If you have lived here more than a few years, you have watched downtown Long Grove cycle. A shop opens on Robert Parker Coffin, a shop closes on Old McHenry, and the covered bridge stays the constant while the storefronts around it rotate. The rhythm was familiar enough that most residents stopped tracking it.
Something quieter is happening in 2026, and it is worth understanding before Country Girls Night Out on August 20 and Irish Days over Labor Day weekend. The dual grand opening on May 3 was not really a story about two shops. It was the first visible return on infrastructure spending the village committed to a few years back, and the August calendar is where that bet gets tested by foot traffic instead of press releases.
The May 3 Opening Was Not A Coincidence
On the same Sunday, two storefronts cut ribbons a few hundred feet apart. Artistic Creations of Long Grove at 405 Robert Parker Coffin Road, a shop showcasing handmade and artisan goods, and The Olive Tap at 302 Old McHenry Road, an olive oil and balsamic vinegar tasting emporium, held a dual grand opening Sunday. The Daily Herald covered it the same week the village started publishing summer event details, which is not accidental timing on anyone's part.
The backstories matter because they tell you what kind of tenant downtown is now attracting. Ellen Glassman spent nearly 40 years as a senior consultant and project manager at Allstate before opening Artistic Creations. She said the space landed on her radar when she came to the area to do Pilates in the morning. "I would look at the store and it called my name," she said. She also was searching for purpose following the death of her husband, Marty.
The Olive Tap is a different kind of story, closer to a homecoming. The store first opened in Long Grove in 2006 in a nearby location, moved to a larger space across the street, then closed around 2021 when the original owners relocated to Colorado. Petrocelli, who lives in Long Grove, has deep roots with the business. She worked at the original store and the stores in Colorado. "I grew up basically in The Olive Tap because the original family is my best friend's parents," she said.
Read those two openings together and a pattern emerges. One owner is a resident reopening a shop she grew up inside. The other is a resident who was already circling the block on her morning routine. Neither is a chain scouting a demographic report. That kind of tenant does not appear until the physical downtown feels finished enough to be worth committing to.
What Actually Got Built
Bill Jacob has been in the village president's chair long enough to remember when Old McHenry did not have curbs. His read on why 2026 is different from 2019 is specific rather than sentimental.
"I think it's the investments we made years ago," Village President Bill Jacob said. "Upgrading the streets, the streetscape, the sidewalks, the streetlights, renovating the (Robert Parker Coffin) bridge. It is those types of investments that have helped attract investors to the downtown. There were no public sidewalks, there were no streetlights until a few years ago."
That is a useful frame for anyone who lives here. The covered bridge, the streetlights, and the sidewalks are the reason a boutique retailer is willing to sign a lease at Robert Parker Coffin and Old McHenry in 2026 when the same corner would have been a harder sell in 2018. The Long Grove Economic Development page puts a number on the scale of the downtown that infrastructure is now supporting: downtown Long Grove contains some 120 businesses. With few exceptions, all are open seven days a week, all year long. The historic-district framework itself is older than most residents realize. The first historic district in Illinois was created in 1960 by Village ordinance.
That combination, 120 businesses inside a district that has been legally protected since 1960 and physically rebuilt in the last few years, is what the May 3 opening was quietly acknowledging.
The August Pressure Test
Storefront optimism is one thing. Weekend foot traffic is the actual scoreboard. The Historic Downtown Long Grove Business Association has scheduled a compressed run of late-summer events that will show whether the new tenants convert curiosity into repeat visits.
Three dates to keep on the calendar:
- August 20, Country Girls Night Out. August 20, 2026 Participating businesses in the downtown Long Grove business district. Information about the 2026 Country Girls Night Out will be updated below as event details become available. Structured as a Thursday-evening crawl across participating shops, which is exactly the format a new retailer like Artistic Creations needs to introduce itself to residents who have not walked the district since spring.
- August 30 through September 1, Irish Days. The Historic Downtown Long Grove Business Association presents Irish Days, a celebration of Irish culture, music, food, and drink. The event is scheduled for Saturday, August 30 – Monday, September 1, 2025. The 2026 version runs the same Labor Day weekend slot, and there is a spending mechanic worth knowing about. Spend $150 at any historic downtown Long Grove shops and/or restaurants (pre-tax) Saturday, August 30 through Monday, September 1 and get a FREE Irish Days pint glass. Bring your receipts to the Visitors Center or at the HDLGBA Booth onsite at Irish Days for redemption. The Visitors Center is at 145 Old McHenry Rd.
- Late September, Apple Fest. The traditional close of the outdoor season and, per the HDLGBA calendar, the point at which the downtown pivots from summer to Vintage Holiday programming.
If you attended Strawberry Fest in June, you already saw the early evidence. It draws the crowds, but the softer test is the Thursday and Saturday nights in between the marquee weekends. That is where new tenants either build a habit with residents or fade back into the rotation.
A Resident's Map Of What Changed
For anyone who has not walked the district since May, a short orientation. Artistic Creations sits on the Robert Parker Coffin side, near the bridge. The Olive Tap is a short walk east on Old McHenry, in a space with genuine history for the business. Between them, the familiar anchors are still where you left them. Buffalo Creek Brewing still runs its patio, and Enzo & Lucia's still keeps a spot on the walkable loop that residents have used for a decade.
What is genuinely new is the density of reasons to loop back. Two openings in a single day is not common in a district this size, and both owners have the kind of personal stake, one a returning operator, one a resident who watched the space daily, that tends to produce shops that stay open past the first winter.
There is also a soft signal in what the owners are saying about the room around them. "Everybody's so excited that we're back. I've had so much support from the community." Kelly Petrocelli has reopened The Olive Tap in downtown Long Grove, part of the historic area's resurgence. A longtime observer put it more bluntly: "We have seen Long Grove go up and down," she said. "Now it's on the upswing again."
That "up and down" is the honest version of what residents have watched. The interesting question this August is whether the infrastructure now underneath the district is enough to break the cycle.
Why This Matters If You Live Here
Two storefronts do not make a downtown. Two storefronts on the same Sunday, opened by operators with personal stakes, backed by a president willing to name the specific capital projects behind the turnaround, and followed by a compressed August calendar designed to introduce them to residents, is a different signal.
The practical takeaway for someone who already lives in Long Grove is small and useful. Walk the district once before August 20. Notice which spaces are still dark and which have new paper in the window. Then go back for Country Girls Night Out and again for Irish Days weekend, and see whether the new tenants are the ones drawing the lines or whether the crowd is still concentrated at the anchors it has always concentrated at. That is the honest way to measure whether the bridge, the sidewalks, and the streetlights are doing what Bill Jacob said they would.
If you are thinking about how a shifting downtown affects the home you already own here, or you have friends asking what has changed since they last visited, Tami Hamilton and the Edgewater Home Team live and work in this market and are happy to talk through what the last twelve months of downtown activity mean for the streets around it. Start Your Move — Schedule a Consultation.
