New Rosemont bar/restaurant opens Friday
With memorabilia on the wood-paneled walls in place and kegs behind the bar tapped, a new bar/restaurant is ready to open Friday on the first floor of Rosemont's village hall.
Rosie's Rivers Edge Tavern is the latest venture of Schaumburg-based Ala Carte Entertainment, which operates Moretti's, The Snuggery and other restaurants throughout the suburbs.
“It's kind of like that neighborhood bar that your dad took you to and you grew up with,” said Mark Hoffman, Ala Carte's vice president. “It just brings you back to that time when everyone was happy and life was good.”
The restaurant is at 9501 W. Devon Ave. in a building which also houses other businesses that rent space from the village. Rosie's replaces Cafe Zalute, an Italian restaurant that closed last September after 10 years after the village increased monthly rent from $2,500 to $6,000.
Hoffman said Rosie's menu has “chef-driven comfort food,” such as pulled pork, ribs, burgers and sandwiches. But it's distinct from other Ala Carte restaurants in that it will be open at 7 a.m. every day for breakfast.
Before Friday's official grand opening, Rosie's will host a sneak-peak pre-party at 9 p.m. Thursday.
The downstairs “Rosie's Speakeasy” — a one-time police department locker room — will feature live entertainment: karaoke on Thursday nights, singers and dueling pianos on Fridays and Saturdays, followed by a DJ until the 4 a.m. close.
Hoffman hopes to attract patrons all hours of the day from nearby Rivers Casino, office buildings, and those who live in the area.
“Rosemont is a 24-hour town and I want to send an olive branch out to everybody that works, lives and plays in Rosemont,” he said.
“Rosemont is doing great things and has all kinds of entertainment, but the one thing they were missing was actually a neighborhood place,” he added. “You're not going to MB Financial Park (for) a neighborhood bar.”
The first floor has room for as many as 200 people, while the lower level can fit up to 150. The basement will also be available for private parties.
With all the office buildings in the area, the restaurant will offer catering, carryout and delivery, Hoffman said.
Meanwhile, Ala Carte's plans to open a Moretti's just blocks away at 9515-9519 W. Higgins Road are moving along, with a groundbreaking planned before the end of the year.
The two-story restaurant will be housed in a new structure connected to the strip mall building on Higgins, which Ala Carte purchased from the village for $3.4 million in August 2014.
Hoffman hopes to open it in the late spring or early summer of 2016.