It’s not surprising that suburban communities should welcome with open arms any business that shares their dreams of bright lights and scenic streetscapes in revitalized downtowns.
Certainly not at a time when older suburbs are creating tax incentives to entice investment in their central business districts, and at least one suburb has gone so far as to buy a defunct shopping center to create a downtown where none existed.
Bill Pritts, Andy Webber and Dan Heuertz–the partners who make up Downtown Restaurants Inc. in Palatine–have seen the potential for these underutilized sections of town that have been overshadowed by malls and commercial strips on six-lane highways that feature clonelike restaurants.
“We like the downtown business district of the suburbs because they have a lot more character,” said Webber of Barrington, executive chef/director of operations and construction in Downtown Restaurants. “We recognized that there was a lot of untapped potential in this market and not a lot of competition in what we do. We felt there were a lot of other people like ourselves, young professionals who were moving out to the suburbs to raise their families, and we gave the suburbanites more credit than most restaurants did.”
Their investment in these areas has brought substantial returns not only to them but also to the communities in which Downtown Restaurants does business. Three successful and popular restaurants–Spasso in Wauconda, Mia Cucina in Palatine and il Terzo Trattoria Italiana in Park Ridge–have captured the attention of diners and industry observers alike.
And it doesn’t stop there. The partners are in preliminary negotiations to be part of a new development in downtown Arlington Heights. In addition, they are putting together their combined 70 years of restaurant experience to start a management consulting business that will allow them to share their vision of “downtown-quality” restaurants in the suburbs.
“We’re doing downtown-style restaurants with downtown-quality cuisine,” said Heuertz, a Palatine resident. “These restaurants are cutting edge in their design and food presentation.”
The business sections of most older suburbs offer more charm, character and sense of community than do the shopping malls, the partners say. That is an opinion some industry observers say is shared by many suburban residents and that can make downtown suburbia a ripe market.
“They have found a good niche for themselves,” said Carolyn Walkup, Midwest bureau chief for New York-based Nation’s Restaurant News and a resident of Barrington. “A lot of suburban residents are starting to recognize they miss not having a sense of community, and they’re looking for places closer to home. They don’t want to go (to Chicago) all the time for good restaurants, so there’s a good market right now for restaurants in suburban downtowns.”
Walkup said the growth of Downtown Restaurants Inc.–three restaurants in seven years–has not been meteoric, but she credited the partners as being “pretty solid operators” who do their homework well before investing in a new location. She said downtown suburbia is riskier than locating in malls with built-in traffic patterns but added that Downtown Restaurants Inc. “probably overcomes that by trying to do everything right.”
The business venture started on a note of desperation. In 1990, Pritts, a Barrington resident, had just left his job as president of Barry’s Ribs and More to start a restaurant management consulting firm. He was introduced to Webber, whose expertise was in kitchen operations, and invited him to join the consulting firm.
Their first client was a restaurant in Wauconda. They started work in August, but by September the restaurant owners had decided to hang it up. “It was a very short-lived management company,” Pritts said. “Within a couple of weeks, (the owners) put the restaurant into bankruptcy and told us the deal was off. Andy and I were standing there asking, `What’s going on?’ He had just left his job and I left my job to start this management company. This was our first management gig, and within weeks we were both on the street.”
Suddenly without jobs, Pritts and Webber decided to buy the bankrupt restaurant at auction. That was how Spasso was born.
“In the very short time that we worked for the other owner,” Webber said, “we developed a concept that we believed in, and it was hard to walk away from it.”
The restaurant, which is located in a shopping center, took off and was growing at a rate of 25 to 30 percent a year, Pritts said. So they decided to open another place–and implement some of their ideas on placing restaurants in suburban business districts.
“We’re looking for more than just traffic counts,” Webber said. “We want to be part of the community.”
Taking over a vacant 10,000-square-foot space that once housed a grocery store, they opened Mia Cucina in downtown Palatine in 1994.
This was also around the time when Heuertz was invited to join the team, and Downtown Restaurants Inc. was formally created. Heuertz, who was running a successful chain of bar and grill restaurants in Iowa, was looking for opportunities in restaurants. Heuertz’s wife, Andrea, and Pritts’ wife, Carlotta, are sisters.
In the company, Pritts is responsible for the procurement of new business and works with Heuertz to oversee restaurant operations and with Webber to design and create new restaurant concepts. Webber is the lead man on new concept design. He also oversees recruitment and training of chefs and staff at each restaurant and manages menu and cuisine planning. Heuertz oversees operations at each restaurant and is responsible for marketing, public relations and special events.
The design of each restaurant is dictated by the space and surrounding architecture. Spasso, which is located in a mall, presents an intimate setting, with a courtyard. Mia Cucina is a wide-open space that is loud and lively and features an open kitchen. The 1940s art deco look of il Terzo was inspired in part by Park Ridge’s historic Pickwick Theater around the corner.
Mia Cucina has also played an important role in Palatine’s efforts to revitalize its downtown. “There’s been a tremendous change” in Palatine, said Mayor Rita Mullins “There’s been a resurgence of people going downtown. There are luncheons, evening events, meetings (at Mia Cucina). A lot of things are happening in a place that was vacant for a number of years. This has been a major shot in the arm.”
In August, Downtown Restaurants expanded once more with the opening of il Terzo in Park Ridge. This time they located in a space that most recently housed a paint store.
Again the restaurant played an important role in that city’s efforts to not only keep its storefronts filled but also to fill them with businesses that complement the community and promote activity for other businesses.
“Restaurants are important to downtown development because they bring in traffic, and that’s what small retailers need,” said Sharon Curcio, executive director of the Economic Development Corp. of Park Ridge, who worked closely with the partners. “Anytime a new restaurant comes in, it piques the interest of customers who will come downtown to try it. While there, they might find something else they like.”
Besides building successful restaurants, the partners say they try to give something back to the communities. Mia Cucina opened its doors on St. Joseph’s Day 1994 with a fundraiser that has become an annual event, raising more than $300,000 to help St. Joseph’s Home for the Elderly in Palatine, operated by Little Sisters of the Poor. Il Terzo opened with a fundraiser for 20th Century Club Juniors, which raised $5,000 for various causes, including the Adult Down Syndrome Center of Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge. This fundraiser is also scheduled to become an annul event.
“When Dan Heuertz, Bill Pritts and Andy Webber welcomed without hesitation the idea of opening Mia Cucina on St. Joseph’s Day as a benefit for the St. Joseph’s Home in Palatine, it was the beginning of a partnership with the Little Sisters of the Poor,” said Sister Mary Anthony. “Through each annual celebration at Mia Cucina since that time, their kindness and generosity have helped us meet the many needs of our elderly residents.”
To make their restaurants successful, the partners follow a simple formula: Offer a high-quality product made of only the finest ingredients and do so with a highly trained staff.
“Our quality orientation separates us from other restaurants,” Webber said. “We buy only the best and freshest ingredients and train our staff to provide excellent service.”
The partners stress each restaurant is unique both in its design and its menu.
“We don’t just hire a staff, hand them an operations book and a recipe book and say, `See you later,’ ” Pritts said.
“From a culinary perspective or a guest perspective, you don’t want to control (the restaurant staff) too much,” Heuertz added. “You want them to use their instincts and their abilities to create their own vision.”
Although the three restaurants are Italian, the partners say they are not locked into that concept and will explore other ideas with future locations. Nor are they locked into the northwest suburbs.
But for now, because all of them live here, they are happy to be in the northwest suburbs.
“We would like to stay fairly centralized because all three of us have families,” Webber said. “We want to stay close to home.”
YOUNG BUT EXPERIENCED
So who are these guys who call themselves Downtown Restaurants Inc.?
– Bill Pritts, 41, president of Downtown Restaurants Inc.: Born in Arlington Heights, he started his restaurant career at age 11 washing dishes and later studied food service at Harper College and Florida International University. He spent eight years working in kitchens, then moved to the front of the house as manager of the Snuggery in Chicago, regional general manager of the Victoria Station restaurants and president of Barry’s Ribs and More.
– Andy Webber, 42, executive chef/director of operations and construction: Originally from Downers Grove, Webber got his first taste of the business as a 15-year-old busboy. After two years as a pre-med major at the University of Illinois, he quit school to apprentice at Le Perroquet in Chicago. Webber worked as sous chef for Ciel Bleu in the Mayfair Regent Hotel when it opened in 1981. Later, he went to work for two Lettuce Entertain You restaurants in Chicago.
– Dan Heuertz, 32, vice president of operations and marketing: Originally from LeMars, Iowa, Heuertz got his start in the food service business at the age of 10, selling soda, coffee and doughnuts at his father’s trucking business. While a sophomore working toward his business communications degree at Iowa State University, he opened the UnderWhere? Pub & Grill, which targeted the college crowd. This eventually expanded to four college-town bar and grill operations in Iowa under the company flag of People Potential LTD.
