their layout, and their whole reason for existing around that same habit instead of around efficiency. Sukenik almost didn't offer to-go cups. Lim built a restaurant with no lunch service at all. Neither bet is a guess about what Libertyville wants. It's a bet on what Libertyville has always done, just showing up in two new storefronts on opposite ends of the same avenue.
If you're already in Libertyville this month, that's the read worth knowing before you plan your weekend: nothing on the calendar right now rewards rushing. Grab the balloon glow at Riverside Park on the 10th, walk the classic cars on the 16th, and save a Friday night for Kozy or a Saturday afternoon at Oktoberfest. The village built its whole September around staying a while. The newest businesses just finally noticed.
And if a friend, neighbor, or family member ever asks what their Libertyville home might be worth in today's market, Deb Baker Homes offers a complimentary home valuation, no obligation, just an honest read on where things stand.
Get assistance in determining current property value, crafting a competitive offer, writing and negotiating a contract, and much more. Contact me today.