Restauranteur wants to open up family friendly roadhouse

Village roundup

Next board meeting: The committee of the whole meets at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Campton Community Center, 5N082 Old La Fox Road. The regular board meeting follows at 7:30 p.m.

Paul Gale hopes the name of the restaurant he wants to open in Campton Hills won't conjure images of barroom brawls and Patrick Swayze.

But it was difficult to avoid recently when he was telling village trustees about the eatery: Billy's Roadhouse.

"Don't let the name scare y'all," said Gale, who also owns the popular Bar-B-Que Shack in St. Charles.

"Everything (at the proposed restaurant) is driven for the family."

Gale wants to put the restaurant in the old butcher shop facing Route 64, about one block east of the Corner Store in Wasco. It would seat between 86 and 128 people inside, and there would be an outdoor patio for 80 or so.

Gale said the decor would taken from old barns, such as one on Corron Road. He would serve steaks, fajitas and seafood, as well as fried fish on Friday nights.

For the project to move ahead, the village would have to expand the number of available liquor licenses and grant one to Gale, who plans to serve alcohol. Village officials also are looking into the designated use of the building to make sure a restaurant would be acceptable.

Gale said trustees shouldn't worry about giving him a liquor license: "If you're 21 or 91, you will be carded at our restaurant."

Village President Patsy Smith said trustees likely will wait until Gale files his proposal formally -- perhaps in the next month or so -- before making a final decision.

During roughly the same timeframe, a new barbecue restaurant, Hopper's, is slated to open at the south end of the Campton Square shopping center at Route 64 and La Fox Road.

All of this would only add to the variety of eating options in Wasco -- there's already fast food, pizza, Chinese food, hot dogs and ice cream.

Smith said she wasn't sure if more businesses are asking to open up in Campton Hills because the village recently incorporated, or if the area has always received so many requests.

"We've had quite a few calls," she said. "I don't know if it has anything to do with (the incorporation) or not because I wasn't the one taking the calls before."

Residents appointed: Several residents recently were named to posts on village committees:

• Jennifer Casacchia and Kevin Pretet have been appointed to two-year terms on the finance committee.

• A community relations citizen advisory board was formed with the appointments of Linda Bauman, chairwoman; village trustee Jim Kopec, Deputy Village Clerk Bill Beith and residents Tom Dowd, Vince Schuster and Larry and Sue Windland. They serve two-year terms.

• Campton Township Trustee Christian Boissonnas and residents Emad Eassa and Dennis Nowicki will make up the board of fire and police commissioners. The village board plans to appoint a chairman and secretary.