Dendrinos Closes Permanently After 54 Years

TINLEY PARK, IL — Dendrinos at 183rd and Oak Park Avenue has served its last beers.

The business, 18300 S. Oak Park Ave., closed permanently Dec. 31, just a minute before the new year struck, according to an email to Village officials. It had been open for 54 years.

"We received official notification yesterday from Dendrinos that they ceased operations at 11:59 on the 31st," Village Manager Pat Carr told Patch.

Citing high costs and a "lack of options" to maintain operations, the Dendrinos family told the Village of the business' fate.

"Following the lack of options and heavy cost burden presented by the Village at our meeting earlier this month, we had no other choice but to close our establishment after 54 years of serving the Tinley Park community," the Dendrinos family wrote in the email.

Dendrinos family members Tina and Sam took over the business after owner Gerasimus "Jerry" Dendrinos died in 2015. The bar was the only in the area accommodating a post-2 a.m. crowd.

Officials in May annexed the building and property into the Village of Tinley Park, which became effective June 30, 2023. The business known for its 4 a.m. closing time, cheap beer and pizza, and vintage feel was formerly in unincorporated Cook County, Village Manager Pat Carr told Patch.

With the annexation came several steps the owners would have to take to continue operations, including renewal of a liquor license, water and sewer hookups and bringing the building up to code on fire protection systems. It would have taken work to bring the building into compliance with Village codes, Carr said.

The possibility of selling the business also posed challenges, he said.

"With the annexation, once they sell it, it technically isn’t zoned for that purpose," Carr said. "It would have to get a variance."

Carr said it's been a longtime goal of the Village to annex in that parcel. If the Village had intended to pursue a roundabout at that intersection, that parcel would have been essential. Those plans were squashed in 2015.

"It’s always been in our plans to try to annex that area," Carr said. He noted it was the only parcel at that intersection not incorporated into Tinley Park.

"It’s one of those things where it just makes sense," Carr said. "Everything around it is Tinley Park—we just logically wanted to get it in."

Formally known as Dendrinos Restaurant and Cocktail Lounge, Dendrinos opened in 1969, and was initially a full-service restaurant known for its pork chops and steaks, the Tribune wrote in an obituary for Dendrinos. Dendrino and brother Leo were the chefs, and one menu item—a butt steak sandwich with fries—went for $1.75. In the '90s, the focus shifted from the food service to beverages, and it became more known for welcoming bargoers in after other places had closed.

"They will always be a part of Tinley Park history," Carr said.