Incoming restaurant Avec purchases building from Highwood for private dining, storage

The team behind one of suburban Chicago’s most anticipated restaurant openings is already adding to its plate.

One Off Hospitality, the powerhouse restaurant group bringing the well-decorated restaurant Avec to Highwood, finalized an agreement with city officials last week to acquire coveted property adjacent to its new home.

Highwood’s City Council during its April 21 meeting approved a redevelopment agreement that authorizes the sale of the property at 244 Waukegan Road, which was owned by the city, to the group.

Avec’s ownership is planning to utilize its newly acquired parcel to create a private dining space, dry storage area, cooler and designated parking for the restaurant that is set to open soon at 250 Waukegan.

The parcel One Off Hospitality is taking control of includes the existing building and adjacent parking lot. The site for decades housed the local business Grandi Brothers, which recently closed after 87 years in business.

One Off Hospitality will pay Highwood $250,000 for the property, according to city documents.

“We were approached by the hospitality company as a potential use for it,” Assistant City Manager Marc Facchini told The Record. “It seems like a pretty desirable use to the city rather than having something else come in there that might be a little bit different.

“But given that the restaurant was already looking at the space next to it, they asked us if we’d be interested in potentially selling it to them and we were willing to play ball.”

Facchini said that Highwood acquired the property in 2024. During the council’s meeting last week, officials said part of the reason for that acquisition was because the city did not have guaranteed egress and ingress to City Hall.

The redevelopment agreement, officials said, guarantees ingress and egress by way of a permanent easement through that land that the city is selling.

Avec in September of last year announced its intentions to arrive in Highwood, The Record reported.

The Mediterranean restaurant known for its flagship West Loop location that opened in 2003 before expanding to River North in 2021 is planning a 115-seat approximately 5,000-square-foot space in Highwood.

Avec’s “rustic menu of Mediterranean- and Midwestern-inspired” food and wine won it a James Beard Award for best chef in 2010, a Restaurant of the Year Jean Banchet Award in 2025 and was featured on New York Times’ recent “25 Best Restaurants in Chicago Right Now.”

One Off Hospitality reportedly has earned 12 total James Beard Foundation Awards of Excellence as it has managed a number of other Chicago area restaurants, including The Violent Hour, Big Star, The Publican, Publican Quality Bread Oak Park and Dove’s Luncheonette.

Representatives from Avec last year estimated April as the targeted opening date for the Highwood location. As of publication time, The Record could not confirm an exact timeline for its debut.

Additionally, per Facchini, city officials currently do not have a precise opening target for the restaurant’s private dining space that will take shape from the property acquisition. But city officials are “working pretty closely with their team on all of the remodeling and associated work that is going on,” Facchini noted.

Planners have told the city they’re hoping to open the space before the end of the year.

The Record is a nonprofit, nonpartisan community newsroom that relies on reader support to fuel its independent local journalism.

Become a member of The Record to fund responsible news coverage for your community.

Already a member? You can make a tax-deductible donation at any time.