Walk past 119 N. York St. today and you'll see Modern Plate's black awning, a chalkboard sign for Saturday brunch, and usually a line for the crab cakes by 9:30 on a Sunday. What you won't see is any trace of the building's last decade, even though it remains part of the address's story.
Before Modern Plate, this address spent twelve years as Fitz's Spare Keys, a 24,000-square-foot bowling alley and billiards hall that closed in 2021. Before it sat empty for long, a local developer tried something more ambitious: not one replacement business, but three, stacked into a single 15,000-square-foot renovation. The three concepts operated together for less than a year. The changes at this address offer a look at how downtown Elmhurst's food scene has evolved by 2026.
Three Concepts in One Building
In spring 2022, Elmhurst native Tom Trenta opened Elmhurst Hall and Ever Onward inside the old Fitz's shell, with a third concept, Kindred, an upscale restaurant built around open-flame cooking, slated to follow within weeks. Three brands, one building: a concert and event space, a seltzer-and-tallboy bar, and a chef-driven dining room, each with its own kitchen and its own staff.
Trenta framed the timing as opportunity rather than risk.
"But times of struggle are also of opportunity, and downtown Elmhurst was ripe for something like this right now." — Tom Trenta, as quoted by The Daily Herald
Running three separate food-and-beverage operations under one roof meant three sets of hours, three menus and three staffs to hire during what was, at the time, a well-documented restaurant labor shortage. By December 2022, Trenta had sold his interest in all three businesses. Elmhurst Hall closed on New Year's Eve. The building sat with new ownership through most of 2023 before Modern Plate quietly took over the space and opened in December 2024.
One Menu, All Day, Every Day
Modern Plate did not reinvent the address. It simplified it. Instead of three concepts competing for the same square footage, it runs one kitchen from a 9 a.m. Saturday brunch through a Friday midnight close, with a single menu that stretches from breakfast pizza to pot roast dip to bacon-wrapped dates, and live piano some nights instead of a separate bar identity to staff and market.
By 2026, that simplicity shows up in the review counts. Modern Plate carries a 4.6-star average across more than 150 reviews on its Chamber of Commerce listing, a 4.8 out of 5 across nearly 700 reviews on Restaurant Guru, and over 250 reviews on OpenTable citing generous portions and a kids' menu that keeps multi-generational groups coming back for weekend breakfast. None of the three previous tenants at this address ran long enough to build a review history close to that.
Here's the pattern in one table:
| Tenant | Opened / Run | Closed | What Changed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fitz's Spare Keys | (12-year run) | 2021 | Bowling and billiards hall, 24,000 sq. ft. |
| Elmhurst Hall / Ever Onward / Kindred | March-April 2022 | Dec. 31, 2022 | Three separate brands under one 15,000 sq. ft. roof, sold within the year |
| Modern Plate | Dec. 2024 | Open | One kitchen, one menu, breakfast through late night |
The different formats at 119 N. York St. show a contrast between a single restaurant concept and an earlier multi-brand operation in one building.
New Restaurants Open Across Downtown Elmhurst
The 2026 openings described here include distinct concepts in individual storefronts.
Bibim House opened June 9 at 113 Schiller St., a Korean-Japanese fusion spot with one clear identity. Maple & Yolk opened in May at 254 N. York St., built entirely around a Parisian-morning brunch format, made from scratch with non-GMO ingredients. Zodiac Cafe opened April 17 at 112 W. Park Ave., focused tightly on whole-ingredient coffee and juice, no artificial sweeteners, no expanded food menu competing for kitchen space. Naansense, an Indian street food concept from longtime friends Hiran and Viral Patel, opened this summer at 116 N. York St. Wok+ took over the old Aunt Tina's Kitchen space at 582 W. Lake St. with a build-your-own Asian bowl format. Dipsy Desserts, run by a husband-and-wife team that has made ice cream in Elmhurst since 2017 through a cart and catering business, finally opened its storefront on Spring Road this summer.
The businesses listed here are single-concept operations in individual spaces. The 2022 project at 119 N. York St. brought three brands together in one building. Together, these examples show different formats in downtown Elmhurst's restaurant scene.
What This Looks Like on a Saturday
If you already live within walking distance of York Street, the practical effect of all this is a denser, more walkable Saturday than downtown Elmhurst has had in a few years. Breakfast at Maple & Yolk or Modern Plate, coffee at Zodiac if you're skipping a sit-down meal, dinner options spread from Schiller Street's Bibim House to whatever opens next on Lake Street. The York-Schiller corridor, which spent 2022 through 2024 absorbing one high-profile closure after another at a single address, now has more small, focused kitchens operating within a few blocks of each other than it has in recent memory.
The city's Labor Day weekend Rock The Block festival, held Sept. 4 through 6 at Elmhurst City Centre, gave a preview of how much foot traffic that cluster can now support on a single weekend. The businesses that opened earlier this year were feeding a crowd that a decade ago would have had fewer reasons to linger downtown after a bowling league let out.
The Address and Its Changing Tenants
None of this means every new opening will outlast Modern Plate's run so far. Restaurants close for many reasons, from rent to staffing to simple bad luck. At 119 N. York St., the three-concept operation closed within a year, and Modern Plate later opened with one restaurant concept. That sequence does not establish why the earlier operation closed.
The newest openings add a range of dining options to downtown Elmhurst. If you're mapping out where to eat this fall, the newest spots on York and Schiller offer several places worth a walk.
If you're weighing a move into downtown Elmhurst, or you're already here and curious what a well-staged, well-priced listing in this market actually looks like, Clare Spartz offers a free home valuation and staging consult for anyone thinking through their next step.
