Rochester's Light Show Season Gets a New Table at Fourth and Main

"We opened The Roxy three years ago, and we were drawing a lot of people into town that were having meals and dinner before shows at other places," Glenn Wilhelm told WXYZ this month. His fix was to open a restaurant. Harrison's Restaurant and Wine Bar is now open at 401 S. Main Street, the corner of Fourth and Main, in the space where D'Marco's Restaurant & Wine Bar used to be.

The opening lands about six weeks before the Big, Bright Light Show comes back to downtown Rochester. The holiday calendar itself barely changes from year to year. The places around it have changed, and Harrison's is the biggest of several new stops that make this season's evenings downtown look different from last year's.

What Opened at Fourth and Main

The Detroit Free Press reported on Oct. 2 that Harrison's was officially open. The menu covers Italian specialties, beef entrees, burgers and wood-fired pizza, and the wine list goes deep by the glass or the bottle. Happy hour runs 4 to 6 p.m., Tuesday through Friday, at the bar only. According to that same Free Press roundup, the October 2026 happy hour menu had French onion soup for $6 and a smash burger with fries for $12.

Wilhelm told WXYZ he wants it to serve two kinds of nights:

"We really want Harrison's to be a real hometown locals place. We're looking for a spot where you can bring your wife for a nice steak dinner and a great bottle of wine, and then also come with the kids and family and have a great wood-fired pizza."

During the holidays that range counts for a lot. Some light show evenings are a stroll with a stroller, and some are a reservation followed by a show at The Roxy. With both businesses under one owner, Wilhelm has said outright that he wants to keep the pre-show dinner downtown. You can find hours and reservations on the Harrison's website.

The Calendar Those Tables Will Serve

These are the 2026 dates the Rochester Downtown Development Authority has posted, plus the parade date from the Rochester Regional Chamber of Commerce.

One date needs a caveat. The DDA's light show page says the lights run "Nov 23 through January 17, 2027." The DDA event calendar starts the show on Tuesday, Nov. 24. The DDA's September 2026 meeting packet calls Lagniappe on Nov. 23 the kickoff of the show, and the DDA was already booking entertainment and arranging utilities for that night. Monday, Nov. 23 is the best-supported first night. The DDA site is still the place to confirm it as the date gets closer.

This year's parade theme is "Winter Wonderland Wishes." The Chamber's parade page has the details.

Line the table up against Harrison's happy hour and the calendar works in your favor. Lagniappe falls on a Monday, and the happy hour isn't offered that night. The other weeknights of the light show are open, though, and a 4 to 6 p.m. bar window ends about an hour after the lights come on at 5. Between the Monday kickoff and the parade on Sunday, Dec. 6, the 5 p.m. lights and a Tuesday-through-Friday early bar menu overlap on most weekday evenings.

The Smaller Openings Running Up University and North Main

Harrison's covers the south end of Main Street. Other openings this year spread north and onto University Drive.

The City of Rochester's summer 2026 business update, dated July 1, listed what had opened and what was still coming.

• Le Juice, an organic juice café, had recently opened at 118 W. University.
• 203 E. University had been turned into a retail shop selling artisan chocolates and refreshments. That address belongs to Asterism Artisan Chocolate, and a Fox 2 segment aired July 23, 2026, featured Charles Scott's Asterism at that location.
• 543 N. Main was expected to get a vintage record store "early this summer." That store now looks to be Rochester Records, which says "Now Open!!" on its own site, sells new and used vinyl, and lists its address as 543 N. Main St., Suite 413.

None of these sources gives an exact opening date, so the most accurate description for all three is recently opened. Together they give the light show route a juice stop, a chocolate counter and a record shop, all three of them recent arrivals. The chocolate shop and the record store also fit Plaid Friday on Nov. 27 and Small Business Saturday on Nov. 28, two days that are about shopping at independent stores.

The same city update named more projects that hadn't opened as of July 1:

1. A coffee café and bakery planned for 223 S. Main, the former Fieldstone Winery space.
2. A Yemeni-coffee café going into 125 S. Main, where Kumon used to be.
3. An English-style pub the owners of 406 S. Main were "looking to put in" on the first floor.

The city didn't name the operators or give opening dates for any of them. We haven't found a source since then confirming that any of the three is open. If even one opens before mid-January, South Main will have another warm stop while the lights are still up.

What's on at The Roxy Before the Lights Come On

Wilhelm's comment to WXYZ explains the timing. The Roxy brings people downtown on show nights, and Harrison's is where he wants them to eat first. The Roxy's calendar has a busy run in early November, before Lagniappe:

• Friday, Nov. 6, 8 p.m.: Elektrik Dream, and Sal Demilio comedy the same night
• Saturday, Nov. 7, 8 p.m.: Captured Detroit, a Journey tribute
• Thursday, Nov. 12, 8 p.m.: RARA's second annual Comedy Night
• Friday, Nov. 13, 7 p.m.: Matt Conn comedy

When we checked, the calendar didn't list anything after Nov. 13, and no December shows had been posted. That will probably change as the season gets closer. For now, the clearest dinner-and-a-show nights in Wilhelm's plan fall in the two weeks before the lights go on.

Putting a Light Show Evening Together This Year

With the calendar and the new addresses side by side, a downtown evening this season can run in a few ways that weren't possible a year ago.

On a weeknight between Nov. 24 and Dec. 4, Harrison's bar opens its happy hour at 4. The lights come on at 5 and stay on until midnight, so there's time for a walk up Main afterward, or a stop at Rochester Records on North Main if the shop's hours allow.

On Plaid Friday or Small Business Saturday, the University Drive shops make an easy loop. Le Juice is at 118 W. University and Asterism is at 203 E. University, on opposite sides of Main.

On parade Sunday, Dec. 6, the parade starts at 2 p.m., three hours before the lights come on at 5. That gap is long enough for an early dinner downtown, and Harrison's website lists its current hours.

The lights stay on nightly through Sunday, Jan. 17, 2027, so the quieter weeks after New Year's give you a chance to try whichever new places you skipped in December.

At Saba Katto, we follow the details here closely, from a new restaurant on a familiar corner to a café still waiting to open on South Main. If you live within walking distance of the lights and want to know how the neighborhood's momentum shows up in your home's value, ask us for a free home valuation and we'll go over the numbers with you.