Village President Howard Roin opened his remarks at the Oct. 23 ribbon-cutting with a memory. At his first official event at the old Glencoe Golf Club clubhouse, he said, "We all were hoping that the ancient thing wasn't going to fall on us before the event was over," as The Record North Shore reported. That building came down in May 2025. Its replacement at 621 Westley Road is a Prairie-style hall with a fireplace in the dining room, a sports bar and a restaurant called The Westley, which is expected to open Nov. 11.

The opening date matters. The course is about to close for the season, and the Village's deal for this building only pays off if people come in November, January and March. Golf is the smaller part of the plan. The clubhouse was designed, financed and contracted to work as a year-round village restaurant that happens to overlook 126 acres of fairway.

The Contract Pays the Village Per Plate, Not Per Round

In August, the Village Board unanimously approved Clubhouse Group as the clubhouse's food service vendor. The group also operates as Housepitality Group and runs Grill House and Cabo Grill in Northbrook and Backyard Grill in Highland Park. It had been providing interim food service at the club since March. The terms, as The Record reported them, tie the Village's income to what happens inside the building:

Catering and private events carry their own revenue share, and the Village keeps all private room rental fees. A golf course earns from green fees between spring and fall. This contract earns from holiday parties, winter brunches and business lunches, and those can happen when the course is under snow. Stella Nanos, the club's general manager, described the arrangement as "robust year-round hospitality." She said the plan includes brunch, lunch and dinner menus, an extensive wine and cocktail list, children's menus and an on-site special event manager for private celebrations and Village-sponsored events.

The investment behind it is large. Voters approved an $18 million project in a 2023 referendum, and a reported $15 million of that comes from taxpayers. After a sixth change order in August 2026, the construction contract with W.B. Olson stood at $15.7 million. The schedule had slipped because of a wet summer and the discovery of an unknown underground storage tank, which crews removed.

Who the Building Was Pitched To

Roin made the community case directly at the ceremony. He said many Glencoe residents don't play golf but understood that a new clubhouse would be a community asset. He also noted that the club, which sits on both Village and Forest Preserves of Cook County land, is open to all Cook County residents. The club charges no membership fees.

Matt Siebert, a member of the Village's Golf Advisory Committee, told The Record that the new building and the course upgrades will allow year-round activity even after the course closes for the winter. The design reflects that goal. The club's project page describes an indoor dining room with a central fireplace, a terrace facing the sunset and what it calls "the first 'sports bar' in Glencoe," with TVs and both bar and table seating.

What Is Inside for a December Weeknight

According to Village Manager Philip Kiraly's remarks at the opening, the building holds 300 people across its indoor and outdoor spaces.

• Main dining room: seats 100, arranged around the central fireplace.
• Bar: seats 60, and the club bills it as Glencoe's first sports bar.
• Terrace: seats 75 on the west-facing side.
• Private event room: holds 50 and is named in memory of Ellis Martin Goodman. Speakers at the ceremony thanked Glencoe resident Gillian Goodman and her late husband for their generosity toward the project.
• Simulators: two TrackMan bays. Optional TruGolf multi-sport games are available, and Westley food and drinks can be delivered to the bays.

For many households, the simulators will matter more than the dining room. The club's TrackMan booking page lists public one-hour rentals starting at $60. For comparison, that is about the cost of two weeknight entrées. An hour of swings in a heated bay in January, with dinner brought to you, is the kind of thing the old clubhouse could never offer. The Village's project description says the bays are meant for lessons, leagues and practice.

The Westley itself serves classic and fine American food with local draft beers, wine and signature cocktails, according to The Record. The menu posted on The Westley's OpenTable page runs from starters and burgers to pasta, steaks and seafood. That page lists lunch daily from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and dinner daily from 4 to 9 p.m. These are the hours posted before opening, so confirm them once the doors open. Reservations open one day ahead, at midnight Central time.

The Building Itself Is Part of the Draw

FGM Architects designed the clubhouse in a contemporary Prairie style. It has long, low rooflines, bands of windows and stone and wood finishes, and the club's materials present it as a nod to the Frank Lloyd Wright heritage found across the North Shore. Kiraly said at the opening that the building has LEED Silver certification, geothermal heating and cooling, and bird-safe glass.

Geothermal heating and cooling affects how much a building costs to run, and that matters here. A clubhouse meant to stay open and comfortable from November through March runs up heating bills that the old seasonal model never faced. Wide windows facing a frozen course are only pleasant to sit beside if the room stays warm without large energy costs, and the system was chosen with that in mind.

Friends of the Glencoe Golf Club has raised more than $2.3 million toward a $3 million goal, according to board member Sara Pfaff. Its donations paid for a regulation croquet court, an event lawn, a pollinator garden, a community garden and a monarch butterfly sanctuary. They also funded 32 new trees and landscaping that is 75% native plant species. Most of those features will be dormant until spring. The club's project plans also list "Winter Recreation Areas" and a bicycle repair station among planned site improvements, without specifying which winter activities those areas will hold.

Downtown Loses a Familiar Spot the Same Month

The clubhouse opens just as one of downtown Glencoe's most familiar spots closes. Mensch's Deli and Picnic are scheduled to close their shared storefront at 668 Vernon Ave. on Nov. 22, The Record reported. Their Evanston locations will stay open. The Vernon Avenue space will host private events through the holidays. Pete Kadens is aiming to open a new full-bar restaurant there in early spring 2027, with thin-crust pizza and salads.

So from late November through spring, Glencoe's newest full-bar dinner option sits on the west side of the village by the fairways rather than downtown by the Metra tracks. The Westley brings a 60-seat bar, a 50-person private room and an on-site special event manager to that side of town. The Village has also adopted a Streetscape + Parking Study for the business district, which it plans to carry out only after further board discussion and community engagement. For this winter, the golf club is where the Village has already committed money to its own restaurant.

Where the First Season Will Show Up

The contract's $45,000 base fee starts in 2027, so this first holiday season comes before the guaranteed payment begins. Whether the revenue shares grow into meaningful revenue depends on whether The Westley fills its dining room on cold nights, books the private room for holiday parties and keeps the simulator bays busy. Nanos has worked toward this building for nearly 20 years, Kiraly said at the ribbon-cutting. The Westley is expected to serve its first dinner on Nov. 11, and the cold months after that are its first real test.

Public projects like this one change how a part of the village gets used, and they are worth understanding whether you live a few blocks from the course or are thinking about Glencoe for the first time. Matt brings hands-on construction and municipal experience to conversations about what investments like the Glencoe Golf Club mean street by street. If you'd like to talk through how projects like this shape your corner of the North Shore, Matt Brugioni & Susan Duffey are glad to help. Request a personalized consultation.