Best Things to Do in Peabody in Late Summer 2026

The Northshore Mall promenade is getting a Brazilian steakhouse, a Nashville-style hot chicken counter, and a Shake Shack inside a six-week window. A mile away on Andover Street, a new kind of food hall opened its doors in late July with more than twenty restaurant brands running out of one kitchen. And on the last Sunday in September, Lowell Street will close for the forty-first year running so the International Festival can take over Peabody Square.

If you have lived in Peabody for a while, you already know the city has two centers of gravity: the mall side around Route 114, and the historic Square. What is new this summer is how sharply the two are pulling apart in personality. One is becoming the North Shore's default first-run dining zone. The other is doubling down on the civic calendar that the mall cannot replicate. Here is what is landing where.

The Mall Side: Four Openings in Six Weeks

The Northshore Mall's summer roster reads less like a leasing update and more like a food court reboot. Fogo de Chão, Dave's Hot Chicken, Shake Shack and Lids Locker Room are all expected to arrive in the coming weeks.

• Fogo de Chão. A full-service Brazilian steakhouse targeting an August opening at the mall. The Peabody location will be the brand's third in the Boston area, joining existing locations at Burlington Mall and in Boston. The lease covers roughly 6,184 square feet, which puts it in the same footprint bracket as the mall's other sit-down anchors.
• Dave's Hot Chicken. Projected to open in mid-August on the Promenade, next to Amigo's Mexican Kitchen & Tequila Bar. The fast-casual chain is known for Nashville-style hot chicken, including tenders, sliders and customizable heat levels.
• Shake Shack. Also planned for the Promenade, next to Immersive Gamebox, with a late summer opening. The company has grown to more than 660 locations worldwide since it was founded in 2004, and this is its first North Shore address.
• Lids Locker Room. Projected to be completed by mid-August on the main level, next to GNC. The store will carry team gear including bobbleheads, koozies, house flags and jewelry.

Zoom out and the pattern is clear. Along with the recently opened Old Navy and Foot Locker stores, in 2027, the Northshore Mall anticipated the opening of the DICK's House of Sport and the Residence Inn by Marriott Peabody location. A hotel on the property is the tell. Simon is not just re-tenanting a mall; it is building a small district where you can eat, sleep, and stay a weekend without leaving the parcel. For Peabody residents, the practical effect is that "the mall" now handles Tuesday night takeout, birthday dinners, and out-of-town guest logistics that used to send people down Route 1 or into Boston.

The Andover Street Curveball: Wonder

The most unusual opening of the summer is not at the mall at all. It is at 229 Andover Street, where a new Wonder location in Peabody is set to officially open on July 23, with a ribbon-cutting, giveaways, live music and free samples. The ribbon cutting is scheduled for 10:30 a.m., and the location will operate during regular business hours from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m.

Wonder is not a restaurant in the way the others on this list are. The new site will let customers combine items from more than 20 restaurants in a single order through its app, with delivery, pickup and dine-in options available through the platform. On the opening menu: Wing Trip boneless wings with nine flavor options, Bobby Flay's filet mignon, Tejas' carrot soufflé and El Diez rice bowls, including the steak fajita rice bowl and red chile carnitas rice bowl. Wonder also said Magnolia Bakery's cookies & cream Pudding will be available exclusively through the platform.

One kitchen. Twenty-plus brands. One receipt for the whole table.

Why this matters locally: The company said it now has 13 locations open across Massachusetts and New Hampshire, with additional openings planned throughout the summer. Peabody is not being tested with this concept. It is being trusted with it. Andover Street's mix of drivers heading to and from Route 114 makes it a natural pickup corridor, and 11:30 p.m. closes are late by Peabody standards.

Peabody Square Is Playing a Different Game

Everything above is happening on the retail side of the city. The Square is doing something Route 114 cannot: keeping a public calendar.

The Summer Concert Series at Leather City Commons runs through August, with the Go Your Own Way Fleetwood Mac tribute on the docket for August 2 at 6:00 p.m. It is free, it is outdoors, and it is the kind of thing you walk to if you live within a mile of Main Street.

Then comes the anchor event. Sunday, September 27, 2026 (rain date October 4). The International Festival is the largest festival of its kind and the signature event in Peabody, Massachusetts for 40 years. This year is the forty-first edition, per the City of Peabody's public notices. The Festival continues to attract thousands to Peabody Square every year. Dozens of civic organizations, nonprofits, local businesses, cultural groups, crafters and artisans line Downtown Peabody with delicious food and art inspired from places all around the world while popular bands and performance groups entertain the crowd. Lowell Street closes. Granite Coast Brewing will also have beer in front of their storefront at 77 Main Street.

That last detail is the one that gives the day its texture. Granite Coast opens onto the same street as the tents. So does the rest of the Main Street block. The festival is not staged next to downtown; it is downtown, for one Sunday.

A Compact Late-Summer Calendar

If you want the shortlist for the next eight weekends, this is it.

What This Says About the City

Two things are true at once, and holding both is the point.

The first is that Peabody's commercial center of gravity is moving toward Route 114 faster than most residents realize. A steakhouse, a burger chain, a hot chicken counter, and a 6,184-square-foot Brazilian dining room all opening in one summer, on one property, with a hotel and a flagship sporting goods store on deck for 2027, is not a normal leasing year. It is a repositioning. For homeowners in West Peabody and the neighborhoods off Lowell and Lynn Streets, that convenience is now closer than it was a year ago.

The second is that the Square is not losing ground. It is keeping the parts of a city that a mall cannot lease: the free concert on a Sunday evening, the forty-first year of a festival that closes a state route, the walk from your front door to a beer in front of a brewery you know by name. The mall side is where you go. The Square is where you belong to.

For anyone thinking about a move within Peabody, or from a nearby town into it, that split is worth understanding before you look at a single listing. A home three minutes from the mall and a home three minutes from Main Street are now two different lifestyles inside one zip code, and both got more distinct this summer.

If you want a clearer read on how these shifts are showing up in specific Peabody neighborhoods, or how buyers and sellers are weighing the mall corridor against the Square, the Marjorie Youngren Team is happy to talk it through. Contact Us to start the conversation.