Hackney's on Lake Had 700 Seats. Here's Where Glenview's Big Dinners Go Now
October 8, 2026
October 8, 2026
For 71 years, a big night out in Glenview could happen in a single building. Hackney's on Lake at 1514 E. Lake Ave. had 700 seats spread over several dining rooms. In August its owners said it would close permanently in September. Those seats did not vanish. Over the same few months, Glenview gained or rebuilt three rooms that together hold almost exactly as many people. The total is about the same. What changed is how the town hosts a big group. A party that once fit in one large room now goes to whichever mid-size room has space that night, and in a couple of cases that depends on the weather or on a restaurant that hasn't opened yet.
When co-owner Mike Masterson explained the closing, he was talking about scale, not about how the restaurant was doing:
"A 700-seat restaurant made sense in the 1960s. It doesn't in 2026. This will allow us to focus on creating a great customer experience at our re-energized Harms location. Still, it was not an easy decision."
Here are the three rooms that now share the load, using seat counts reported between August and early October 2026:
That adds up to 691 seats, nine short of the old Lake Avenue room. The numbers line up, but the three rooms behave very differently once the weather turns.
Masterson's plan was to put the family's energy into Harms Road. The interior renovation there was scheduled for July 27 through Aug. 27. The dining room was closed during the work and the patio stayed open. He described the visible part of the work as a refresh of the bar, the lobby and the booths, going for "a classic but updated look that keeps the charm and history of our roadhouse roots." He said much of the project was infrastructure behind the scenes.
That leaves the Harms location with 144 of its 216 seats outdoors. Through the summer, the restaurant that took over for Lake Avenue had plenty of room. Once it is too cold to eat outside, it is a 72-seat dining room. A Hackney's family dinner that used to fill a side room on Lake Avenue now means booking early at Harms or splitting the group.
The Masterson family is not leaving Lake Avenue entirely. Macushla Brewing Co., which family members opened next door to the restaurant about a decade ago, is staying open. Masterson said food trucks would take over from the Hackney's kitchen that used to feed the taproom. He also said the restaurant property itself would be put up for sale. No buyer or new use has been reported yet.
Foxtail's seat count looks most like Lake Avenue's, and it was designed to keep that count through the cold months. Its three outdoor areas are described as all-season. They sit on a double-decker outdoor structure fitted with louvered trellises, built with general contractor STRUXC. Of the three rooms, Foxtail's capacity should change the least between October and February.
The building has hosted gatherings longer than Hackney's has existed. Glen View House dates to 1878 and has been a saloon, hotel, tavern, restaurant, dance hall, house of worship and civic gathering place. Glenview's first village board met there in 1899. The Journal & Topics named it as one of the few Glenview restaurants with more history than Hackney's. The other was Grandpa's, which started in 1902 as the LN Lang Saloon.
The renovation took more than a year. Michael Canning bought and rehabbed the building in 2010 and ran the earlier Glenview House tavern until it closed in 2023. He stayed on as an investor in a group that includes Tim Canning, David Villegas, Anthony "Tony" Lupo and Elizabeth Lupo. Chicago-based DXU Architects made the steep staircase less steep and opened the ceiling above the bar, so the upstairs room is no longer cut off from the bar below. Crews also dug about 5 feet below the old floor level for a basement prep kitchen. When the walls turned out to be weaker than expected, they had to be reshored, which cost about two months. The Village put $2.9 million from its Permanent Fund toward the renovation.
The food is a big change from a roadhouse. Chef and Culinary Director Maya Nahouli shapes about 90% of the menu across all three Foxtail locations. The other two are in Des Plaines and Downers Grove. Executive Chef Evan Fullerton runs the Glenview kitchen. The menu is Mediterranean with Lebanese roots and also offers Italian pastas, steaks, a raw bar and a seafood tower. For now Foxtail serves dinner only. Brunch and lunch are expected to follow, along with live music and DJs during the week. Until lunch starts, Foxtail can't take the midday crowds, like a weekday lunch or a post-service gathering, that a 700-seat room could absorb.
Lago is the only one of the three with a separate upstairs space set aside for private dining. It is a two-story, 10,119-square-foot Italian steakhouse from chef Fabio Viviani, and construction was underway as of Oct. 2. Village trustees approved the plans in the spring and granted a liquor license in August.
One of the partners has deep Glenview roots. Bill Stavrou's family has run Valley Lodge Tavern in Glenview since 1997. He is partnering with Viviani and former professional race car driver Romeo Kapudija, and the three already work together on Giostra in South Barrington and the original Lago in Lake Zurich. "Glenview has supported Valley Lodge for nearly seven decades," Stavrou said, "so I understand how important it is for a restaurant to become part of the community rather than simply operate in it."
Lago is the least certain part of the math. If you are planning a holiday party for late November or December around its upstairs room, check that the restaurant is actually open before telling the group. Opening dates often slip.
Not every night out needs 200 seats. Two other recent arrivals make it easier to go out in small groups:
Parking near Spiro's and Foxtail will be tighter for part of the fall. The Glenview Public Library is waterproofing its parking garage in two phases, Sept. 21 to Oct. 7 and Oct. 12 to Nov. 13, and access to the west entrance, the lot and the garage may be affected.
Your weekend plans don't all have to be dinner. These Glenview Park District and Village dates fill out October and early November. The Park District calendar doesn't show a publish date, so confirm times before you go.
Lago's November target puts its opening somewhere around that weekend, so check its status before planning a post-Flick Park dinner on Waukegan Road.
Picking the right room for a big night depends on details like these, and so does planning a sale or a move: the timing, the capacity and the small facts that don't show up in the headlines. If you're thinking about what your Glenview home is worth this fall, Geoff Brown Team can give you a number based on the same kind of local detail. Get a Free Home Valuation.
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