East Side should be happy with new restaurant
East Siders here should be happy with a new restaurant planned along State Street in what is considered the East Side commercial corridor.
It is planned for the building that for years contained The Rib House, a popular restaurant that achieved fame throughout the Chicago area.
But it closed a few years ago, and the building has sat ever since, kept up but clearly empty, as attested to by the empty gravel parking lot surrounding the building, once constantly filled.
Owner Nick Nicalaou, the building owner, has before the City Council, an application for a special use for the property to put a new restaurant in the old Rib House building, which actually is an old residential house that was remodeled into the restaurant.
The proposal also would include the other building that is on the lot, a commercial property that currently holds Me & Dad's Toys, a collectibles retail store.
It would be done in two phases, with the first phase renovation of the building and opening of the restaurant, and the second phase tearing down the Me & Dad's Toys building, in three years, and building a bigger parking lot that would be paved and lined.
The property also would include more landscaping, so that despite the pavement, there would be less impervious surface on the lot. In a setback from busy State Street, Nicalaou would build a bioswale, allowing more rainwater to percolate into the ground rather than run off into the storm sewer to eventually find its want to the Fox River.
That is a green element becoming more and more popular in developments.
The new plan also would clear up entering and leaving the property. Currently, there are four access points to the parking lot, which was always confusing and a bit dangerous during The Rib House days. The new plan would have one entrance and exit from State Street, and one onto Sandholm Street.
Already, Nicalaou has put a new roof on the house and done a lot of interior remodeling. The house will remain essentially the same, except for a 43-square-foot addition on the front. Also, Nicalaou intends to take a storage shed and another part off the back of the building and replace it with an outdoor dining deck.
Not only is the green element, and the cleanup of that corner lot on Geneva's eastern entrance good news, the fact that the development is moving forward could be seen as good economic news.
It was just a year ago that Nicalaou put plans for the restaurant on hold because of the economy. Taking a wait-and-see attitude, he even said he might just sell the building.
The City Council this week discussed the project, which was endorsed unanimously by the Plan Commission, and appears ready to approve it.
The property will join Aldi's, CVS Pharmacy, and Dairy Queen as new development along the often-beleagured East Side corridor.
