Culver's Set To Open Restaurant In Batavia

BATAVIA, IL — It's official. A new Culver's restaurant will soon call Batavia home. Mayor Jeffery Schielke announced the news in his weekly video update to residents on Friday.

The beloved fast food spot specializing in butter burgers will be located at the southeast corner of Mill Street and Randall Road. The building will occupy the south parking lot that used to belong to TGI Friday's.

A flooring company recently bought the former TGI Friday's building and is in the process of converting the restaurant for its showroom, Schielke said. The company won't need the large parking lot that came with the space, so it's being sold to the Culver's franchise owners, a mother-daughter duo from Wisconsin.

The pair — described by Schielke as "very nice people" — also owns a franchise in Skokie, near Old Orchard Mall, and another in Downers Grove, on Ogden Avenue.

"I've been over to preview [the Downers Grove location] that's open and doing business," the mayor said. "[It's] extremely well done and well run, and I'm told that many of the features that you see in that restaurant will be incorporated into the Batavia one."

Schielke said city staff have been in talks about bringing Culver's to Batavia "for some months now." He also mentioned he got the OK to share the news minutes before he began filming the message.

"I talked to a number of people over the years who always want to give me wishlists of things they wish Batavia had," he said. "I will tell you, Culver's is one of them that's been on a lot of people's wishlists. ... There's a lot of folks in the senior world, including myself, that think that's a great restaurant for senior citizens."

Currently, the nearest Culver's locations to Batavia are in St. Charles, at 111 S. Randall Road and 4068 E. Main St., and in North Aurora, at 411 S. Lincolnway St.