It would seem 2026 is already shaping up to be an exciting year for new businesses coming to Naperville.

Last month, major outdoor retailer L.L.Bean confirmed it would be expanding its footprint in Illinois this fall, and myriad of new businesses are to open this year at the Riverbrook Shopping Center, including Illinois’ first ever 99 Ranch Market, an Asian market known for its hot deli with dim sum and Chinese BBQ.

Here are some other openings to which Naperville residents can look forward.

CAVA at Block 59

Fast, casual Mediterranean restaurant CAVA will open its doors at Block 59 on Monday, Jan. 12, marking its first location in Naperville. The chain, which has hundreds of locations across the country, is a build your own bowl place that also serves wraps, pita and dips.

“Our mission is to bring heart, health and humanity to food, and everything we do at CAVA is grounded in that spirit of generosity, to our guests, our team members, and our community,” Regional Director Gino Carlin said in a news release. “We couldn’t be more thrilled to be in Naperville and continue to grow our presence in the area.”

It is the latest addition to the dining and entertainment complex at Aurora Avenue and Route 59, which saw three new restaurants open — Velvet Taco, CRISP & GREEN and Yard House — open in November alone. Earlier in 2025, Piccolo Buco, Stan’s Donuts, First Watch, Cheesecake Factory and Shake Shack opened for business.

The new CAVA location will employ 25 to 40 local people. Daily operating hours are 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Shibam Coffee at 1120 Illinois Route 59 in Naperville on Jan. 6, 2025. (R. Christian Smith/Naperville Sun)

Shibam Coffee

A new Yemeni java shop called Shibam Coffee is expected to open in Naperville sometime in March.

Located at 1120 Route 59, it will join Illinois locations in Glendale Heights and Chicago. The company started as a wholesale coffee retailer a decade ago and expanded into storefronts eight years later. Their first location was in Dearborn, Michigan, and they have since expanded to about 60 locations nationally.

“Shibam is a historical city in Yemen. It’s actually the first skyscraper in the world, and it’s referred to as the ‘Manhattan of the desert,’” Shibam Coffee founder Mansour Sharha said. “All houses within the city were built out of brick mud, and the entire city is gated, and it’s the only city that is historically iconic.”

Sharha, who is from Yemen, said he chose the name Shibam because “coffee is all about our conversation.”

“We create a nice atmosphere, nice ambience, and create a good vibe, and then have the community to really come in and have a good conversation,” he said. “And that’s really what we highlight and bring into each community, so the community could have as many events as they want inside Shibam.”

That’s exactly what he hopes will happen at the 6,000-square-foot Naperville location..

“We’re looking to have a private room for private events, meetings, reservations, people to have good quality family time,” Sharha said. “You are inside a coffee shop. You’re having the experience, but at the same time, you’re not bothered with the noises that you typically get within the coffee shop.”

Patrons can sample everything from pure Yemeni coffee to the chain’s popular Shibam latte, which features two shots of Yemeni coffee, steamed milk and a mix of spices like cardamon, ginger and cinnamon. For non-coffee drinks, the dragon fruit and strawberry acai refreshers are two of their best sellers.

“We bring our own beans directly from Yemen. We roast our own beans, we grind it and we mix it with whatever we need to,” Sharha said.

Slyce of New York, a pizza and gyro restaurant inspired by New York street food, in downtown Naperville on Nov. 13, 2025. (Carolyn Stein/Naperville Sun)

Openings on the horizon

If 2025 was a big year for downtown Naperville, which saw 15 new businesses open, including Avocado Theory, Gorjana, Pronto’s Sandwiches and the reopening of the long-time downtown staple Rosebud, there are more on the way for 2026.

Five new businesses have been announced so far this year, including pizza and gyro restaurant Slyce of New York, located at 215 S. Washington St.

Syed Warsi, owner of Slyce of New York, said the Naperville will location will be the restaurant’s third Illinois spot following Lombard and Skokie. Warsi was born in Queens, New York, but moved to Lombard when he was about 8, he said.

“I grew up here, visited back and forth. All my summers were spent in New York. I got married in New York,” he said.

One thing Warsi noticed growing up in the Chicago area was a lack of New York-style pizzerias.

“What we offer is primarily New York-style pizza alongside New York-style street food, which is chicken and gyro over rice,” he said. “And that’s something that’s extremely popular in New York. It’s on every block, every corner. So we wanted to bring that flavor and that taste and that quality to Chicago as well.”

Slyce of New York offers pizza by the slice, with popular items including their hot pepperoni pizza and “The 53rd,” which includes toppings like gyro, green bell peppers, red onions and white sauce.

“The way we grew up was there was a cart on 53rd and 6th avenues right across the Marriott known as the ‘Halal Guys,’” Warsi said. “It’s kind of like an ode and tribute to them as they’re one of the most popular and original, you could say, street food vendors for chicken and gyro rice. So we have one pizza that’s called “The 53rd,” which is gyro, and then we have one that’s called “The 6th Ave,” which is actually chicken.”

Warsi hopes to open Slyce of New York no later than March. Patrons can expect a nostalgic atmosphere filled with re-runs of old basketball games, he said.

Another business expected to open in the first quarter of the year is Le Macaron at 23 W. Jefferson Ave., Downtown Naperville Alliance Executive Director Katie Wood said.

The French pastry shop founded by mother-daughter duo Rosaie Guillem and Audrey Guillem-Saba, whose aspirations are to introduce Americans to authentic macarons. The company has stores across the country and will open their Naperville location in a space that used to be a Coldstone Creamery.

Other businesses expected to open this year include major fashion retailers Free People and Lilly Pulitzer, both going in at 55 S. Main St. Barry’s Bootcamp is to open this year as well at 50 S. Main St. Opening dates are not yet available, Wood said.

cstein@chicagotribune.com

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/06/cava-naperville-yemeni-new-york-pizza/