Two years ago, a Wednesday night at The Arboretum of South Barrington had a familiar rotation: dinner at Cooper's Hawk or Ruth's Chris, maybe a movie at Star Cinema Grill, then home. Wednesday, August 12, closed out the 2026 Wickstrom Auto Group Summer Concert Series, and if you've been to even one of these Wednesday nights this summer, you already know that rotation has gotten a lot longer.
That's not atmosphere talk. It's a specific, countable claim: in the fifteen months between Giostra's October 2024 opening and 810 Entertainment's January 2026 debut, four new dining and entertainment concepts opened inside the same shopping center, and the people behind them are not suburban chain operators testing a market. They include Chicago hospitality veterans who built some of the restaurants South Barrington residents used to drive into the city for. The last concert of the summer was a chance to see what that actually adds up to.
Four New Doors, One Property
Start with what opened and when, because the pace is the story.
| Concept | What it is | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Giostra by Fabio Viviani | Old-school Italian from the Top Chef alum, family recipes for pasta, ossobuco, and seafood soup | Opened October 14, 2024 |
| The Greggory Hearth & Tavern | Wood-fired American, live-fire open kitchen, from Gibsons and Rosewood alumni | Opened in the fall 2024 wave |
| Tangled Roots Craft Beer & Kitchen | Craft brewery and kitchen, fifth location after Ottawa, Glenview, Lockport, and Vernon Hills | Opened in the fall 2024 wave |
| 810 Entertainment | Bowling, bocce, billiards, and dining in the former Pinstripes space | Soft-opened January 2026, ribbon cutting March 5, 2026 |
Giostra, The Greggory Hearth & Tavern, Higgy's Bar and Grill, and Tangled Roots Brewing Company were all expected to open within months of each other when the Daily Herald first reported the wave back in August 2024. Three of those four, plus 810 Entertainment more than a year later, now show up by name in the property's current promotional materials. The Daily Herald previewed Giostra's October 14 opening, promising an authentic Italian dining experience built from recipes passed down from Viviani's mother and grandmother, giving Giostra an identity grounded in family recipes rather than just a celebrity name.
The Daily Herald covered 810 Entertainment's ribbon cutting. The venue took longer to land but arrived with more square footage of consequence. The venue features 20 bowling lanes, three bocce courts, two billiards tables, multiple cornhole boards, and additional entertainment options designed for families, groups, and corporate gatherings, and during warmer months, patrons can gather at a large outdoor patio featuring fire pits and lawn games. There's also a new immersive augmented reality attraction from Verse Immersive, currently featuring "Everworld," which is not something the old Pinstripes space ever offered. The Daily Herald reported that the location's owner said at the January opening that the goal was "returning jobs to The Arboretum and helping support this community in every way possible."
The Pedigree Behind the Kitchens Is the Part Worth Noticing
It would be easy to file all this under "mall gets new restaurants" and move on. The detail that changes the read is who's actually running these kitchens.
The Greggory Hearth & Tavern is the result of a partnership between Gregg Horan, former managing partner of Gibson's Restaurant Group, and Bill Veremis, former managing partner of Rosewood Restaurant. Those are names associated with the kind of steakhouse experience that used to require a drive downtown or at least to a North Shore address. Now it's a ten-minute trip from most South Barrington streets.
Giostra's opening drew a crush of reservation requests. If you want a table without the wait, try a weeknight instead of a Saturday.
What Wednesday Actually Looked Like
The concert series has been the connective tissue for all of this. The Disco Circus kicked off the Arb's 2026 Wickstrom Summer Concert Series in June, bringing live music, dining, shopping, and summer fun to The Arb every Wednesday from June 17 through August 12. That meant the August 12 show was the closer. Concerts ran Wednesday evenings from 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM, and guests were encouraged to arrive early to enjoy dinner, drinks, and shopping before the concerts began, since a variety of restaurants, patios, and retailers throughout the center offered a full summer evening experience beyond the music.
The series paired specific restaurants with the concert nights under a promotion called Sip & Shop. Participating restaurants have included Tangled Roots Craft Beer & Kitchen, The Hampton Social, Sim Racing, Georgios Chicago Pizzeria & Pub, The Greggory, and Star Cinema Grill, a lineup that mixes the newer arrivals in with restaurants that have anchored the property for years.
The series isn't purely a marketing exercise for the property, either. This year's lineup lists Wickstrom Auto Group, Ricky Rockets Fuel Centers, Gold Rush Gaming, and the Village of South Barrington itself among the sponsors: a mix of local businesses and the Village.
Before Wednesday's show, a few things were worth knowing:
- The concert area was outdoor and unassigned, so a lawn chair or blanket was a good idea.
- The restaurants that backed onto the concert lawn filled up fast once the music started; eating first was a good idea for anyone who wanted a table.
- Wednesday, August 12, was the last Wednesday of the season. No date had been confirmed for the series' return next summer.
The Loop You Couldn't Build Here Before
Here's the actual shift, stated plainly: two years ago, a serious dinner and a movie covered most of what The Arboretum offered after dark. During the concert series, you could eat at a restaurant built by Gibsons and Rosewood alumni, walk across the lot for outdoor live music, with local businesses and the Village among the listed sponsors, and finish the night bowling a few frames or trying an augmented reality game at 810 Entertainment, all without moving your car. That's not a shopping center with a few new tenants. That's a property that added a genuinely new evening use case in about fifteen months, and it offers new options to residents who haven't been back since the Giostra opening.
Wednesday was the last chance this year to see the whole loop running at once, live music included. After that, the restaurants and 810 Entertainment remained, but the free outdoor concert that had been pulling people out of their houses on a weeknight was gone until whenever next summer's lineup gets announced.
None of this is a reason to think about buying or selling in South Barrington. It's just what living here looked like around the season's close, and it's worth knowing as you consider what comes next.
If you're already a South Barrington neighbor and you're curious what a night at The Arboretum has to do with your home's value, or you're simply weighing what your street will look like in five years given how fast the commercial side of the village is changing, the Tara Kelleher Team has been watching this market long enough to have real answers, not guesses. When you're ready for more than a good Wednesday night, get your home valuation and staging plan and let's talk about what comes next.
