Danny Springer gets one reaction at Bumble Bread Co. more than you'd expect. Customers find the bakery on Green Street and are surprised it isn't at the Riverwalk Shoppes. He spent two seasons in one of the small shops at Miller Point Park before moving into a permanent storefront. More than a year later, some regulars still picture him there.
That surprise says a lot about how the Shoppes work. The little storefronts by the bandshell are meant to be temporary. They do their job when a business moves out, and the hard part starts once it does. Several graduates are now open within a few blocks of the plaza, and finding them takes a little more effort than strolling past a seasonal hut.
A plaza designed to empty out
The McHenry Area Chamber of Commerce runs the Riverwalk Shoppes, which opened in summer 2023 as retail incubators. Shaw Local described the goal plainly when the 2026 season opened. The city and the Chamber hope the shopkeepers will move on to permanent locations in McHenry. Jocelyn Eisenmenger, the Chamber's director of tourism and economic growth, said that for most of this year's tenants, the shop is their full-time job.
The 2026 season runs May 1 through December 27 at 1202 Riverside Drive, with shops open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. That leaves about three months to visit this year's class before it disbands:
- Arlo's Candy Shop
- Art for Adrienne
- Blink Supply Co.
- The Cake Lady
- Curated by Laney Boutique, now in its second year for owner Tawny Haberski
- Hello Darling Books & Beyond
- Nuqi Soaps
- The REfill Shed, where former environmental science educator Jodi Stone sells refillable soaps, shampoos and conditioners
- Roots and Routes Co., a Woodstock couple, Scott and Kelly Smith, who make laser-cut wood maps of the Chain O'Lakes and McHenry County towns
- The Winter Inn BBQ Company
Scott Smith told Shaw Local he tracked down maps showing lake depths so the Chain O'Lakes pieces would be accurate. Some of the people in these huts are working out what their customers want, one weekend at a time.
Where the graduates landed
Three seasons in, the program has sent a steady stream of businesses to permanent addresses. Most of them stayed in McHenry, and several stayed on Riverside Drive, the same street as the plaza.
| Business | Owner | What it sells | Permanent address | Opened there |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lumber & Twine | David Badgley | Home decor and furnishings | Shop 3430, 3430 Elm St. | March 1, 2024 |
| Mad Soyentist Candle Company | Julie Skaggs | Hand-poured soy candles | Shop 3430, 3430 Elm St. | March 1, 2024 |
| Hair Flextensions | Julie Vahos | Clip-in hair extensions | Shop 3430, 3430 Elm St. | March 1, 2024 |
| The Trend Cellar | Carol Chrisman | Skateboards, disc golf gear, clothing | 1326 Riverside Drive | August 2024 |
| Bumble Bread Co. | Danny Springer | Breads, pastries, sandwiches | 1114 N. Green St. | Late February 2025 |
| Preserved Peculiarities | Lori Fisher | Oddities, taxidermy, mounted insects | 1312 N. Riverside Drive | June 13, 2025 |
| AteaCo Coffee & Tea | Neshwa Rajeh and Atik Altahif | Coffee and tea | 1323 Riverside Drive | Grand opening late May 2026 |
AteaCo is the newest graduate. Rajeh and Altahif ran one of the Riverwalk Shoppes for two seasons before opening their café at 1323 Riverside Drive. Their grand opening was the Saturday after Shaw Local's May 28, 2026 story. A few other alumni settled outside McHenry. Crystal Edge moved Edge Designs, her refurbished-furniture business, to 5610 S. Route 31 in Crystal Lake in January 2025. Haberski opened a Crystal Lake storefront on Black Friday 2025, shared with her sister's Freundly Designs, and planned to keep her Riverwalk shop running in 2026 as well.
Some of these opening dates are a couple of years old now. The table shows where each business moved, not whether it's open this week. Small shops change their hours often, so check a shop's own page or social account before you make a special trip.
The test that starts at a permanent address
Green Street shows what graduation actually asks of a business. Bumble Bread Co. and The Pieceful Project, a Lego, puzzle and board game store run by Jessica Stetson, opened next to each other in the storefronts under the River Place Apartments. They celebrated their grand openings together during ShamROCKS the Fox in March 2025.
A year later, The Pieceful Project closed its McHenry store on Saturday, February 28, 2026. Stetson is now focusing on her other location, a store in Cary.
Springer described a similar visibility problem with a very local cause. Green Street curves between the Fox River and Waukegan Road. Coming from the north, the street bends away and hides that row of storefronts. Coming from the south, especially from the city lot on Green Street, they're almost impossible to see.
"The last year, it has been tough to get people to even know we were here." Danny Springer, Bumble Bread Co., speaking to Shaw Local in February 2026
Springer also said business is picking up. Since that first summer he has added more pastries and sandwiches to the bread-focused menu and fine-tuned his recipes and finances. The incubator gave him a place to test the product. He's building his customer base on Green Street himself.
That same stretch of Green Street could look different someday. In September 2026, the City Council reviewed a concept for the city-owned Green Street and Boone Creek site. It calls for 14 townhomes, 90 apartments, about 10,100 square feet of retail or restaurant space, and a future walking connection to the Riverwalk. At the September 8 meeting it was still a concept, and council members asked for more study of parking, traffic and fit with the area.
A fall route that follows the shops out of the plaza
October brings two downtown events that get people walking past more than the Riverwalk itself.
On Saturday, October 3, the Chamber's McHenry Murder Mystery sends teams around downtown for about four hours to solve clues and interview witnesses. Kids can play along with a scavenger hunt of their own. Two weeks later, on Saturday, October 17, the Chamber holds its first-ever Foxtober Fall Festival in the McHenry Riverwalk District from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The plan includes more than 50 pop-up vendors, food vendors, music by Sundown Entertainment, a Whirly Girls performance at 11 a.m., a community pumpkin carving station and a carving contest with three age groups. Pumpkins will be lit along the Riverwalk from 4 to 9 p.m. Participating McHenry businesses will also run Foxtober Specials, which gives the storefronts beyond the plaza a reason to join in.
On a Foxtober Saturday or any weekend before December 27, a walk that takes in both the current class and its graduates might go like this:
- Miller Point Park, 1202 Riverside Drive. Browse the 2026 Riverwalk Shoppes and stop at the America 250 tile mural beside the bandshell. It was unveiled July 1, and local residents and families painted about 650 of its nearly 1,000 tiles.
- The 1300 block of Riverside Drive. AteaCo is at 1323, The Trend Cellar at 1326 and Preserved Peculiarities at 1312. Before you head out, check whether each is open that day.
- 1114 N. Green St. Bumble Bread Co. is in the storefronts under River Place Apartments. Coming from the city lot, look for it past the curve.
- Shop 3430, 3430 Elm St. This shared storefront is where Lumber & Twine, Mad Soyentist Candle Company and Hair Flextensions moved in 2024. The Chain O'Lakes Chamber lists an event there on Saturday, October 10.
Many of the businesses on this list could be one of the Shoppes' success stories in a year or two. That depends partly on whether customers who met them in a hut by the river go looking for them once they move.
If you own a business near downtown, or one of the Riverwalk shops has you wondering about property along these blocks, I'm glad to share what I know about this part of McHenry. Reach out to Bradley Fox. Let's Connect.
