Western Springs Restaurant Aims To Keep Expanded Outdoor Dining

WESTERN SPRINGS, IL – A Western Springs restaurant is poised to keep its expanded outdoor dining permanently.

Davanti Enoteca, 800 Hillgrove Ave., has requested that it be allowed to continue offering such dining in its parking lot to the north.

As a temporary measure during the pandemic, the village permitted the Italian restaurant to have extra outdoor dining in the parking lot. That's in addition to the tables on the sidewalk.

On Monday, the Village Board discussed the restaurant's request.

Trustee James Tyrrell said neighbors had "very minimal" complaints about noise from the restaurant.

In response, Christopher Bernal of Davanti said servers stop seating customers on the parking lot patio after 9 p.m. because of the noise.

"It does get a little loud back there," he said.

Another issue, he said, was that employees of Davanti and neighboring Guac N Tacos have been known to stay in the parking lot and play music after the end of their shift.

"I come here once in a while at 9:30, 10, and a lot of staff stays there, and they do blast music," Bernal said. "We're trying to eliminate that issue."

No village trustees objected to the outdoor dining request. They are expected to vote on the issue later this month.