Clarendon Hills Restaurant Subsidy Hits Snag

CLARENDON HILLS, IL – The Clarendon Hills Village Board delayed a decision Monday on a subsidy for a proposed American-style restaurant that would fill two downtown vacancies.

The owner promised to open six months after the village approved the $265,000 for renovations, according to a village memo.

But village trustees had issues with granting five on-street parking spaces for outdoor dining.

"Five is a lot," Trustee Omar Chaudhry said. "To start off with five right away, I have a problem with that."

Trustee John Weicher said he was uncomfortable with adding the five spots for outdoor dining under the village code.

"That's contrary to what we have been trying to do the last two years to get dining out of the street," he said.

Owner Chase Lofti, who operates other restaurants in the Chicago area, said he wanted to get what the other two casual dining restaurants have – between 18 and 20 tables.

"If we can do that in four spots, I would be OK with that," he said.

Lofti said all his restaurants have large outdoor patios.

"They're always filled in the summer," he said. "If people come to me and I don't have a patio, they're going to go next door, where there's a patio. I just don't want to lose that opportunity."

Trustees decided to delay a decision.

"It would be inappropriate to codify this without a roundtable discussion," Village President Eric Tech said. "We need to have a discussion with existing businesses relative to how this impacts them."

The building in question was last occupied by La Pearl and I Want Candy. It has been mostly vacant since Sue's Cakery closed in 2019, according to a village memo.

The subsidy would come from the downtown tax increment financing district, or TIF.