Breakfast place in downtown St. Charles expands
Rob Mondi thought he had a great idea when he opened Abby's Breakfast and Lunch in downtown St. Charles. He just had to rethink that idea a bit.
At 11 N. Third St., it was located right near St. Patrick's Church, the Hotel Baker and Carroll Tower - three places capable of sending a lot of hungry residents or visitors to a nice breakfast place.
"But it turned out to be the worst idea," Mondi admitted. "Our place was cute, but it was too small. With only 50 seats, we could never handle a crowd from any of those places."
In addition, Mondi knew all along that his restaurant was too noisy and too hot or too cold for customers wanting to enjoy breakfast or lunch.
Still, the food was good enough to keep people coming back, and Mondi was determined to tweak what he started.
Well, it might be more than a tweak. He reopened the restaurant two weeks ago at twice the size after taking over an empty storefront next door.
The restaurant now will hold 112 people, with its new tables, booths, better lighting, a bar area and other amenities that customers had asked for when Mondi received feedback. He can now comfortably serve groups of up to 25 or more people.
"I wasn't sure if the restaurant was ever going to make it when it first opened, so I played it safe and kept it small," Mondi said. "I thought I was a genius in putting the restaurant near the church and hotel. But we had to have a plan in place to address everything that people wanted."
The site previously housed a Thai restaurant that stressed carryout, so when Mondi converted it to a downtown breakfast restaurant, he was essentially jamming in tables to accommodate about 50 people.
Those crowded and noisy quarters made it easy for Mondi to see why the carryout concept was the way to go for the previous owner.
My past visits to Abby's have proved beyond a doubt that the food here is really good, so it seems Mondi is making a wise move in making the place bigger and more comfortable for patrons.
More PechaKucha:
Batavia is on a roll with these PechaKucha nights, so why not keep them coming?
The next one, which would be the fifth held, carries a theme of "Rhymes with Orange" and takes place at 7 p.m. Thursday at Island View Banquets in Batavia, near the Batavia VFW Post at 645 S. River St.
Scott MacKay, the morning drive deejay for 95.9 The River, is the emcee for the evening, which features nine presentations in the 20-slides-at-20-seconds-each format.
St. Charles architect Mike Dixon, who has been in other parts of the world on Peace Corps missions, but is now working on a project in Cheyenne, Wyoming, is scheduled to present, along with eight others.
This has always been a fun and interesting night, so check out PechaKucha.org for Batavia to get all of the details.
For the veterans:
If you want to take part in honoring our veterans, above and beyond Veterans Day on Friday, the St. Charles Arts Council couldn't make it any easier for you this week.
The council has numerous events taking place, including a free show honoring veterans Wednesday night at the Arcada Theatre.
It's also a good time to see the council's pop-up art gallery with the theme of "From Sea to Shining Sea" at 7 S. Second Ave.
Various activities take place through Nov. 12, including one that has become quite popular - the St. Charles North High School veterans' concert on Veterans Day in the school auditorium.
All of the details are available on the council's website at StCharlesArtsCouncil.org.
Winter's calling:
It's a fun event, for sure, but it does remind me too soon that winter and its ornery edge is lurking.
Still, we should plug TriCity Family Service's eighth annual Snowflake Shuffle on Dec. 3 at the Mill Creek Golf Course clubhouse.
The event takes walkers and runners through Mill Creek subdivision in Geneva and provides funds for the agency.
We've either volunteered to help the day of the event, or walked in it, each of the years it has taken place.
Unless I have wiped it from my memory banks, the event has lived up to its name in a big way only once, when we had about 6 inches of snow.
Otherwise, it is generally rather chilly, but nice and dry. A few snowflakes won't hurt to help this walk/run live up to its name.
You can register for the event on the agency's website.
Still like the food:
Yes, Chipotle has had all sorts of trouble financially after the bad publicity it endured from the food-borne illnesses episode.
But I still like the food quite a bit at this quick-serve restaurant and it is always busy, at least the one on Randall Road in Geneva.
As long as they keep making these delicious burritos and get the other stuff under control, I'm still a fan.
Jump on holidays:
Lots of stores are hauling in the Christmas decorations and gift ideas by now, but the Sugar Grove Ace Hardware might have had the jump on everyone this year.
The store, particularly the outside, was decked out for the holidays almost a week ago because the Ace corporate folks filmed a Christmas commercial at that location that will air in December.
• dheun@sbcglobal.net