Noodles & Co. to open new restaurant in Yorkville

YORKVILLE – A Noodles & Co. fast casual restaurant is just the latest new business coming to Yorkville.

Commercial development in Yorkville is booming, with new retail stores, restaurants and specialty shops on the way, while other businesses expand.

Noodles & Co. will occupy a 1,877-square-foot space at 1789 Marketview Drive, in a multi-tenant building in front of the Menards home improvement store along North Bridge Street (Route 47).

Yorkville Economic Development Consultant Lynn Dubajic said remodeling work for the Noodles & Co. is expected to start soon, with an anticipated opening late this summer.

The restaurant chain, with more than 450 locations across the country, features international and American noodle dishes along with soups and salads. Noodle bowls are prepared to order, allowing diners to customize their meals, Dubajic said.

The Yorkville restaurant will offer dine-in, take-out and a pick-up window for customers who order through an app, Dubajic said.

In the same building, Pets Supply Plus, 1755 Marketview Drive, is expanding and remodeling its existing space.

The store will be updating its self-serve dog washes, replacing the existing five wash bays with six brand new self-serve dog washes and also adding a full-service grooming shop to the store, Dubajic said.

The expansion also will make room for additional pet food product lines and is expected to be complete by late summer of 2022.

Perhaps the most eye-catching business development right now is nearby at the northeast corner of Route 47 and East Countryside Parkway, immediately south of the Culver’s restaurant, where construction is underway at the high-visibility location.

Belle Tire, a chain of tire, wheel and automotive service retailers with 130 locations across the upper Midwest is expected to open on the site later this fall.

“I wish I had a nickel for every time someone asked me what’s going in next to the Culver’s,” Dubajic said.

The Yorkville tire store will be only the latest in the company’s aggressive entry into the Chicagoland market, with locations in Aurora, St. Charles, Naperville, Villa Park Joliet, Shorewood and Mokena.

Farther north, the former Millhurst Ale House building is to be renovated and reopened as Craft’d by a group of Plainfield restauranteurs.

Major Threat Restaurant Group, which operates three eateries in Plainfield, has purchased the shuttered property at 2075 Marketview Drive.

The restaurant building occupies a high-visibility location at the southeast corner of Route 47 and Kennedy Road and is notable for its architectural style evoking an English castle.

The owners of Millhurst Ale House announced a temporary closure of the business shortly after the restaurant’s last day of operation on July 11, 2021, citing the financial pressures of the pandemic. But the business never reopened.

Major Threat operates three popular restaurants in Plainfield, including Craft’d, Chop’d and Khaos Brewcade & Kitchen.

Dubajic said Major Threat plans to remodel the interior space of the restaurant building to brighten the look. Craft’d is expected to open in the fall.

Meanwhile, the former Fifth Third Bank building at 444 E. Veterans Parkway, (Route 34) is expected to be demolished soon to make way for a Chipotle Mexican Grill.

The popular fast casual chain featuring tacos and burritos will occupy a 2,600-square-foot restaurant building with indoor dining and an outdoor patio.

The brick building will be fitted with a pickup window, designed for filling orders from patrons who have ordered online.

Downtown, new business expected to open this summer include Iconic Coffee Shop at 109 S. Bridge St., Fox’s Den Meadery at 101 S. Bridge St. and Dakota’s restaurant in the former Butcher Block 360 space at 227 Heustis Street.

Gerber Collison & Glass is planning a store on North Bridge Street near Landmark Avenue on the west side of Route 47.

Graham’s BP Marketplace, which operates a gasoline station, car wash and convenience store at the northeast corner of routes 34 and 47, is working on plans for an even larger business at the northeast corner of Routes 71 and 47, Dubajic said.