A proposed drive-through bank was unanimously rejected by a revenue-conscious Elmwood Park Village Board Monday night, leaving unclear the fate of Horwath’s Restaurant where Chicago mobsters once congregated.
The restaurant, on the 1800 block of North Harlem Avenue, was where TCF Bank wanted to build, but village officials said the town needed the site to produce sales tax revenue, something a bank would not do.
While denial of a special-use permit for the drive-through probably spells the death of the bank proposal, the property owner said that does not mean Horwath’s will remain open.
Jim Banks, a private zoning attorney who represented the bank, said, “I don’t believe it’s economically feasible without the drive-through.”
The property owner’s attorney said his client, who prefers not to be named, intends to redevelop the parcel and will not consider selling to Horwath’s even though the restaurant’s owners say they want to negotiate, and many area residents want the steakhouse to remain.
Horwath’s manager, George Roumeliotos, was optimistic. “We’re hoping that instead of looking at the bottom line, the representatives of the property will now look at the human aspect,” he said.
Pat Tamburrino, a 30-year resident, spoke in favor of Horwath’s. “Horwath’s is the only place with any character or personality on Harlem Avenue. It’s an oasis and something nice to look at,” she said.
More than 3,000 people signed an anti-redevelopment petition last fall in an attempt to save the restaurant. Village officials cautioned that the board’s vote should not be interpreted as an effort to pressure the land owner into negotiating with Horwath’s. Officials repeatedly have said the site’s future is a private property issue.
“The village cannot [and] will not save Horwath’s,” said Village President Peter Silvestri. “The developers could have come up with a plan that required no special-use permit, and we’d have no say.”
He pointed out that the village is 95 percent residential, limiting the ability to raise revenue from sales tax. “It is a very serious issue here in Elmwood Park because of our limited commercial base,” he said. The property was bought at auction in 2002 for about $1.4 million from the heirs of Joseph Horwath, who founded the restaurant as a speak-easy in 1931. The owner, who holds the property in a land trust, notified Horwath’s last summer that he would not renew the restaurant’s lease when it expired Dec. 31.
But Horwath’s has remained open without a lease and is fighting eviction proceedings in court. Horwath’s earned a reputation as an organized crime hangout during the 1970s and ’80s, when ranking members of the Chicago Outfit regularly could be seen eating steaks and drinking martinis at a table near the restaurant’s lounge.
In 1985, three years after a pair of bombings at Horwath’s, mob boss Charles “Chuckie” English was gunned down in the restaurant’s parking lot. The crime remains unsolved. More recently, Horwath’s has built a following among area residents as a family restaurant and even served as a backdrop for part of an episode of “The West Wing.”
