The building at the corner of Lincoln Highway and Wicker Avenue used to be a Burgerhaus. Now the windows glow with the warmer light of a room built for lingering, and the sign out front reads Lincoln & Wicker, a name that only makes sense once you notice it sits at the exact intersection it's named for. That corner is also where downtown Schererville will close its streets later this month for an event the town is calling the Schererville Street Fest.
If you're picturing carnival rides and a beer garden at Redar Park, you're thinking of the wrong festival. That one already happened. This is a different party, in a different part of town, and the distinction matters if you actually want to plan your September around it.
Redar Park Already Had Its Turn
Celebrate Schererville Fest ran its usual five days at Peter G. Redar Memorial Park from June 10 through June 14 this year, the way it has since the tradition started back in 1991. Carnival rides, live bands every night, a Saturday parade, a beer garden, bingo. It's the town's biggest single gathering of the summer, and 2026 brought one change worth knowing about if you're planning ahead for next year: for the first time, non-residents had to pay for entry, a shift from the free-and-open model the fest ran on for decades.
That event is done. What's landing downtown this month is not a rerun.
A Fest Built Around a Corner, Not a Field
The Schererville Street Fest doesn't happen in a park. It happens on the streets of the actual downtown grid, which is why the town has already posted road closure notices and event rules for it, something Redar Park events don't require in the same way since Redar Park has its own grounds to absorb the crowd. Closing a downtown street for a festival is a different kind of commitment than opening a park gate. It says the town thinks downtown itself, the buildings and the sidewalks between them, is worth showing off.
And downtown has something to show off right now. Lincoln & Wicker opened in the former Burgerhaus space this year under Chef Jay Ruff, who spent 33 years working Chicago kitchens before opening a restaurant of his own. His family moved to St. John two and a half years ago, and he's said the crossing of Lincoln Highway and Wicker Avenue always reminded him of two of his favorite Chicago neighborhoods, Wicker Park and Lincoln Park. The menu leans into that Chicago-honed range: duck confit, grilled octopus, wild boar chops, a smashburger he's called a "banger," alongside a cocktail list built on old fashioneds, martinis, vodka gimlets, and whisky sours, backed by 12 beers on tap and an extensive whisky collection. Weekend brunch is on the way too, with duck confit and duck eggs, truffle potato hash, and braised pork belly on the planned menu.
Ruff has described the concept in his own words:
"It will have the ambiance of a speakeasy."
That's the kind of dining room downtown Schererville didn't really have a year ago. Now it sits directly on the same blocks the Street Fest will close.
What Else You Can Walk To Since Burgerhaus Closed
Lincoln & Wicker isn't the only sign that Schererville's food scene has widened past the drive-through corridor along US 30 and 41. A few blocks and a short drive from downtown, the mix now includes:
- Region Ale Tap House & Eatery at 1080 US-41, pouring 50 taps of craft beer, cider, and spirits with a dog-friendly patio and weekly trivia nights that regularly pack the room
- Naan & Kabab, a fine-dining Indian kitchen doing in-house parties and outdoor catering alongside its regular dinner service
- Mi Sueño, an upscale Mexican kitchen and cocktail bar that's shown up on local "new and notable" lists as of this past summer
- Kui Korean BBQ, Kyoto Ramen, and Nisi Greek Taverna, three additions that would have been hard to find in Schererville even five years ago
None of this replaces the town's longtime staples. Pepino's has been serving homemade Italian food in Schererville for about two decades now, part of a family business that traces back to a converted sausage factory in Calumet City in 1986. The new additions sit alongside that history rather than erasing it, which is really the point. A crossroads town that used to be defined by its highway exits is quietly building a downtown you'd actually choose to walk, not just pass through on your way somewhere else.
The Roadwork Clears Right Before the Streets Close
If you've been avoiding Junction Avenue between Kennedy Avenue and Joliet Street this summer, you're not imagining the inconvenience. That stretch was closed for reconfiguration as part of the broader Kennedy Avenue expansion project running from US 30 to Main Street, with the closure extended through September 4, meaning the route should already be back open as of this week. Right behind it comes a second, unrelated disruption: NIPSCO has electrical work closing 213th Street, also known as Airport Road, from September 8 through September 11, a timeline the utility pushed back after the August 11 storm knocked out power across the area.
Neither closure is the Street Fest, and neither should still be in effect by the time downtown closes its own streets for the festival later in the month. The Junction Avenue detour already cleared, and the NIPSCO closure wraps a full week before the festival weekend, which means the routes that have been rerouting your summer commute should be a non-issue by the time you're walking down to Lincoln Highway.
What This Actually Signals About Downtown
Two festivals in one summer, in two different parts of town, is a pattern worth sitting with. Redar Park's carnival is the town's biggest party, but it's also the kind of event that could happen almost anywhere with enough open grass and a stage. A street fest only works if the street itself is worth walking, block to block, past storefronts people actually want to stop in front of. The fact that Schererville is now closing Lincoln Highway and Wicker Avenue for exactly that kind of event, in the same year a Chicago-trained chef chose that intersection for his first solo restaurant, says something about where the town thinks its own center of gravity is headed.
If you live here, you've probably already noticed the shift in smaller ways, a new patio filling up on a Thursday, a cuisine on a menu you didn't expect to find in Northwest Indiana. The Street Fest later this month is really just the town making that shift official for a weekend, closing the same streets that have quietly filled in with the kind of dining room worth walking to.
If you're weighing what a home in a neighborhood like this is actually worth once you factor in a downtown that keeps adding restaurants, foot traffic, and reasons to stay local on a weeknight, that's a conversation best had with someone who watches these blocks change in real time. Gina Guarino Group has been doing exactly that across Northwest Indiana for years. Let our team, be your team.
