Eatery welcome addition to east Geneva gateway

GENEVA - Ray Pawlak did not need an explanation, but he wanted one anyway.

The alderman from one of the city's east side wards was making sure people at City Hall Monday night and those watching the City Council meeting on TV, knew what restaurateur Nick Nicalaou was up to.

Nicalaou is developing a restaurant at the southeast corner of East State and Sandholm streets, in the renovated house that once held The Rib House.

The popular restaurant closed several years ago and has sat vacant since then. For the past six months or so, Nicalaou has been renovating the house and now has a plan before the council to open a restaurant there.

He told aldermen the restaurant will be called Rigonato and feature a menu for "the everyday guy." The food will be sandwiches, steaks, seafood, pizza and the like. As part of the plan, he will have seating for 36 people inside and an outside deck.

"I've been in the business for 27 years," Nicalaou said. "So I know what I'm getting into."

He said the restaurant should be open in about six months.

The restaurant will be developed in two phases. In the first phase, it will be remodeled into the two-story building. In the second phase, scheduled to start in three years, Nicalaou will tear down a retail building next door, which now houses Me & Dad's Toys, and build a new parking lot and new landscaping on the property.

The lot will be paved and lined, unlike the current gravel lot there. It also will be set back from the road, with landscaping features and a bioswale, a setback with plantings that make the land more permeable and provide plants that cleanse stormwater as it percolates back into the ground.

When the entire project is finished, the parking lot will have more than enough parking for the restaurant and for an office use on the second floor of the building. But until then, while Me & Dad's Toys still is there, Nocalaou has signed a contract with a small retail strip mall next door to help provide parking.

There will be no on-street parking near the restaurant.

One reason Pawlak wanted an explanation of the project is that it is a key property along the eastern entrance to the city, in what is known as the East State Street corridor. It will dovetail with the improvements made at Aldi, CVS Pharmacy and Dairy Queen, which include similar setbacks and new sidewalks.

"We already appreciate seeing what you've done with the building," Pawlak told Nicalaou.

Aldermen gave preliminary approval to the site plan and a special use for the property, although a final vote will be taken at the council's next meeting on Monday.