"We just outgrew our other space," Marysol Rios told Harbor Country News in March. "We're always so busy, and we really wanted to have more room as well as an indoor dining option for our customers."
That last phrase, an indoor dining option, sums up New Buffalo's year. Rios served tacos from its stand at 901 West Buffalo Street for 26 years. The last meals there went out on March 11. Three days later the family opened a larger counter-service restaurant at 603 East Buffalo Street, in the former Buffalo Bill's space across from Redamak's. The new building seats 48 people inside. It also has outdoor seating, a drive-through, self-serve kiosks, and far more parking than the old stand had.
Rios's move is one of several. Most of what opened or grew in New Buffalo this year comes with walls, heat, and a plan for the months after the beach crowd leaves. Redamak's closes for the season this month, and the town's newer places are set up to keep going after it does.
The corner on East Buffalo Street
Redamak's has been part of New Buffalo since 1975. Its own site says it is open "8 months a year March 1st to October," and as of late September the 2026 closing date was still listed as TBD. The posted schedule until then is Thursday through Monday, noon to 9 p.m. This year is the restaurant's 51st season, according to WNDU's report on its March opening.
Every November, that closing has left East Buffalo Street at U.S. 12 dark. This year a building with a dining room sits across the street. The Rios menu will be familiar to anyone who knew the stand: tacos, burrito bowls, nachos, and posole on weekends. It also adds homemade tamales, walking tacos, Mexican sweet breads, conchas, tres leches cake, and candied sweet potatoes. The horchata is still on the menu, along with mango, pineapple, and hibiscus waters. There's also a small gift shop.
In March the restaurant was open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., and the family mentioned longer hours for summer. We couldn't find a published winter schedule, so call ahead before a January visit. The old site isn't finished either. Marysol Rios said the family plans to reopen the south-end stand early next year with a completely different menu, which is still being developed.
Downtown added shops built for year-round browsing
The same thing happened a few blocks west. The three newest storefronts on and near Whittaker Street all opened with year-round use in mind.
Book~Shore, 10 West Merchant St. The Michigan Mercantile team opened it on March 26. It sells visual, design-forward titles from publishers including Assouline, Taschen, Phaidon, Rizzoli, Gestalten, and Thames & Hudson. The idea came from Lakeside Goods. "We just sold so many books at Lakeside Goods we figured we would open a bookstore," manager Julie Peterson told the Herald-Palladium. Travel books have been among the best sellers. Spring hours were 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Peterson said the shop expects to stay open year-round with shorter hours in winter. Winter hours haven't been posted yet. The phone number is 269-586-3681.
A/Studio, 45 South Whittaker St. Andrew Schorr's interior design studio shows art, furnishings, and curated objects. It celebrated its opening this summer, and the Herald-Palladium covered it in August. It hasn't published public hours.
The Standard Subs, 19 North Whittaker St. It opened in May. The June hours were 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, and the owner said they might expand as the season went on. The shop's website now says the New Buffalo location is closed Mondays.
None of these businesses depends on beach weather. A coffee-table book or a design consultation sells as well in February as in July, and that likely explains why the owners committed to these spaces.
Petite Acres planned its winter from day one
Petite Acres, at 1109 East Buffalo Street, was announced in May as an event, retreat, and lodging venue, with a soft opening planned for early June. Most summer venues in Harbor Country treat winter as an afterthought. This one wrote the cold months into its pitch. Its events page calls the property "Southwest Michigan's back yard with ongoing, year-round programming." Yoga and mat Pilates meet on the lawn in warm weather and move into a building called Chateau Aster "when winter rolls around." The page also lists snow-building competitions, movie nights, a candlelit concert series promising "something to look forward to all winter long," and public markets for local farmers, makers, chefs, and artists.
The page gives no dates for those series. The first dated cold-season event is the Monster Bash on Friday, October 30, from 6:30 to 10:30 p.m.
The rest of the fall calendar
Downtown still has a few dated events before the holidays, and Hummingbird Lounge has already switched to its cold-weather menu.
- Saturday, October 10. Beach Glass BrewFest takes over downtown Whittaker Street from noon to 7 p.m. It's free and has regional craft drinks, food vendors, and live bands.
- Friday, October 30. Monster Bash at Petite Acres, 6:30 to 10:30 p.m.
- Saturday, November 21. Rick Springfield at the Silver Creek Event Center at Four Winds.
- Saturday, December 12. Cirque Musica Holiday Wonderland, also at the Silver Creek Event Center.
Hummingbird Lounge at 9 South Barton Street rolled out its fall menu in September, according to WNDU. It includes skewered grilled chicken, caprese, beef tenderloin, and a tomato martini. The lounge is also taking November and December holiday bookings for group dinners, cocktail-making events, and full buyouts. Its website lists weekday hours of 5 p.m. to sunset and weekend hours of 1 p.m. to sunset. Those hours aren't dated, so check before going on a short December day.
The quiet months are also when the city is setting up two changes that will reshape downtown next spring.
What the city scheduled for spring 2027
The first change is parking. On March 16, the City Council voted to formally delay paid parking in the central business district until April 1, 2027. The paid system won't affect anyone driving downtown for BrewFest or a December errand. It's set to begin about a month after Redamak's usual March 1 opening.
The second change is the walk to the beach. On July 20, the City Council awarded Rausch Infrastructure a $3,497,544 contract for a Galien River pedestrian bridge next to the Whittaker Street Bridge, linking downtown with the public beach. Council member Mark Robertson made the case for it at that meeting. "The current situation walking to the beach is getting to be dangerous," he said. City Manager Darwin Watson said the bridge must be finished by May 2027 for the city to receive a $1 million grant. The contract was being sent to the state, which issues the notice to proceed. We haven't found any public report on whether the notice has been issued or when work will start. The city said it would post images once the final drawings are done.
The bridge design was changed partly because of the broadside dock. That project was first drawn into the same lakefront plan, but its bids came in far higher than expected. As of July, the second round's low bid was $6.8 million, and the city manager estimated the city would need close to $5 million under those figures. We haven't seen a later decision on the dock.
Both changes land next spring. For now, the cold months are the town's to use, and this year there are more rooms to use them in. Three days after Rios left the stand where it had worked for 26 years, it had 48 indoor seats across from Redamak's, and its old address is due for a new concept early next year.
If you own a home in New Buffalo and want to know how the town's year-round side affects its value as well as your weekends, Wortman Group can talk it through with you this winter. Request a private consultation and valuation whenever it suits you.