What happened to the French restaurant proposed for the train station?
If you've asked that question at pickup line, on the platform waiting for the 5:42, or over dinner at DeNucci's, you're not the only one. The train station update offers a useful look at how downtown Hinsdale changes.
Three storefronts on or near First Street have seen significant changes over roughly a year. One replaced a seventeen-year institution. One is moving into a building older than most of the trees around it. And one, the train station space, is still awaiting resolution of a proposed tenant agreement.
What DeNucci's Actually Replaced
Il Poggiolo held its corner at 8 E. First Street for seventeen years before closing in June 2025. That kind of run in a single downtown location is rare enough that its closing was its own piece of local news before anyone knew what would take its place.
What moved in was DeNucci's, part of Ballyhoo Hospitality, a Chicago group that runs fourteen restaurants and had never opened west of the city before choosing Hinsdale. The rollout was deliberate rather than rushed: takeout only through December 2025, then full-service dining starting in January 2026, with chef Salvatore "Sal" Lo Cascio running the kitchen. The menu leans classic Italian American, eggplant parmesan, veal marsala, branzino piccata, cacio e pepe, alongside a pizza program that runs from New York style pies to Tavern Style Mondays. A Crain's Chicago Business report on the opening noted it marked the group's first move into the western suburbs after building out its presence to the north.
The Burger Joint Moving Into a Century-Old Building
A few doors down, the space that housed Dips & Dogs before it closed five years ago, and a gas station before that, is becoming Humble Patty. The building itself is part of the story: constructed in 1929 and designed by local architect R. Harold Zook, it's listed as historically significant in Hinsdale's 2003 downtown survey and contributing to the 2006 downtown historic district record, which is why the Village Board's review included conversation about safety barriers along First Street and whether a bike rack made sense for the site.
Humble Patty comes from Sam and Patricia Vlahos, the siblings who've run Fuller House next door since 2015. It's set up to operate as a completely separate business, its own staff and systems, with a walk-up counter serving smash burgers, dipped soft serve, and dirty sodas. Vlahos told the Village Board in June that he was hoping for a Labor Day opening, framing it as the kind of quick, family-friendly stop the sit-down Fuller House experience doesn't cover. If that timeline holds, the corner that's sat underused for half a decade will be full again by the time the weather turns.
The Train Station Space's Changing Plans
The train station proposal has had several updates.
Casa Margarita's lease at the Hinsdale train station expired in the summer of 2025, closing a space the previous village president had already raised concerns about at a board meeting. The village opened the space up for proposals and received nine, eight for restaurants and one retail concept, with a submission deadline of June 26.
The proposal that got the public's attention was Le Jolie, a French concept from Rich Baca, a longtime partner at La Grange's Nicksons Eatery before it closed. According to a Patch report, Baca pitched the Village Board on "a touch of coastal French with American ingenuity," an oyster and raw bar, artisan coffee and croissants for the morning commuter crowd, and a supper club format at night. It's a memorable pitch, the kind that spreads through a town faster than a board memo does, and Baca had been publicly attached to the project since spring 2025.
By January 2026, a village selection committee had made its choice, but Village President Greg Hart told Patch he couldn't disclose the winner yet due to confidentiality, only that the community would be pleased and that more would be shared by mid-February.
A Patch report from April 2026 describes a struck agreement, pending board approval, with Hometown Coffee and Juice, a fast-casual cafe chain with locations in Glencoe, Winnetka, Lake Forest, and Glenview that reportedly serves more than a million customers a year. That's not Le Jolie. It's a different concept entirely, one built around coffee, juice, and light food rather than a raw bar and supper club. The village also has to consult with BNSF Railway before any new tenant can move into the space it owns.
The proposed Hometown Coffee and Juice agreement is not confirmed as final as of this writing.
Three Downtown Storefronts in Transition
Put the three side by side and the pace becomes the story. In roughly twelve months, downtown Hinsdale saw a seventeen-year Italian anchor replaced, a long-underused corner move toward a new tenant, and a public RFP process for its train station space that remains unresolved. That's a lot of movement for a downtown this size to absorb at once. DeNucci's has opened, the Vlahos siblings are preparing a separate Humble Patty business next door, and the train station agreement remains pending. The three changes are at different stages: one restaurant is open, another is moving toward opening, and the station proposal still awaits resolution.
The Sixth Street Work Will Change How You Get There
None of this is happening in a vacuum, and the walk to dinner is about to get more complicated before it gets easier. Sixth Street, the four-block, all-brick stretch running from Garfield Avenue to County Line Road, dates to the 1890s and has been the subject of a reconstruction debate for years. In March 2026, the village secured $1.1 million in federal funding toward what's now projected as a $6.5 million project. The work will replace utility infrastructure that's more than eighty years old in places and separate a combined sewer system that's been contributing to local flooding.
If you're walking to DeNucci's, cutting through toward the train station, or just crossing downtown on a Saturday, expect this construction to be part of your route this fall rather than something you read about and forget. The village has also kept its Hinsdale Restaurant Week running annually, organized jointly with the Economic Development Commission, which is a small but telling sign that this turnover is being treated as something to coordinate and promote rather than just absorb.
Not everything downtown is in motion. Toni Patisserie & Cafe is still exactly where it's always been, which is its own kind of reassurance if you've been keeping a mental list of what's changed. For the latest status of the train station space, check the board agenda before your next dinner out, wherever that ends up being.
Hinsdale changes in small, well-documented steps, if you know where to look for the documentation. That's true of a restaurant lease, and it's just as true when the question shifts from where to eat tonight to what a home on one of these blocks is actually worth. The Mike McCurry Group has been paying attention to this town, storefront by storefront, for a long time. Start your meaningful move whenever you're ready.