Libertyville Egg Harbor at a standstill

The table is set but Libertyville-area patrons will have to wait awhile longer for a Door County Melt or other breakfast and lunch favorites offered by Egg Harbor Cafe.

Dining areas have been finished, the staff hired and equipment installed, but delays in completing details of the building that will house the restaurant have kept the doors from opening.

"We're ready to go," said Chris Cabano, general manager, who held the same post at the Lincolnshire location for 10 years. He left last summer in advance of a planned September debut in Libertyville.

The anticipated opening of the privately held chain's 15th Chicago-area restaurant was changed to Dec. 15 and now is pegged at "sometime in January."

Egg Harbor is one of four restaurant spaces on the ground floor of the new Manchester Square development along Milwaukee Avenue at Lake Street and will be the first to open.

Plans for two other restaurants, Jimmy's Pizzeria and Casa Bonita, are being reviewed by village staff but building permits have not been issued. An unnamed steak house is planned for the fourth spot.

Luxury condos and penthouses, some initially priced at more than $1 million, were planned for the second and third stories of what has become a prominent structure in the heart of downtown.

Under village code, life-safety measures, such as proper exits and a fully operable sprinkler system for fire suppression, have to be in place for an entire building before a portion can open.

"We know there will still be construction going on. But the building has to be safe before we can allow Egg Harbor to move in," said John Spoden, the village's director of community development. That work is in progress.

Egg Harbor, which features gourmet food in a "charming country setting," targeted Libertyville for its upscale demographics as soon as plans for the Manchester Square project were announced.

"We signed a lease over two years ago. This was before anything was even started," Cabano said.

Its opening is eagerly awaited by the operators, who already have missed the busy holiday season, and village officials, who have seen sales tax revenues drop precipitously in recent years because of declining auto sales.

"It's extremely close. We'd like to see Egg Harbor open as soon as possible," Spoden said.

Depending on the individual operators, the restaurants all could be open by spring, according to Chris Classen, assistant to developer Joe Tremont.

"We're working as quickly as we can," Classen said. "Nobody will be any happier to see it get done."

Spoden said the overall project is on schedule, but individual spaces are private matters between Tremont and tenants.

"He has the right to build his building at any speed he wants," said Village Trustee Bob Peron, who has frequently expressed frustration with the progress of the project. "It's not like the village can go in and say, 'Go faster, go faster.'"

The building occupies the site of the former Bonzai Motor Sports, which collapsed in a storm in 2003. Construction of Manchester Square began in fall 2007.