Quick. Name a bar and grill you might expect to find at the epicenter of the Schaumburg and Rolling Meadows brass-and-fern corridor, wedged between a Mexican grocery and a laundromat.
R.J. Fussmucker`s? Is it Finnigan`s?
Good guesses. But next time think of RockHouse Grill, a small restaurant and neighborhood bar that for about two years has provided good food, cold reasonably-priced beer, and an oasis apart from the big-haired people who think Kenny G plays a mean riff.
By day, RockHouse is a lunch spot, catering to business types who like the sound of menu items such as ”Chairman Mao`s Chicken-on-a-Bun” (chicken marinated in teriyaki sauce and spices, plus fries and cole slaw for $4.95).
A group of lunch-goers wiped their hands on unbleached paper napkins and enjoyed Mama`s Mozzarella Cheese Stick appetizers ($3.75) while getting a hint of RockHouse`s nighttime roots when a song by ”Husker Du” started to bounce out of the sound system.
Owner/manager David McIntosh, 31, likes to play progressive rock music all the time, but about one night a week he books good local bands ”who lean toward playing original songs.”
A late Friday night found his place filled with a young crowd munching free french fries while enjoying live music (no cover) and RockHouse`s atmosphere, something like the Peach Pit in the Fox television series,
”Beverly Hills 90210.”
”It`s a little like your big brother`s room down in the basement,”
MacIntosh says, standing against a backdrop of ”The Who” posters and a wall- mounted peace sign or two.
Proud of his self-developed menu, McIntosh says RockHouse also delivers food, and adds that he`s happy that the suburbs have become able to support a spot like his that nudges customers down the road not usually taken. ”I think the people who come in here feel comfortable,” he says.
And that makes all the difference.
———-
RockHouse Grill, 2220 Algonquin Rd., Rolling Meadows, is open from 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday. Call 708-392-6446.
