Relive Roaring Twenties at Club Arcada in St. Charles
He was calling it the most anticipated grand opening of the year, and Arcada Theater frontman Ron Onesti had every right to be excited about recently opening his Club Arcada on the third floor of the Arcada building.
Onesti says he has been dreaming about opening this type of nightclub for years. Let's not forget, this guy knows plenty about serving customers food and drink.
In addition to the theater, he operated his own restaurant, The Onesti Dinner Club, in the former Old Church Inn location for a few years. But it wasn't long before he decided to focus entirely on bringing acts to the theater and close the restaurant, leaving the Italian food and steaks for another day.
There is no doubt the Club Arcada is a throwback to yesteryear. Unfortunately, it seems most of the folks who enjoyed the original Club Arcada some 80 years ago have gone on to happier times at the great nightclub in the sky.
But you can get the general idea of what hopping places were like in the 1920s and '30s when visiting Club Arcada.
Based on his Facebook postings about what took place during the grand opening, Onesti is understandably quite excited about this new venture, with its "Louis Armstrong Speakeasy Bar," "Prohibition Lounge" and "Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp Room."
If you think this place is set up like a maze, you're not too far off. There is also a main showroom called the "Fred and Ginger Room" and two VIP options called the "Casablanca Room" and the "Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland Booth."
It's all fun stuff and a unique, yet natural setting for the Arcada Theatre complex.
Ready to show off:
A few weeks ago I mentioned the renovation work being done at the Baker Community Center in St. Charles. The park district says the work is complete now and an open house to show off the spiffed-up building is taking place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. April 13.
This was a $1.8 million makeover of the 90-year-old building, and 75 percent of the money came from the Edward J. Baker Foundation, which has been sending the return on its funds to the Baker board of directors since 1926.
The new elevator is operating, all floors now have ADA-compliant washrooms and, for the first time in 90 years, the auditorium is air-conditioned.
Board member Tom Anderson said local companies Schramm Construction, architects Kluber Inc., Rehm Electric and Wagner Plumbing completed all of the work.
Stories from Aldi:
Two notes, one about a wonderful gesture and another about a fairly unsavory incident, came to my attention last week. Both had the Batavia Aldi as its backdrop.
The nice gesture came about when a lady who was letting her young kid help slowly load the groceries on the checkout conveyor allowed a fellow with just a few items to go ahead.
When she was done checking out, the clerk handed her an Aldi gift card - from the guy who she let go through before her. He didn't say a word in this act of gratitude.
The unsavory one came about when a reader, who read in this column recently about the computer scam I fell for, wanted to pass along what she felt was another scam in the Aldi parking lot.
This was a case in which a woman drove up to this lady while she was loading groceries in her car and revealed a sob story about needing money for gas to get back to her home in southern Illinois.
After giving her $20, the lady seeking gas money pulled up to another person and made the same pitch.
The realization that this was a scam hit this reader squarely in the face when the same lady seeking gas money approached her in the North Aurora Aldi parking lot a few days after the Batavia incident. So she reported her to police.
"People at Aldi have great hearts," the reader said. "We 'pay forward' all the time with quarters (for the shopping carts) and allow people with smaller orders ahead of us in line.
"It's a great community of middle America," she added. "And I sure don't want anyone else to become a victim of this lady's preying."
A Primrose volunteer:
St. Charles North student Grace Izzo has captured a few loose cows and brought them back to safety at Primrose Farm on the city's far west side. A skill like that listed on a job application should spark some conversation.
But she does plenty of "dirty" work on the farm. So much so that she has earned some nice recognition as a volunteer at Primrose Farm.
The dirty work? She does all sorts of farm chores at the site, including mixing feed, feeding animals, collecting eggs, milking cows, sweeping barns, filling stock tanks and various other tasks.
It was enough to recently earn the Volunteer Appreciation Award from the St. Charles Park District this year.
In giving her the honor, the park district also noted that Izzo, in addition to her normal tasks, has also volunteered at special events. And, of course, it has to qualify as going above and beyond the call of duty when one chases down loose cows.
dheun@sbcglobal.net