Stacked pillowy pancakes smothered in powdered sugar. Cornmeal-crusted fried green tomatoes served alongside freshly poached eggs. Made-to-order stuffed omelets with various vegetables and specialty cheeses.
The menu offerings at the newly-opened Buttermilk Cafe in Wilmette aspire to provide every customer with a dish they may be craving, or at least that’s the goal, says co-owner Danny Shamoon.
“It’s breakfast to lunch, A to Z,” Shamoon told Pioneer Press. “It’s a little bit of everything.”
“And if a customer comes in and says, ‘Hey, listen, I would really like this and this,’ as long as we have the ingredients, I don’t say no. We’ll try to figure it out.”
Shamoon, a former fitness trainer and owner of MyBody Complex gym in Northfield, decided to open a Wilmette Buttermilk Cafe with his wife, Emmy, after feeling awestruck while eating at the Vernon Hills location, one of four prior Buttermilk locations in the north and west suburbs of Chicago.
“We sat down and I said, ‘Wow, what a beautiful atmosphere, high energy,’…I want this for my kids, I want this energy for my kids. I don’t want them in the gym industry.”
Shamoon asked the store manager if the business was a franchise and was initially told no, but that the owners were thinking about making it one. Buttermilk founders Katie and Spiro Kouvelis got in touch with Shamoon within 24 hours, he said.
With cafes in Geneva, Naperville, Vernon Hills, Downers Grove and now the first franchise location in Wilmette, the eatery is hoping to bring the comfort-style, breakfast and brunch classics it’s been serving up since 2014 to the North Shore.
Located at the long-vacant 200 Skokie Boulevard site, on the site of the former Baker’s Square, Buttermilk opened to the public Thursday, Oct. 15, seating approximately 180 customers at any given time, with a main dining room area, sun room, patio and coffee bar.
In the cafe’s soft opening Wednesday morning, Shamoon was flanked by a sea of family members, friends and Wilmette officials eager to witness what’s been years in the making. Among them were the Kouvelises, who Shamoon said have been involved in every step of the restaurant’s creation.
“We’re really excited to work with [Shamoon],” Spiro Kouvelis said Wednesday. “I think they feel the passion and they want to put that in their store too, which is incredible.”
Kouvelis told Pioneer Press Buttermilk makes nearly 100 different dishes from scratch every day, using fresh ingredients and 100% pure maple syrup served alongside the restaurant’s buttermilk pancakes, crepes, waffles and brioche french toast.
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Other fan-favorite menu items include the kitchen’s signature honey biscuit —served as a side to most dishes or on its own— and the smoked salmon benedict or “benny,” made with smoked salmon, grilled tomatoes, shaved red onion, avocado, capers and a poached egg on top.
Shamoon said he worked with Kouvelis to expand the eatery’s serving sizes, because he wanted customers to have more food on their plate than the average breakfast shop.
“Restaurants everywhere are charging more money for food, and at the end of the day, we want a family to come here and not feel like they’re getting (ripped off),” he said.
The cafe also boasts an extensive drink and coffee menu, with freshly-squeezed orange juice, milk, teas and espresso drinks.
Shamoon said the journey to opening has been a long road since formally acquiring the property in 2025. The couple attempted to originally lease the building in 2023, but gave up on those plans after months of negotiation delays with the prior landlord.
The site has sat vacant since 2019, he added, following two failed business attempts by Murray Bros. Caddyshack Bar and Restaurant in 2022 and a McDonald’s in 2024, which did not receive the required approval from officials, according to village documents.
Village President Senta Plunkett was present at the Wednesday soft opening, alongside several other village officials who offered praise for the establishment while enjoying stuffed omelets.
In 2025, Shamoon requested financial assistance from the village in covering a portion of the exterior redevelopment costs of the building, per village records.
While that deal did not move forward, trustees unanimously approved a $150,000 sales tax revenue remittance over a 10-year period in April 2025.
The agreement specifies that the village receives the first $20,000 in sales tax dollars generated by the restaurant each year and the next $30,000 is rebated to Buttermilk.
Any amount above $50,000 will be split between the cafe and the village until the full amount of $150,000 is reached, according to village records.
Shamoon said he’s “very grateful” to Wilmette for the support he’s received over the past year in developing the storefront.
“[The village] saved me so much time and money with permits and paperwork…Anytime I need anything, I can just pick up the phone and somebody is there to pick up.”
Wilmette’s Buttermilk location is open from 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., seven days a week.
Parking is available in the front lot and surrounding side streets. Food substitutions for customers with gluten, dairy or additional allergies are available.