Walk past 22 S. Prospect Avenue this summer and you will see the same thing you have seen for a while now: paper on the windows, a permit notice taped inside the glass, a storefront that looks like it is between chapters. If you have lived in Clarendon Hills long enough to remember standing in line at The Daily Scoop on a July evening, that stretch of sidewalk has felt like it was missing something since October 2024, when the shop closed after more than 22 years in business.
What most residents do not know is that the space did not just sit dark and wait. Someone else moved in first. Four Sons Mercantile took over the storefront after Daily Scoop closed, ran its course, and moved on. Rita's Italian Ice is now set to take the space in September 2026, which means this single address on Prospect will have cycled through three identities in under two years. That detail changes the story from "the ice cream shop is finally back" to something closer to how small downtown storefronts actually turn over here, which is slower and messier than the finished version everyone remembers.
The Space Between Two Signs
It is easy to flatten a storefront's history into "before" and "after." Daily Scoop, then a long gap, then Rita's. The Four Sons Mercantile chapter gets lost in that shorthand, but it is the part that tells you something useful. A retail space in a downtown this size does not sit empty because nobody wants it. It sits occupied, then vacant, then occupied again, on a timeline set by leases, buildouts, and whether a given concept actually works on that particular block. Understanding that rhythm is worth more to a longtime resident than knowing the name on the next sign, because it explains why other storefronts nearby have gone quiet and come back more than once over the years.
Here is the sequence as it actually happened:
- October 2024: The Daily Scoop closes after more than two decades on Prospect Avenue.
- Four Sons Mercantile occupies 22 S. Prospect in the interim.
- September 2026 (targeted): Rita's Italian Ice opens in the same storefront, under franchisee Abdull Masad.
Two full years, two different businesses, one storefront. That is the real shape of retail turnover in downtown Clarendon Hills right now, and it is worth knowing before you assume the next empty window on Prospect means nobody is interested.
Residents Asked for This, On the Record
The timing here is not a coincidence. The village has been running its own Downtown Improvement Plan process, gathering resident input through workshops, an open house, and an online survey about what downtown should look like next. Ice cream came up more than once. Survey respondents specifically asked the village to "bring back an ice cream shop," and more than one comment cited the loss of Daily Scoop by name as something the neighborhood still felt.
That is a rare thing to see line up so directly. Most of the time, what a downtown improvement plan produces is language about pedestrian flow and public realm enhancements. This time, a specific ask from a specific survey led to a specific business filling a specific address, inside the same calendar year. If you filled out that survey, or know a neighbor who did, this is what a downtown actually listening looks like in practice.
Who's Behind the Counter
Rita's Italian Ice is a Pennsylvania-founded chain built around Italian ice and frozen custard, and this location will be run by Abdull Masad, who already operates a Rita's franchise in Oak Lawn. Masad has said he plans to staff the Clarendon Hills shop with family members and expects to be visible around village events this summer as the buildout continues. Tentative hours are set for noon to 10 p.m., which puts it in line with the kind of after-dinner walk-up traffic Prospect Avenue sees on a warm night.
That Oak Lawn connection matters more than it looks. This is not an untested concept arriving cold. Masad has run the operational side of a Rita's location before, which is a different bet than a first-time owner learning a brand and a storefront at the same time. For a neighborhood that watched one long-running local shop close and a short-lived successor come and go, an operator with existing franchise experience is a meaningfully different kind of tenant.
Why September, Not July
If you are already picturing a July opening timed to the hottest stretch of summer, adjust that expectation. The target is September, which means the shop's first season here will open during the tail end of warm weather rather than the peak of it. That is worth knowing if you were planning around a summer reopening for a birthday party or a post-concert stop during the village's Wednesday night series downtown. The realistic version is that Rita's becomes part of early fall routines this year, and the first full summer season on Prospect Avenue will not arrive until 2027.
That is not a knock on the timing. Buildouts take the time they take, and a September opening still means the shop will be there for whatever early fall gatherings the village hosts, plus the entire next warm season without interruption. It just means the first taste of it, for most residents, will come with a light jacket instead of shorts.
What This Actually Tells You About Prospect Avenue
Zoom out from this one storefront and the pattern is worth sitting with. A downtown this size does not lose and regain a business quietly. It goes through a name that meant something to people for two decades, a bridge tenant that filled the gap without becoming permanent, a village planning process that asked residents directly what they wanted back, and now an operator with existing experience running the same concept elsewhere. That is four distinct chapters in under two years, all on one address.
If you have been wondering why certain storefronts on Prospect seem to change hands more than others, or why a beloved shop closing does not always mean a quick like-for-like replacement, this corner is your answer. Retail here moves in stages, shaped as much by what an operator can execute as by what residents are asking for. The survey got its request answered. The building found its next chapter. And if you are the kind of neighbor who remembers standing in line at Daily Scoop on a summer night, September is when you get to start doing that again.
I am Donnie Joseph, and I spend as much time paying attention to what is opening on Prospect Avenue as I do to what is closing on it. If you are curious about what a shift like this means for the block you live on or the one you are watching, Let's Connect.
