Two of the reservations you would have made a year ago no longer exist. The English Room at Deer Path Inn, a fixture for close to a century, closed. A new Italian room appeared inside a Western Avenue storefront that most residents drove past without a second look. And the City of Lake Forest, watching all of this, added a new food festival to the Thursday concert calendar to route the crowd through both.
That is the short version of what happened downtown between March and July. The longer version is worth knowing, because the shape of a summer evening in Lake Forest has quietly been redrawn around three specific addresses.
The Brasserie, Where The English Room Used To Be
The Deer Path Inn's most storied dining room reopened this spring under a different name and a different premise. The Brasserie, now open at The Deer Path Inn in Lake Forest, took over the space known for nearly a century as The English Room, with the hotel describing the transformation as a thoughtful evolution of one of the inn's most storied dining venues.
If you had a standing anniversary reservation at the English Room, you already know the physical space; what changed is the tempo. Photos of the new, brighter space show brass accents, smaller marble-topped tables and rich banquette seating. General manager James Barnett described the change as an important evolution for Deer Path Inn that honors the legacy while introducing a more vibrant and contemporary spirit, saying it feels familiar, yet unmistakably new.
The practical difference for a resident is the daypart. The English Room was a dinner room. The Brasserie will be open starting at 6 a.m. Monday through Friday and 6:30 a.m. on the weekends through 10 p.m., serving breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner, drinks and dessert. That turns a special-occasion address into a weekday breakfast option, which is a category downtown has been thin on.
The menu keeps recognizable anchors. The revamped menu incorporates seasonal ingredients and refined techniques while spotlighting classic dishes such as chilled oysters, large-format herb-crusted lamb and premium grass-fed steaks, with offerings ranging from grand seafood towers to a refined Flounder Meunière. The room is anchored by a custom pewter bar crafted by Mitchell & Mitchell that serves as a gathering point for drinks and conversation.
Follia, Back From The Meatpacking District
The second shift is at 950 N Western Avenue, inside a plaza most residents associate with quick errands rather than fine dining. Follia is a restart of a name with a specific history. Bruno Abate combined his passion for authentic Italian cuisine with a flair for modern design when he opened his first restaurant, Follia, in the Meatpacking District, later launched Tocco in Winnetka, and now brings the Follia name back with a new location in Lake Forest.
The room is doing what North Shore Italian rooms rarely do well: keeping the pasta program and the interior on the same level. Reviewers have compared the pasta directly to the Winnetka sibling, and one meal write-up called out the plates and glassware as outstanding, with pasta simply the best around and an exceptional balance of flavors and textures.
A few things worth knowing before you book:
- The address is 950 N Western Ave, Ste 120, Lake Forest, IL 60045, phone (847) 235-2028.
- Hours are Tuesday through Thursday and Sunday 5:00 to 9:00 pm, Friday and Saturday 5:00 to 10:00 pm; closed Monday.
- Follia can be busy, especially on weekend evenings, with reported waits despite open-looking tables, so booking ahead is recommended.
- There is a courtyard. The patio is described as elegant and romantic and is a popular choice during pleasant weather.
The reason this matters beyond the food is inventory. The two rooms have added a triple-digit number of seats to downtown at the exact price band that was hardest to book a year ago, which is the point at which the city stepped in.
Bites On Bank, And Why July 2 Is The Night To Test It
Concerts in Market Square have been part of the calendar for years. What is new in 2026 is a companion event that turns Bank Lane into a walk-through food festival on one specific Thursday.
The City of Lake Forest is introducing Bites on Bank, a new way to experience Lake Forest's dining scene during the Concert in the Square on Thursday, July 2, 2026, on Bank Lane from 5 to 8 pm, alongside the Concert in the Square in Market Square from 6:30 to 8:30 pm. The format is small-plate: local restaurants and food shops will bring the flavors of Lake Forest to the newly transformed Bank Lane, offering small bites and sample-sized specialties available for purchase, with the chance to stroll through the updated streetscape and build your own meal by sampling some of the community's favorite eateries.
It is deliberately positioned as an anchor rather than a one-off. Bites on Bank is part of the City's expanded Independence Day festivities, celebrating the 250th anniversary of the United States with additional community events designed to bring residents together.
The band that night on the Market Square stage is Industrial Drive, playing variety rock. That fits inside a broader summer lineup worth keeping on the fridge:
- June 11, 28 Days, variety covers at Northcroft Park
- June 18, Yacht Rock-ettes, 70s and 80s smooth rock at Market Square
- June 25, Sealed with a Kiss, variety covers at Market Square
- July 2, Industrial Drive, variety rock at Market Square with Bites on Bank
- July 9, Feel Good Party Band, party hits at Market Square
- July 16, Latin Swing Factor, salsa with a soulful twist at Market Square
- July 23, Roger That, 50s, 60s, surf music at Market Square with the Market Square Car Show
- July 30, The Simple Remedy, country, folk, rock, blues and soul at Market Square
- August 6, Valius, variety rock, blues, rap and more at Market Square
- August 13, The Messengers, Americana, modern country and rock at Townline Park
That list is drawn from the Lake Forest Bank & Trust and Market Square-sponsored summer concert series, which starts at 6:30 pm and runs June 11 through August 13. A new wrinkle this year: several concerts feature opening acts before the headlining performance, with a group from Citadel Theatre on July 2, a group from Gorton Center on July 16, and Lake Forest Dance Academy on July 30, helping highlight local arts organizations.
The Older Reservations That Still Hold Up
Two new rooms did not push out the ones that were already working. If you have relatives visiting and you want a table you can predict, the reliable downtown-adjacent list still starts with Sophia Steak, Le Colonial, The Gallery, Francesca's Intimo, and The Peanut Gallery, all of which continue to rank at the top of Lake Forest restaurant listings in 2026.
The point of naming them is not to rank. The point is that a downtown that had three of these anchors a year ago now has five, and the density is what makes Bites on Bank possible in the first place. A sampling event only works when the sampling is short walk from the next sampling.
How To Build A Thursday In July
Say you have the July 2 evening open. Here is a version that uses each of the pieces above without a car reshuffle:
- Park once on the east side of downtown. Walk to Bank Lane between 5:00 and 5:45 pm. Do the sampling round first, while the vendors are set up and the light is still good.
- Move to Market Square for the 6:30 concert. Bring a low chair. Industrial Drive plays variety rock and Citadel Theatre opens.
- If the sampling counted as dinner, stay through the 8:30 pm concert end and walk the block. If it did not, a 7:30 reservation at Follia on Western is a nine-minute drive; The Brasserie inside the Deer Path Inn is a five-minute walk from Market Square.
- Anything you missed on Bank Lane, note it. The city has framed this as a repeating festival, not a one-time event.
The July 4 side of the weekend is a separate calendar item. The Lake Forest Festival and Fireworks on Saturday, July 4 is part of the America 250 programming, with live music, family fun, food, and a fireworks display.
Why This Matters For A House On A Lake Forest Street
Restaurants are not the reason to buy a home in a town. But the density of walkable, book-ahead dinner options is one of the quiet variables in what a downtown feels like on a Wednesday in February, when the summer concert crowd has thinned and the question is whether the block has a life of its own. Between March and July 2026, downtown Lake Forest added an all-day room at a century-old inn, a serious Italian program on Western Avenue, and a food festival that ties them to the neighborhood restaurants that were already here. That is a real change to the fabric of the place, and it is the kind of change that shows up later in how homes on nearby streets are lived in, not just listed.
If you are thinking about a move within Lake Forest or into it, and you want a read on how neighborhoods here actually work through a summer, Deena Allie is happy to talk. Schedule a Consultation and we will walk you through the streets that fit the way you spend a Thursday.
