Favorite Elgin eatery says goodbye to community, 2007 all in one night

The New Year's Eve closing of Cafe Magdalena in downtown Elgin brought back memories of ushering in 2004 at the restaurant with my wife.

Our kids at home with a baby sitter, we opted for a 7:30 p.m. New Year's Eve dinner and settled in at a cozy table by the wall. The aroma of 17 fragrant sauces simmering in the kitchen, the old-world style of the dining room with plaster walls and 20-foot ceilings, and, of course, the ambling presence of owners Fred and Judy Steffen added to the ambiance.

We ordered salmon and pasta dishes and relished the idea of eating upscale Italian food in an area of town three years ago void of any similar cuisine. Fred Steffen, who celebrated six years in business this past December, said he was pleased that while the restaurant suffered ups and downs, it provided a niche service to downtown Elgin.

"Judy and I made a lot of friends and the restaurant provided a good service by offering quality Italian food in the downtown," he said. "Overall, I'm leaving the business with a good taste in my mouth."

A semi-retired attorney, Steffen has a way with words but didn't mean to make a pun that time. He announced the closing of his restaurant late last Friday, after tentatively agreeing to a deal with Pietro Verone, owner of two Villa Verone restaurants in Sycamore and Geneva. Verone, who has ran restaurants for more than 20 years in other cities including the Lincoln Park area of Chicago and Glen Ellyn, plans to close the former Cafe Magdalena until later this month while securing the required permits and licenses.

Originally from Napoli, Italy, Verone plans to reopen with a warmer look in the restaurant featuring tablecloths and an expanded eating area in place of the old banquet room. He may showcase local singers on a new small stage. He says the food will reflect the southern-Italian style of his other restaurants, which may feature fewer sauces than Cafe Magdalena but with what Verona calls, "a good variety and traditional Italian cooking."

The Steffens, who have invested thousands restoring their three-story, 1880s building at 11-13 Douglas Ave. building, will continue to live in their third-floor loft and may even eat occasionally in the new restaurant. But Fred Steffen joked he may have to better stock his own Sub-Zero refrigerator, which now contains mostly breakfast items and juice and milk.

"We may start to do more traveling and definitely will spend more time with our grandkids," Steffen said. "We've even talked about to going to the Greek Islands and ending up in Istanbul."

Toy giveaway

Members of the Summit Park Neighborhood Association partnered with the Bethesda Church-God in Christ Dec. 22 by giving away more than 300 toys and bags of donated clothes.

The neighborhood group, which represents residents living in Elgin east of Dundee Avenue, south of Summit Street, west of Liberty and north of Park Street, worked with an anonymous member of the church, who donated many of the items for youths ages 1 to 10.

"We had a lot of single moms come through and I think everybody left with a smile," said Jim Vaughn, president of the neighborhood association. "One woman had five kids and said she had no money for school uniforms. We luckily had school uniforms and all of them went to her. It seemed like there was a divine marking on the whole event."

Jet Xpress Laundry at 425 Dundee Ave. donated 16 bags of clean clothes to the giveaway -- almost all of which went to needy families, said Vaughn.