Whitefish Bay's Sendik's Now Faces West, and the Corner Works Differently

"I'm pleased to say that our month-long regional nightmare of Sendik's not being open is over," village president Kevin Buckley said at the September 23 grand opening, according to BizTimes. The joke landed because everyone in the room knew the gap. The old store closed August 23, and for four weeks a village that has bought its groceries at Lake Drive and Silver Spring Drive since 1949 had to go somewhere else.

About five weeks after opening, the change worth understanding is the layout. Sendik's stayed on the same property. It moved to the other side of it. The new building sits on the east part of the site with its entrance facing west, and the ground where the 1949 store stood is being turned into parking. The corner people have known for nearly eight decades now points a different way, and the building on it is designed to keep people longer than a grocery run.

One lot over, turned around

The store rebuilt on its own block, and the order of construction is what made that possible. BizTimes reported that the new building went up where a single-story office and retail building had stood on the eastern part of the site. That let the old store keep running through almost all of the seven-month project.

Here's how it went:

1. October 2025. The Whitefish Bay Village Board approved the project.
2. The seven-month build. The new building went up on the east side of the site while the 1949 store stayed open for almost the whole project.
3. August 23, 2026. The original store closed, and the building was razed to make room for a planned 119-space parking lot.
4. September 23, 2026. The new store opened at 500 E. Silver Spring Drive with a ribbon cutting and the Whitefish Bay High School Marching Band.

The Journal Sentinel put the new store "at the head of Whitefish Bay's downtown district," just east of the first permanent location. With the entrance facing west, the front door now looks toward the downtown blocks instead of the lake side of the intersection, and the parking is moving onto the old store's footprint.

The work went past the property line, too. According to BizTimes, the project rebuilt the streetscape along East Silver Spring Drive and North Lake Drive. It also reconfigured North Consaul Place and East Beaumont Avenue to improve traffic flow and add parking. Nashotah-based MSI General was the general contractor, and Milwaukee-based Madisen Maher Architects designed it. If you've come in from Consaul or Beaumont and found the route different from last spring, that's this project. The 119-space lot is part of the plan, so check how it looks on your next visit rather than assuming the whole site is finished.

A building meant for staying

The old store was a market that kept expanding. TMJ4 reported that Tom Balistreri opened it in 1949 as a fruit and vegetable market at Silver Spring and Lake. Over the years it added groceries, meat, deli, dairy, bakery, and wine and spirits. The family's grocery business goes back to 1926, when the Balistreris sold produce from a horse-drawn wagon after coming to Milwaukee from Santa Elia, Sicily. The new store arrives in the company's 100th year.

The new building has two floors and a mezzanine connecting them. The ground floor is a full grocery, and the mezzanine and second floor are built for sitting, eating and gathering. Here's what's on each level, based on reporting from BizTimes:

The Journal Sentinel's preview also listed more than 4,000 new products, fresh pasta and mozzarella, live music stations and a salad bar alongside the burrito, sandwich and sushi counters. North Shore Family Adventures describes those as products that weren't available in the previous store. That's a lot of new shelf space at a corner where people already knew where everything was.

Shoppers on opening day noticed the shift. "It's a destination. It's not just a place to go shopping," Tom Friedel told TMJ4. In the same BizTimes coverage, Buckley listed Klode Park, Pandl's and Winkie's among the village's "jewels" and called the store "the beating heart of our village."

Upstairs, the newest part

The second floor depends most on how the restaurant runs, and it was the last piece scheduled to open. Tudi's Bar and Restaurant is named for the nickname of the elder Ted Balistreri. BizTimes describes it as a full-service restaurant serving scratch-made casual food and comfort food: sandwiches, heavy appetizers, pastas, burgers and pizza. On opening day, third-generation co-owner Ted Balistreri told the outlet that Tudi's was "slated to open next week."

Sendik's own hiring pages give a better sense of the kitchen. They say the mozzarella is pulled by hand daily, the pasta is made on site and the burgers use a custom beef blend. The bartender posting mentions seasonal cocktails and a beer and wine program. Those pages also mention a second-floor outdoor patio. Since it comes from job postings, treat it as part of the plan until you see it open. If you're planning dinner upstairs on a particular night, call the store first for current hours and to ask about reservations.

The gathering space next to Tudi's may matter more to the village over time than the menu does. North Shore Family Adventures reproduced a Sendik's social post describing an event area for groups of about 50. A space that size, above a grocery store on the main corner, could host a birthday dinner, a team party or a club meeting. If you want to book it, ask the store directly how reservations work.

Where the corner fits this week

The store is open 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day. This week the village calendar adds a second reason to be out on Silver Spring after dark.

The Whitefish Bay Civic Foundation's Great Pumpkin Festival runs October 28 through 31 at Old Schoolhouse Park. The foundation's 2026 Community Event Calendar sets it up in three steps:

• Pumpkin pickup at Schoolhouse Park started October 24.
• Carved pumpkins were due back before Wednesday, October 28.
• Music, food and a beer tent run each night from 6 to 9 p.m. through Saturday, October 31.

That leaves Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. The festival tent and the Sendik's doors both close at 9 p.m., which makes for an easy evening: walk the carved pumpkins, then pick up something from the hot bar or sushi counter before you head home. If Tudi's is serving by then, you can walk the pumpkins and then have dinner upstairs.

The corner of Lake and Silver Spring is part of what people mean when they talk about living in Whitefish Bay, and changes like this one show up in how buyers picture the blocks around it. If you're thinking about how your own home near Silver Spring Drive would present once the new corner is part of the story, the Shar Borg Team can walk you through it. Request a complimentary concierge consultation.