Bar's ready for new song

Eight years ago Christopher and Yvonne Wozniczka opened their first restaurant with 16 credit cards and no experience.

"I was 19 years old and I called my sister and told her we signed a lease," Christopher said. "She didn't believe me."

Yvonne shook her head at the memory.

"He called me and said we need a business plan by tomorrow," she said.

It must have been a pretty good business plan. Illusion Café and Bar, 659 N. Wolf Road in Des Plaines, has been open ever since.

The brother-and-sister team -- Christopher, now 27, and Yvonne, now 30 -- will open their second restaurant in Arlington Heights later this month: Big Shot Piano Lounge & Restaurant at 2 S. Vail Ave.

"We pretty much gutted the whole thing," Christopher said. "We've been working since March."

Big Shot will fill the spot left vacant by the Boiler Room in the lower level at the southwest corner of Campbell Street and Vail Avenue. Big Shot will be open until 1 a.m. on weekdays and until 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday.

The one thing Big Shot will have that the Boiler Room didn't is a kitchen. The Boiler Room used an outside food service.

Big Shot's menu will include soups, salads, seafood, beef and chicken dishes. There will also be a variety of flatbread quesadillas and cheese spreads. Entries will range from about $4 to $9 and include dishes such as "beef tenderloin and bleu fondue" and "sesame chicken skewers."

The setup is the same as the Boiler Room, but the tables, chairs and bar are all new. The interior is painted in reds and gold and piano key symbols are everywhere -- including the awning outside. Leather booths line the walls and tables with black napkins and white tablecloths fill the floor.

The restaurant's name comes from the Billy Joel song "Big Shot" and a poster of the famous singer in concert hangs on a wall near the kitchen.

Food will be served until shortly before closing time and a piano player will serenade customers from the corner.

Piano players Wayne Richards and Rudy Jones will have a song list and will also take requests from the crowd.

The Boiler Room closed in January 2006 after years of reinventing itself.

When it first opened as a jazz club in 2000, the Boiler Room catered to late-night crowds leaving Metropolis theater shows. But the setup generated few sparks, so the Boiler Room was given a complete makeover. The interior was spruced up and a DJ lounge feel popular in Chicago was introduced.