Downtown Palatine's First Holiday Season on the New Slade Street, and Without Durty Nellie's

On Slade Street, between Plum Grove Road and Towne Square Park, the new overhead lights are up. The planter boxes that workers were still filling in early October are finished, and the bumpouts give a few downtown restaurants room to put tables outside. A block or so west, at 180 N. Smith St. next to the Metra tracks, the building that housed Durty Nellie's since 2003 isn't hosting a show this winter.

Both changes landed within the same few weeks, and they shift where downtown Palatine's evenings happen. For years, a big December night out downtown could mean a band at Nellie's. This year the draw is the street itself: the tree lighting at Towne Square, the restaurants along the rebuilt blocks, and a calendar of mostly daytime, family-scale events. The business coming to the old Nellie's site is designed for the same kind of night.

The stage at Smith Street went quiet in October

94.7 WLS reported on Oct. 6 that Durty Nellie's had closed after 54 years in the northwest suburbs. The pub first opened in Palatine in 1972, moved to Smith Street in 2003, came back from a 2019 fire, and reopened after the pandemic. Its stage hosted Violent Femmes, Gin Blossoms and the Jonas Brothers, along with Local H and a long run of cover bands. The building also hosted fundraisers, weddings and reunions for the community.

WLS quoted the venue's farewell from its Facebook page:

"We are grateful for all the love and support we have had from our patrons over the years."

The station called it "a legitimate concert venue steps from a Metra station," which few suburbs can offer. That's the part of downtown that won't be back.

What $4 million in TIF money changed on Slade Street

The village finished the first streetscape phase this fall and celebrated it on Oct. 10. Village Manager Reid Ottesen told the Daily Herald that the work used about $4 million in tax increment financing funds. Besides new landscaping and lighting, it covered storm sewer improvements and replaced the lead service lines connected to buildings. "We've totally redone Slade Street from Plum Grove (Road) all the way over to Towne Square Park," Ottesen told the paper.

Mayor Jim Schwantz told the Daily Herald the goal was to "create some excitement, create some aesthetics down there." He pointed to the overhead lighting, the bumpouts and the outdoor seating some establishments now have. Ottesen also said an agreement with the owner of the BMO building has expanded downtown parking.

The Daily Herald's coverage of the reopening named JL's Pizza & Sports Bar, Schnell's Brauhaus, TJ O'Brien's Bar & Grill, Madcats and Pizza Bella among the places taking part in the party. The same names fit a holiday-season dinner downtown, and the lit-up blocks connect them to Towne Square.

One more change applies on these blocks. In mid-October, the village council banned smoking in public parking lots and on sidewalks and right-of-way within 300 feet of the designated smoking pavilion by Slade Street, according to the Daily Herald. Enforcement started the day after the vote.

November 21 is the first big holiday test

The season's busiest day puts two big events a few hours apart, so a Saturday downtown can look like this:

1. 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Merry Makers Market. The Palatine Park District is holding its first indoor Merry Makers Market at the Community Center, and shopping is free.
2. Mid-afternoon, Slade Street. This is the gap between the two events and a good time for an early dinner or a drink on the rebuilt blocks before the crowd gathers.
3. 4 to 7 p.m., Village Annual Tree Lighting at Towne Square. The event is free. The countdown to the lighting starts at 5 p.m., and Santa and the Palatine Children's Chorus will be there. The village calendar says Mayor Schwantz will join Santa.

Towne Square Park is the east end of the Slade Street rebuild, so the tree lighting brings the season's first big holiday crowd to the finished street after dark.

The rest of the season in one place

After the tree lighting, the calendar runs at a smaller scale. The Downtown Palatine Business Association, the Park District and the village each run their own events.

The business association also lists Holidays on the Town among its downtown traditions. Its website is the place to check for this year's details and for participating shops on Shop Small Saturday.

Nothing on this list is a late-night event, and with Nellie's closed, nothing downtown takes its place. The tree lighting ends at 7. After that, downtown evenings this season come down to the restaurants and bars along Slade Street.

What replaces the music next year

On Sept. 8, the village council approved Big Grove Brewery's plan to turn the Durty Nellie's building into a restaurant, taproom and small brewery, Journal & Topics reported. Big Grove runs six other locations in Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas. WLS reported that Big Grove plans to remove the concert stage and won't run the space as a live music venue.

The approved plan, as Journal & Topics described it, compared with what Durty Nellie's was approved for:

• Seats: 492 indoors and outdoors, compared with 517 approved for Durty Nellie's.
• Hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weeknights and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on weekends, shorter than Durty Nellie's approval allowed.
• Outdoors: a new 9,000-square-foot ground-floor patio with seasonal seating, natural gas fire pits and a recreational area for patrons and families, with trellises overhead rather than a full enclosure.
• Inside: a full-service restaurant and bar, a 1,400-square-foot kitchen and brewery, a merchandise shop, and second-floor overflow seating and private event space.
• Parking: 30 or 31 spaces in the reconfigured lot, down from 41, plus 70 free three-hour ground-floor spaces in the village-owned deck next door.

The company expects to hire about 150 people. Pan American Bank, which shares the building, will keep operating along with its drive-through. In September, Big Grove's CEO said he hoped to start demolition as soon as possible and open by next summer. If that holds, summer 2027 brings a family-oriented patio with fire pits next to the Metra, closing at 10 on weeknights. That matches the daytime, all-ages kind of downtown the streetscape was built for.

Two more pieces of the downtown plan

A second empty storefront has a proposal. Kashgar Uyghur Dining wants to open a family-friendly halal restaurant at 139 N. Northwest Highway, the former Rep's site, which had been vacant since Rep's closed in 2025. The Daily Herald reported that the planning commission recommended the plan unanimously, that a village council hearing was set for Nov. 9, and that the owners hoped to open within a few months.

The street work also isn't done. The village has authorized up to $141,765 for design engineering on the next phase. The 2027 work is planned at Palatine and Plum Grove roads and on parts of Bothwell, Brockway, Greeley and Wood streets, according to the Daily Herald. The paper's October 7 report puts a third phase in 2028. So the lighting and seating on Slade Street this December are the first block of a longer downtown rebuild.

Our team follows these downtown changes closely, from the Big Grove timeline to the 2027 streetscape blocks on Bothwell, Brockway, Greeley and Wood. If you live near those streets and want to know how the work might affect your plans, Kate Fanselow and our team are happy to share what we're seeing. Let's talk about your next move.