Hotel Baker to open Rox City Grill

A new restaurant is slated to open this spring at Hotel Baker in St. Charles -- just in time for the riverfront landmark's 80th birthday.

Rox City Grill will feature a "contemporary steak and seafood menu infused with a good measure of imaginative flair," according to owner Joe Salas. The 56-seat eatery will have a club atmosphere and adjoining lounge with enough seating for about 40 patrons.

The new establishment is under construction on the west end of the hotel, at 100 W. Main St., and is scheduled to open in May. Diners will be able to access the restaurant and lounge from Main Street.

The project is something of a milestone for the St. Charles hotel, which reopened after undergoing major renovations and an ownership change in 2003. Financial difficulties had forced the hotel to close temporarily after a sale fell through in early 2002.

"It's a substantial investment we feel is very worthwhile to the community of St. Charles," General Manager Ginger LoGalbo-Irps said. "It's a testament to how far we've come and the direction we want to go."

In addition to the new restaurant, work is under way to convert the hotel's well-known Waterfront restaurant overlooking the Fox River into an expanded banquet hall. While the Waterfront will continue to host private parties and meetings during the construction, its popular Sunday brunch has relocated to the hotel's Rainbow Room, and daily lunch and dinner service has moved to the St. Charles Room.

So far, the construction schedule has been right on time with the Waterfront renovations nearing completion, LoGalbo-Irps said.

"We've been very pleased," she said. "We're keeping our fingers crossed."

Founded by local philanthropist, farmer and horse-racing aficionado "Colonel" Edward John Baker, the Hotel Baker first opened June 2, 1928.

It closed amid a decline in tourism and increasing competition on Christmas 1969, 10 years after Baker died. For a time, the 53-room hotel with Spanish Romantic Revival architecture was used as a retirement home before being sold, renovated and reopened again as a hotel in 1995.

The business has been listed as a historic hotel on the National Trust for Historic Preservation and is on the National Register of Historic Places. It also has been credited for earning St. Charles the Great American Main Street Award and national recognition in 2000.