"Old buildings are difficult to work with, but we think it will be worth it."
Ilya Vorobey said that in February, standing behind the plan for Capperini at 137 S. Easton Road. At the time he expected to close up the drywall in about two months and open in roughly five. Seven months later, the target has moved to October or November.
That one quote sums up Easton Road right now. Every food business that has opened, or is about to open, on Glenside's main street in 2026 has moved into a space another tenant shaped first. None of them started from an empty lot. They took over a graduate school, an ice cream counter, a family pizza shop, and a corner of a convenience store. In each case, the earlier occupant shaped what the new one could become and how long it took.
Here they are in order, walking north from the south end of the street.
271 S. Easton Road: a café that moved into a store
The smallest new arrival is Finjan, a craft café going in inside Lahasa Quickmart. It is joining the convenience store, not replacing it. Barista Adelaide Elliott was getting the concept ready in late summer. By early September the café was putting on its final touches, hoping to be fully running by October, with no exact opening date announced.
As of October 2, no published report confirms that Finjan has opened. A visit should be treated as a check-in, not a sure thing.
The arrangement shows the pattern at its simplest. Sharing a space that is already leased, lit, and open to customers lets a coffee counter skip most of the buildout that slows a full restaurant. The block just south of it shows what that buildout looks like.
137 S. Easton Road: the building that set the schedule
Capperini is the largest project on the street. It is also the clearest case of a building deciding a restaurant's timeline.
The property is a 15,000-square-foot building that used to house the Won Institute, an accredited graduate school offering acupuncture, Won Buddhist studies, and other healing arts. Its accreditor's records show the Institute moved its main campus from 137 S. Easton Road to 800 Jacksonville Road in Warminster, with the new campus opening on September 27, 2021. Cheltenham Township received the first application to turn the building into a restaurant in December 2023.
The building drew Vorobey and his partners in the first place. He said it reminded him of an old European building. It also comes with the work an old building needs. The plans call for an elevator, a bar on each floor, and a second-floor event space with high ceilings and big windows. The original proposal had 138 seats on the first floor and 194 on the second, plus about 16 outdoors. Vorobey said the second floor will probably seat closer to 150 so it doesn't feel crowded.
The liquor license is inherited too. On March 18, 2026, Cheltenham's Board of Commissioners adopted Resolution 14-26, approving the transfer of a restaurant liquor license from Norristown to 137 S. Easton Road. The approval still depends on a separate sign-off from the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board. The full resolution text is on the township's site. No published report found during research confirms the state's final approval. In February, Capperini described itself as BYOB until the license comes through.
The menu plans are specific:
- Homemade pasta, with special water filters for making it
- An all-you-can-eat dessert room with as many as 30 desserts, open after dinner
- A menu and atmosphere Vorobey called casual, with pricing he said he doesn't want to be "super expensive"
The Philadelphia Inquirer's fall 2026 roundup of new restaurants says Vorobey's partners include members of the team behind Capri in Queen Village. The opening window depends on the source. A September 10 interview had the restaurant in its final stages and aiming for November or December. Glenside Local's September 15 update, the most recent status report available, gives October or November. Either way, a building the Won Institute left in 2021 is on track to serve its first dinner sometime in late 2026.
112 S. Easton Road: a handoff within one family
A block and a half north, the change at the old Apollo's Pizza moved much faster, because almost nothing had to be invented.
Vincenzo's Pizza & Steaks took over 112 S. Easton Road under owners Alex Filipe and Steve Schmucker. Filipe's father used to own Apollo's, which made this a family-connected handoff, not a sale to strangers. The shop launched unofficially in April 2026, soft-opened May 27 and 28, and began delivery soon after. The new owners describe a slice-focused pizza and Italian-American shop built on fresh dough and fresh ingredients, with few frozen products. Vincenzo's website still lists the Easton Road address and has active menu and ordering links.
Put this next to Capperini and the gap is clear. A pizza counter taking over a pizza counter, run by a family that already knew the space, went from unofficial launch to delivery in about two months. A two-story restaurant in a former graduate school, with a liquor license moving in from another municipality, has been underway since at least December 2023.
448 N. Easton Road: same counter, new owner
At the north end of the strip, the old Carminati Creamery shop has a new tenant selling a related product.
Carminati announced on August 30, 2025, that it was closing its Glenside shop. It said running two shops was challenging and that it would move operations to its newer Jenkintown location. Glenside resident Amanda Sheridan has since opened Bella's Cremeria at 448 N. Easton Road. She launched Steak It Easy in Willow Grove in February and opened Bella's about five months later.
The menu stays with what the room was built for and then adds to it. Bella's sells ice cream, gelato, and frozen treats alongside cheesecake, burgers, and cheesesteak egg rolls. Bella's Cremeria lists its hours as 2 to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 2 to 8 p.m. Sunday, closed Mondays. Those hours are newer than the Sunday schedule printed in September's opening coverage, so the website is the one to trust.
The same pattern, one borough over
Jenkintown's fall openings follow the same logic, and they are close enough to count as part of the same food scene.
Go Bananas Frozen Yogurt, owned by Gabby Ye, held its grand opening on September 25 at 401 York Road, the former Oswald's Pharmacy space. Lucatelli's Pizzeria has announced a location at 314 York Road, where Pizza Wheel closed in October 2025, with no firm opening date yet. Its announced menu highlights 72-hour-fermented dough and scratch-made cutlets. Habit Burger & Grill plans a soft opening on October 3 and 4 at 1621 The Fairway, followed by a grand opening on Monday, October 5.
A pizza shop replacing a pizza shop and a frozen yogurt counter in a former pharmacy follow the same pattern as Easton Road. The quickest openings are the ones that match what the space was already built to do.
Where each one stands on October 2
For planning the next few weekends, this is how the Easton Road arrivals line up based on the latest published reports:
- Vincenzo's Pizza & Steaks, 112 S. Easton Road. Open since its late-May soft opening, with online ordering active.
- Bella's Cremeria, 448 N. Easton Road. Open Tuesday through Sunday afternoons and evenings, closed Mondays.
- Finjan, 271 S. Easton Road. Aiming for October inside Lahasa Quickmart, with no confirmed opening yet.
- Capperini, 137 S. Easton Road. Targeting late 2026, with October or November in the most recent update. The township has approved the liquor license transfer, and state approval is still pending.
Glenside Local's food and drink coverage has followed each of these projects from application to soft opening, and it is the first place a confirmed Capperini or Finjan date is likely to appear.
Knowing who held a storefront before, and what it was built for, often explains what opens there next and how long it takes. That history matters just as much when the property for sale is a house. If you're thinking about a move near downtown Glenside, or putting a home on Easton Road's side streets on the market, Diane Reddington can walk you through how the blocks around these addresses are changing. Let's Connect.
