If you have driven up Fifth Avenue any Saturday since last summer, you have seen the paper come down off a storefront window and something new go up behind the glass. Six new food and drink businesses have opened between roughly 139 and 531 Fifth Avenue in about twelve months, plus new ownership at three long-running spots. That is unusual density for a village retail spine that runs about a half-mile end to end.
The surprise is not the count. It is the operators. Almost every new arrival is either a Pelham resident, a family extension of an existing Fifth Avenue business, or a returning local. Nothing here is a national chain. Nothing is an outside investor testing the market. If you already live in Pelham, the block is quietly reorganizing around people you likely already recognize.
The Twelve-Month Turnover, Mapped
Walking north on Fifth Avenue from the train, here is what has changed since the summer of 2025.
| Address | Business | Opened | Operator's Pelham tie |
|---|---|---|---|
| 139 Fifth Ave | Gigi Mediterranean Counter | Dec 2025 | Family of the owner of Sergio's Ristorante, down the block |
| 148 Fifth Ave | The Pelican Room | June 2025 | Owner has lived in Pelham 8 years |
| 153 Fifth Ave | Fifth Coffee | Mid-2026 | Built by a Pelham contractor, run by his brother |
| 321 Fifth Ave | Dulce Treats | Jan 2026 | Independent bakery |
| 531 Fifth Ave | Burger Bar 57 | Early 2026 | Reoccupation of the former B&B's 5th Avenue Pub |
| Fifth & Lincoln | BonJi Juice Bar | Nov 2025 | Owner has lived in Pelham 14 years |
Add to that three shifts at established addresses. Pelville Coffee & Pastry at Fifth and Lincoln changed hands last November, with Rene Tejeda and Selly Alvarez taking over from the two owners who ran it for eight years. Cantina Lobos, a Pelham fixture for nearly a decade, was sold to Rob Gorsline, a PMHS graduate who previously ran Tequila Sunrise in Larchmont. And North Pelham Grill and Bar reopened after a full renovation with Chef Brian MacMenamin running a modern New American menu.
Ten changes on one street in roughly a year. And with the exception of Dulce Treats, every operator either grew up here, lives here, or is one degree from another Fifth Avenue kitchen.
The Sergio's Thread
The clearest example is at 139 Fifth Avenue. Gigi Mediterranean Counter is a counter-service spot run by Eli Kosturi, his sister Yilka, and her husband Alban Gashi. Alban's father operates Sergio's Ristorante, the Italian place a short walk down the same sidewalk. The Pelham Examiner reported that the family began talking about a second concept two years before opening, then took a soft launch on December 1, 2025.
What that means practically: build-your-own bowls, wraps, and salads run about $13.99, the hours stretch late enough to catch dinner, and the operator already knew every landlord, every purveyor, and every Little League schedule on the block before day one. That is a very different starting position than a chain manager parachuted in from White Plains.
The Reoccupation Pattern
Three of the biggest 2025 to 2026 openings filled storefronts that had gone quiet.
Burger Bar 57 at 531 Fifth Avenue is a Hollywood-themed burger joint on the former site of B&B's 5th Avenue Pub, which Pelham had been without for what regulars would describe as a long time. BonJi Juice Bar sits on the corner previously held by Sue's Corner, which the Pelham Examiner noted had operated for 50 years. Owner Ebony Louissant, a 14-year Pelham resident and self-described holistic therapist, took two years to build the concept before opening last November. The name is Haitian Creole, from bon (good) and ji (juice).
The Pelican Room at 148 Fifth Avenue opened its doors for a soft launch the weekend of June 22, 2025, then went public June 25. Owner Kalkin Narvilas has lived in Pelham eight years and worked in restaurants for twenty-two. The Pelican Room is his eighth restaurant and his first in the town he lives in.
"A good restaurant is more than just a place to eat. It's a community space. That's what we're trying to create here."
That is Narvilas in the Pelham Examiner's opening writeup. The name references the pelican, adopted as Pelham's mascot during World War I. The space is divided into three parts: a daytime café, a dining room, and a speakeasy-style cocktail lounge. That structural choice, one address that reads differently at 8 a.m., 7 p.m., and 10 p.m., is a bet on residents building routines in the same room rather than a bet on foot traffic from outside.
What Actually Changes About a Thursday
If you have lived here five years, your default weeknight rotation likely included Sergio's, Rockwells, Marcello's, and a pickup slice from Pizza Fenice. Fifth Avenue's Thursday looks materially different now.
There is a full daytime layer that did not exist a year ago. Fifth Coffee opened at 153 Fifth Avenue this summer, designed by Frank Krasniqi of VisionCraft Contracting and run by his brother Ilir, who managed the morning menu at a full-service New York City restaurant before this. Pelville, under Tejeda and Alvarez, is keeping its house favorites while adding to the menu. Shea Station inside the historic train station is still the morning commuter anchor. And BonJi is the first juice bar the village has had at all.
The evening layer has gained range without losing the old anchors. A single Thursday evening walk on Fifth Avenue can now credibly string together:
- A pre-dinner drink at The Pelican Room's speakeasy
- Counter dinner at Gigi if the kids are with you
- A stop at Dulce Treats for a bakery box to bring home
- A late cocktail at North Pelham with MacMenamin's menu
- A finish at Cantina Lobos under Gorsline, who has already rebuilt the margarita program
That was not a walkable sequence in 2024. It is now.
Reading the Block if You Own Here
Two things are worth watching. First, the operators who took the risk are almost all going to be neighbors you see at the DeCicco's checkout, at Pelham Rec fields, or dropping off at PMHS. That is a different kind of village retail than a strip of chain concepts, and it tends to correlate with tenants who stay through the first slow winter rather than closing the doors in February.
Second, the village's underlying real estate story on Fifth Avenue has been in flux for a while, with the Board of Trustees terminating the memorandum of understanding with PHP Partners this year and the Wolfs Lane gas station parcel still in active debate. Retail turnover on the main spine is happening while the larger downtown redevelopment questions are still unsettled. The block that emerges over the next two years will be shaped by both.
For homeowners near the village core, the short version is that the walkable amenity count went up in 2025 and 2026 without changing the character that made people move here. For anyone eventually thinking about listing a home within a ten-minute walk of Fifth Avenue, the pitch is stronger this year than it was last year, and the reason is specific and nameable rather than generic.
If you want to talk through what any of this means for the value of your home, whether you are years away from a move or already thinking about spring, Kristin Bischof lives in the village and works these blocks every day. Reach out for an early look at what is coming to market and a straightforward read on where your house sits in it.
