New Owners, Same Norton’s: New owners say Highland Park restaurant will be ‘as it always has been’

Change is coming to Norton’s — but not, the new owners insist, to what customers have come to love. 

After 27 years of offering American fare and a full bar under Jeff Mages and Richie Holleb, the Highland Park restaurant at 1905 Sheridan Road changed ownership on Tuesday, July 7, with David Rosenstein, Simon Leibovich and Jeff Poulsom pledging to preserve the business’s legacy and longtime traditions.

Chatter has taken to Facebook that residents are “nervous” about the change; however Poulsom said that Norton’s will continue to be what it’s always been. 

Now is the time to “pass the torch,” said Holleb, who prepares for retirement with Mages, both 73, and the new owners are Highland Parkers who seem like the right fit. 

“It didn’t take long for me to realize that [Rosenstein’s] a solid citizen, a good man with a good heart and a hard worker,” Holleb said. “He was the right guy at the right time.” 

Holleb and Mages have been in the food industry all their lives, as has new owner Leibovich. Rosenstein and Poulsom bring businessman expertise to the mix. 

To Holleb, the new team will bring “the best of both worlds,” and “be better at technology than we were,” calling their skills a “real plus for the owners going forward.”

The ownership switch is “bittersweet,” Holleb said. To make the transition easier, Holleb plans on helping out at the restaurant three nights a week for the first six months of new ownership. It’s a way he can get a “soft landing,” as the change is “difficult” for him, he said. 

Norton’s has meant a lot to the Highland Park community, Holleb said. He recalled the extraordinary turnout for a fundraiser two weeks after the 2022 shooting in Highland Park. 

“Our outdoor seating seats 200 people, and we had over 400 people show up that day to fundraise for the Highland Park Community Foundation,” Holleb said. “It was really an amazing confluence of events and people, mostly regular customers coming together in an extraordinary show of love.” 

From then on Holleb could see that Norton’s was “the official Highland Park community gathering place,” and it stuck. 

“I then had my eyes opened and saw it every day from that time on,” Holleb said. 

Not long after, Holleb put “The North Shore Gathering Place” on the front page of the menu, as about 80% of clients who come to the restaurant are regulars. 

Holleb said the restaurant’s entire staff has been there for two decades or more, an unusual feature in the restaurant business. And he can say the same about his customers.

Fortunately for those customers, the new owners will keep “everything” at Norton’s the same, including what makes the restaurant what it is today: the staff and hospitality, according to Holleb, as well as the menu, art on the walls and overall vibe. 

Poulsom is also part of Norton’s loyal customer base, having enjoyed the restaurant for two decades. He knows firsthand what it is like to experience Norton’s “excellent” hospitality and the staff, who are “the magic” behind the restaurant’s success.

He believes that Norton’s is an “easy place to fall in love with” and plans to preserve the restaurant’s legacy.

“I feel like Mike Brown, the head coach of the New York Knicks, who came in and already had a championship winning team, and all he had to do was point them in the right direction and they won a championship,” Poulsom said, describing the experience of running Norton’s. “We are coming in to continue what made this place incredible, as it always has been.”

The only change the new owners have made so far is updating the TVs and back-of-the-house appliances. 

Poulsom hopes Norton’s will continue to serve as a “staple” in the community, and be a place where people “feel that they are part of” in Highland Park, he said. 

During the transition, Poulsom has felt that every minute at the restaurant he is “even more excited and blown away” by what Holleb and Mages have put into place. 

“I am excited to continue to meet new people, welcome new faces, and see the smiles on their faces,” Poulsom said. “I’ve never seen as many happy people in one place as I had at Norton’s and I want to continue to make everyone happy.” 

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