Home for the holidays? Check out these new Rockford restaurants, businesses
The holiday season often means travelling to see family. College students return home, and those who’ve been away from Rockford make the trek back to spend time with loved ones.
If you are returning to the Rockford area this year, you may want to check out some new places around town. Here are a few dozen to choose from.
Ambiance Cuisine Catering & Cocktails
Ambiance is a southern soul food restaurant born out of the T & C’s Cooking Creations food truck. The restaurant, located at 307 S. Main St. and owned by restauranteur Tisha Hannah, opened in April.
Victory Pickleball
Tim Ancona opened Victory Pickleball, 7003 N. Alpine Road, in Loves Park in September. The 54,000-square-foot facility is a dedicated pickleball spot with 15 courts, but it offers space for other games, too, ping pong, bags, foosball and darts. It has a restaurant and a tap wall for beer, and is one of the largest in the country.
More: Rockford area now home to one of the biggest pickleball facilities in US
Big Jon's
Jonathan and Cooper Tobin, owners and operators of Big Jon's Dogs N' More seasonal food truck, expanded into their first brick-and-mortar shop called Big Jon's More Than Dogs at 105 Buchanan St. in Belvidere. The restaurant opened in March and is currently offering pre-made food to go along with catering services.
Cafe Amore
Cafe Amore, located in The Bricks of Cherry Valley at 125 E. State St., is Cherry Valley's newest coffee shop and hang out spot offering a variety of coffees and teas. The cafe opened in May.
Carpenter's Corner
Carpenter's Corner, a thrift store operated by Carpenter's Place, opened in March at 1715 Rural St. in Rockford. The Hilander grocery chain built the 29,000-square-foot store in 1970. It was purchased by Schnuck Markets in 2011. Schnuck Markets closed the store in 2014, and the building stood vacant for nine years.
The Canna Cafe
The Canna Cafe, located inside The Hemp Center at 6830 Spring Creek Road, is a stylish, upscale soup and sandwich shop offering a variety of cannabis infused drinks. The cafe fittingly opened on April 20.
Capybara Cafe
The Capybara Cafe features Colombian coffee and cuisine, including cheesy fingers and empanadas. It’s the only Colombian-style cafe or restaurant in the Freeport area. The business opened in August.
Chavez Mexican Restaurante
Jose Chavez operated Fuego Nuevo Grill for five years at 6876 Spring Creek Road before relocating the restaurant to 5494 E. State St. in Rockford where he poured $1 million into renovations and renamed it Chavez Mexican Restaurant.
Dirty Dough
The rapidly growing cookie franchise offers a variety of cookies including stuffed chocolate chip cookies to new weekly flavors like an orange creamsicle, cinnamon toast crunch, cookies 'n' cream (loaded with Oreo chunks) and even a new protein cookie as well as many others. The business opened its Rockford location in August.
El Vallarta Sports Bar & Grill
The upscale bar is a spacious eatery offering Mexican-style sushi, seafood, steaks and cocktails opened in July in a remodeled space formerly occupied by Granite City Food & Brewery at 7144 Harrison Ave. in the District at CherryVale Mall.
Golden Bowl Asian
Located in the space formerly occupied by Imperial Palace at 3415 E. State St. in Rockford, the Golden Bowl Asian offers a variety of Southeast Asian foods, including crab Rangoon, egg rolls, pho noodle soup, fried rice, stir fried noodles, orange chicken, Mongolian beef, bao and more. The restaurant opened in May.
Cheezy's Grilled Cheeses
Cheezy's is a unique twist on classic grilled cheeses & melts. The food truck rolled into the Rockford area in June featuring signature sandwiches with epic cheese pulls. Earlier this month, it announced it would be taking up winter residence at Bj's Place, 2842 11th St., Rockford.
Our Journeys Cafe and Boba Shop
The cafe inside of Freeport's Lincoln Mall opened in May and offers snacks, smoothies, and, of course, boba tea. It’s the first and only boba store in Freeport.
Board Room/Mini Freaks Studio
The Board Room and Mini Freaks Studios opened in September at 16 S. Chicago Ave. in downtown Freeport. The two-in-one store is for gaming enthusiasts — a place to buy games and play games as well as merchandise, trading cards and more.
Tom & Jerry's Loves Park
Tom & Jerry's, a longtime Rockford favorite for gyros, burgers, ribs, hotdogs, Italian beef and more, opened a restaurant at 7170 E. Riverside Blvd. in Loves Park. The restaurant, which opened in March, is their fourth location in the Rockford area.
Tortilla Express
Owned by Chavez Mexican Restaurant owner Jose Chavez, Tortilla Express is located at State and Main streets in downtown Rockford and offers an express menu of tacos, burritos, tortas, chimichangas and nachos. The restaurant opened in July.
Wood & Brick Tavern
The building at 315 S. Main St. has been occupied by a bar or eatery for at least 97 years, if not longer. Building owner Jeff Lindquist opened the Wood & Brick Tavern in March and is proud to continue the tradition.
Marquense’s Mexican Bar & Grill
Longtime Mexican restaurant Alvarez, 1600 S. Bell School Road in Cherry Valley, may have closed earlier this year, but there is still plenty of food being served at the popular spot. The building is now home to Marquense's Mexican Bar & Grill.
Taco Libre
First it was Vintage @ 501, Matt Idzikowski’s eatery at 501 E. State St. in downtown Rockford that he operated for 12 years. Idzikowski rebranded the restaurant this year, reopening in August as Taco Libre, a place for street tacos and tequila.
Jalisco and Tequila
A downtown Rockford tradition for Mexican cuisine for nearly 20 years, Los Portales closed on July 2. However, a new dining tradition was born in August, when another restaurant, Jalisco and Tequila, took over the Los Portales space at 805 E. State St.
SALT
Locally owned SALT opened in October at 6860 Spring Creek Road, Rockford, in the space formerly occupied by Josef’s Steakhouse & Oyster Bar. The fine-dining establishment is run by an ownership team that includes David and Kelly Stern, third-generation restauranteur ZiZi Altamore, Michael Turley and Greg Callahan.
Crumbl Cookies
Rockford's first Crumbl Cookies store opened in November at 6150 E. State St. Suite 120 between Skechers and Pearl Vision in the Mulford Village shopping plaza. The store offers more than 300 flavors on a rotating basis.
Tropical Smoothie Cafe
Tropical Smoothie Cafe opened June 30 in Machesney Park, at 10083 N. Second St. Tropical Smoothie Cafe bills itself as a healthier option to fast food serving smoothies, wraps, flatbreads, quesadillas and salads. There's another location in Rockford.
Elora Home Interiors
Amie McDonald opened Elora Home Interiors in February at 214 E. State St. The store in the heart of downtown Rockford sells everything for the home from pillows and throws to candles, hand soaps, lotions and accessories.
Farel's Grill
Farel's Grill opened Oct. 11 near the corner of Union Avenue and Illinois Route 20 in Belvidere. The restaurant is a go-to spot for prime rib, mac and cheese and burgers. The menu offers a wide selection of entrees, desserts and meals for kids.
Juju Rey's Art Clubhouse
Judith Goudy and Reynaldo Bernard opened Juju Rey's Art Clubhouse this past summer in downtown Rockford. The shop at 324 E. State St. is meant to be half art center and half gaming center. The 3,000-square-foot space was formerly occupied by Bath Body and Fusion.
Minni's Ice Cream Parlor
Downtown Rockford now has an ice cream shop. The owners of Minnihan's Pub, Tom and Michael Minnihan, opened the ice cream parlor in October. The parlor offers 28 flavors of hand-scooped ice cream, chocolate and vanilla soft serve, pizza by the slice, soup and hotdogs.
RBK Bakery
If you're back in town and looking for some sweet treats, you may want to check out RBK Bakery in Belvidere. The family-owned bakery found next to Chuck E. Cheese in Rockford opened a second location in Belvidere and then a third location inside Cherry Valley Mall.
Flowers on River Park
After the Crimson Ridge closed shop, floral designer Chad Aumann decided to open up a new shop in Loves Park. Located at 430 River Park Road, Flowers on River Park opened at the former home of Nelson's Flowers and Greenhouse, a longtime flower shop. Flowers on River Park covers everything from events to special occasion flowers to everyday flowers.
Three Ravens Pottery
After operating above the Norwegian on North Main Street, Tom Harrison opened a pottery store in Rockford's Midtown District over the summer. The store sells handmade mugs, plates, bowls, pitchers, vases and more as well as offering classes to throw clay.
Urban Air
The former Gordman's on East State Street in Rockford is now occupied by Urban Air Adventure Park, an indoor adventure park with more than 30,000 square feet of space offering trampolines, dodgeball courts and obstacle courts.
Bop Bop
A popular food truck in Rockford now has a space at the indoor Rockford City Market, 116 N. Madison St., Rockford. Bop Bop Korean BBQ offers rice bowls, boba teas, Korean corn dogs and more.
How Meta
A metaphysical store selling items to the practice of magick as well as secular books, candles and art from other small businesses opened in Freeport after a monthslong battle with the city.
Pet Supplies Plus
Pet lovers in Freeport have a new place to shop for their furry friends. Pet Supplies Plus opened at 1866 S. West Ave., part of the redevelopment of the Meadows Shopping Center. The business offers toys, pet food, kennels and more.
Jim Hagerty covers business, growth and development and other general news topics for the Rockford Register Star. Email him at jhagerty@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: List of new restaurants, businesses in the Rockford area in 2023
