Laura Maychruk told the Wednesday Journal in September that what excited her most was the Arts District "having its gathering space back once again." She was talking about the corner café at 905 S. Lombard Ave. She owned it for years as Buzz Cafe, and this year she helped buy it back.
The Harrison Street storefronts that changed this fall all changed for the same reason. The people who run the district, and people who live a few blocks away, chose what came next. The three storefronts below show how that works, and so does the fall calendar, which comes from the same group.
The corner the district bought back
The building at 905 S. Lombard housed Buzz Cafe for nearly three decades until it closed in 2023. Kribi Coffee came next for a short run, and that brand left the location in fall 2025.
Another café leaving the Arts District could have meant a long vacancy. Instead, Maychruk, who is the former Buzz owner, joined her husband Andrew Maychruk and longtime Arts District landlord Mark Finger to repurchase the property. Right after that, she started contacting businesses across Chicagoland that she thought would fit southeast Oak Park. "We were looking for a similar concept to Buzz Cafe, so Blackberry Market made the list," she told the Wednesday Journal.
It happened quickly:
- January 2026: Maychruk emails Blackberry Market founder Anna Davidson, and the two meet a week later.
- February 2026: Blackberry Market signs the lease.
- Early September 2026: The café soft-opens.
- The following Tuesday: An all-day grand opening, with Intelligentsia, the café's wholesale coffee partner, pouring free drip coffee for every guest.
Davidson opened the first Blackberry Market in downtown Glen Ellyn in 2012. The Oak Park café is the chain's fifth, after Glen Ellyn, La Grange, Naperville and Oak Brook. Her nephew, Wilson Loibner, runs it day to day. He has six years with the family-run business, working up from supervisor to general manager. According to Loibner, the menu includes nut-free, gluten-free, dairy-free, vegetarian and vegan options, and the café also does takeout and office catering. The rear patio has a custom mural of blackberries and bees, a nod to the building's past as Buzz.
Maychruk described the larger goal as keeping the district "on course to becoming a mecca for all of the arts, including the culinary arts." As one of the building's owners, she can act on that goal by choosing the tenant.
A flower shop opened by someone who lives five minutes away
On Harrison itself, the same pattern shows up on a smaller scale. Golden Hour Flower Studio began a soft opening at 331 Harrison St. in mid-September.
The Wednesday Journal's profile shows how the shop found its space. Earlier in the year, owner Fullerton's aunt, Christina Nixon, looked at the vacant storefront for her new chocolate business, Chocolat by Christina. It was too small for the commercial kitchen she needed, so Fullerton and her husband took a look at it for a flower shop instead. "I live just a five-minute walk from here," Fullerton told the paper. She also said she had only ever wanted to open on Harrison, partly for "the bricks and the garden units."
She signed the lease at the end of May. With a small crew, she finished the renovation and buildout in about 12 weeks. The shop sells seasonal, garden-inspired arrangements in muted mauves, peaches and neutrals. All the flowers come from farms in Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan, bought through Chicago-based wholesalers. It also carries candles, incense, houseplants, socks, tea towels and one-of-a-kind greeting cards. Fullerton wants it to be the place you can send someone with the instruction to "just go to Golden Hour and give me anything that they have there."
A pie shop changing hands on purpose
The third change is a handoff. Happy Apple Pie Shop at 226 Harrison St. moved from founder Michelle Mascaro to Easterseals. The Wednesday Journal reported in August that staff would stay on, new hires would join them, and pies would remain the center of the menu. Pastry chef Margie Sprehe would run daily operations, and the shop would add espresso and coffee from Dark Matter.
Easterseals first needs permits and renovations, which means a short closure before the shop reopens. As of the August reports from the Wednesday Journal and Oak Park Wire, no reopening date had been announced. The village's new business license list, updated October 5, 2026, lists Easter Seals Metropolitan Chicago as the new owner at 226 Harrison. It does not say whether the shop has reopened. If you're planning a pie run, check the shop's status before you go.
Here's where the three storefronts stand:
| Address | What was there | What's there now | How it got there |
|---|---|---|---|
| 905 S. Lombard Ave. | Buzz Cafe, then Kribi Coffee | Blackberry Market, open since September | Former owner and a district landlord bought the building back and recruited the tenant |
| 331 Harrison St. | Vacant storefront | Golden Hour Flower Studio, soft-opened mid-September | Scouted by a relative's chocolate business, then leased by an owner who lives nearby |
| 226 Harrison St. | Happy Apple Pie Shop under its founder | Happy Apple under Easterseals, reopening date not announced as of August | Founder transferred the shop, with staff retained |
The same people run the calendar
The group behind much of this has been around for decades. The Oak Park Arts District Business Association started in 1993 as the Harrison Street Business Alliance. Its current officers are Laura Maychruk as president, Mimi Comerford as vice president and Mona Navitsky as treasurer. So the person who recruited a tenant for the old Buzz corner also leads the organization that schedules the district's events. The street's fall season shows that.
Here are the Arts District's remaining signature events for 2026:
- Harvest on Harrison, Saturday, Oct. 24, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.: There's a costume contest for kids, adults and pets at noon on the Village Church lawn. The same lawn has a DJ and bounce house all day and the Arts District tent, where you can pick up a bingo scavenger hunt card. Trunk-or-treat runs 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Village Church parking lot. You'll also find an artist vendor fair, face painting, trick-or-treating and specials at businesses along Harrison.
- Saturday with Santa, Nov. 21, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.: Santa photos, a toy drive, a craft, the Candy Cane Walk, local art vendors and food and drink specials.
- Art & Wine Walk, Dec. 12, 3 to 7 p.m.: Thirteen wine tastings, small bites, open galleries and studios, and holiday shopping.
Between the big events, the district calendar lists October gallery showcases and recurring Fiber Fun Nights at Dye Hard Yarns. Golden Hour's soft opening came just over a month before Harvest on Harrison, and Blackberry Market's grand opening was a few weeks before that. Both new businesses get a full day of Harrison Street foot traffic in their first fall.
The art on the corners stays through spring
Some of what's new on Harrison sits outdoors. The Oak Park Area Arts Council's 2026 Sculpture Walk has installations on Harrison at Ridgeland, Cuyler, Lombard and Humphrey. According to OPAAC's call for entries, the village-sponsored works are on display from May 16, 2026, through April 10, 2027. That means the sculptures will still be up for the Santa event, for the December wine walk and well into spring.
A walk through the district this month takes in sculptures at Ridgeland, Cuyler, Lombard and Humphrey, along with Golden Hour at 331 Harrison and Happy Apple's storefront at 226, which is still waiting on its reopening date. Blackberry Market is at 905 S. Lombard, back in the space Buzz Cafe held for nearly three decades.
If you own a home within walking distance of Harrison Street and want to know how this fall's changes on the street are showing up in local prices, Ed Bellock can walk you through it. Start by requesting your instant home valuation, and Ed will follow up with the details for your block.
