Geneva restaurateur makes his mark on local eateries

David Reyes Jr. had a specific feel in mind when opening The Grandstander sports bar on Third Street in Geneva. And it doesn't take long to pick up on it.

"My intent was to put together a restaurant that focused on sports and great dining," said Reyes, who along with his wife Juliette also operates The Finery & Blacksmith Bar in downtown St. Charles.

The Grandstander definitely has a more upscale, urban feel to it, and the menu and beer list reflects that you aren't in a typical sports bar.

For Reyes, it doesn't stop at The Finery or The Grandstander. Soon, he will be taking over Hache Moderne Brasserie on State Street in Geneva, an opportunity that is right in his wheelhouse.

"We will keep it a French restaurant, but will give it a new image and reshape the menu," said Reyes, who added a new name for the restaurant is in the works as well.

"French cooking is at the core of my upbringing," he said. "I learned from a lot of great French chefs in Chicago and spent some time in France at restaurants and in classes."

In that regard, Reyes considers himself "a bit of a Francophile," and is using that background in developing a new menu for that location.

In the meantime, The Grandstander, like most sports bars, greatly benefited from the Chicago Cubs run to a World Series title.

"Yes, that was really great," Reyes said. "I grew up on the North Side of Chicago, about a block away from Wrigley, and would ride my bike there and look through an opening in the right field wall when the door was open and you could see most of the field."

Reyes himself should become a fairly common sight for diners in the Tri-Cities, as he intends to share his time between the three restaurants. His wife is an established chef as well, and she has done a great job in operating The Finery while he has been busy with the Geneva projects, Reyes said.

"When we started this, we wanted to establish a restaurant culture we could build on," Reyes said. "Part of that was investing time into the staff at The Finery and developing people who wanted to be managers."

Reyes is hoping his passion will translate to happy employees and happy diners.

"This isn't a job or a title," he said. "This is a lifestyle, and you have to eat, breath and live this day in and day out and have to love it in order to be good at it."

That old school:

Any building that has been around as long as Fourth Street School in Geneva probably deserves this type of shout out.

The school district is inviting the public and former students to an open house and re-dedication ceremony from 4 to 6 p.m. Tuesday at the school to celebrate its 100th anniversary.

Fourth Street served students in Geneva as an elementary school until 1994, and has housed administrative offices since then.

But I think about basketball when I walk past Fourth Street School.

When I first came to this area in the late 1970s, I played pick-up basketball games in the parking lot at this school.

A couple of baskets were set up near the corners of the school's side parking lot, and many times current high school players spent parts of their summers sharpening skills there.

The late John Barton, a popular Geneva High School basketball coach in the early 1980s, mentioned to me a few times in those days that Fourth Street School was the place where many of his players managed to improve their games.

In fact, it was Barton who encouraged me to stop over there and check it out. So I took my basketball with me.

Most communities have older school buildings, and even basketball courts where kids often gathered. And that's what I think of when someone mentions Fourth Street School.

Lots of kindergarten:

You can imagine Karen Sullivan has all sorts of interesting stories to tell about what goes on in a kindergarten classroom.

After all, she's spent a fair amount of time in that setting.

Louise White School in Batavia is inviting the public to an open house from 2 to 4 p.m. today at the school, 800 N. Prairie St., to celebrate Sullivan's retirement.

The longtime kindergarten teacher at Louise White is completing her 34 years in education.

Still smiling:

So what has it been, almost two weeks now? And it seems as if I still have a permanent smile on my face as the result of the Chicago Cubs winning the World Series.

There's not much more to say about it really, but I suspect that part of the reason this smile won't go away is because I have known so many die-hard fans, some of them no longer with us, of course.

So the smile remains for my dad, who took me to my first Cubs game in 1962, my first introduction to Ernie Banks and the opponent that day, Willie Mays.

And the smile remains for former Hotel Baker hostess Ellen Johnsen and former Kane County treasurer Gordy Volkman. And one of my first good friends when I was new to this area, Paul "Dinks" Hansen, who left us way too young about seven years ago now.

Their love of the team and hope for the future never faded. So it came, so I smile for them.

dheun@sbcglobal.net