Yard House restaurant debuts in Lombard

With more than 100 food items and just as many beers on tap, Lombard's new Yard House restaurant offers plenty of options.

But despite the large beer and cocktail selection, General Manager Udo Wirtz doesn't want people to view the establishment at 2301 Fountain Square Drive as just a bar.

"I want them to think of it as a restaurant first," Wirtz said, "because they're going to be able to get high-quality food, they're going to get great service, and then we just happen to have a full service bar to help them out."

Yvonne Invergo, executive director of the Lombard Chamber of Commerce, couldn't be more excited about the new restaurant.

"Lombard loves its restaurants and we know that Yard House is going to love Lombard," Invergo said Tuesday at a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

This is the third Yard House in Illinois - the others are in Glenview and Chicago - and the 73rd overall. Wirtz said patrons should have no problem finding something they like on the menu.

"If you can't find something on the menu to suit somebody at the table, then we haven't really done our job," he said. "But we feel that with 120 menu items, you're going to find something on there."

Wirtz describes the food as American fusion. He said it's made from scratch and made to order. Some of his favorite items include the Parmesan crusted pork loin, the poke bowl and the crabcake dinner.

A bit different from some other Yard House locations, the Lombard restaurant is its own stand-alone building and the first location to have an all-season patio.

The restaurant's first full service day was Monday, and Wirtz said he's pleased with how the opening went.

"On a scale of the way Yard House looks at their openings, we were probably pretty close to a 10 in terms of the sales that we did and just the overall comments we got from our guests," he said.

For more information, visit www.yardhouse.com/home.