Longtime Des Plaines eatery closes

Oliveti’s Italian Ristorante in Des Plaines has closed after operating for 20 years.

City officials said Monday the owners of the restaurant at 1575 Ellinwood St. were having trouble paying food and beverage taxes and bills owed to the city.

“For a number of years they’ve struggled,” Des Plaines City Manager Mike Bartholomew said.

The restaurant’s phone number is now disconnected, and the owner could not be reached for comment.

City Finance Director Dorothy Wisniewski said the restaurant was consistently late remitting food and beverage tax payments, which amount to 1 percent of sales, to the city for nine months in 2011.

“For 2012, they never sent in the March or May payments,” Wisniewski said. “They ended up going to administrative hearings. There was a $600 judgment against them. The payments were to begin April 20.”

The city put Oliveti’s on a payment plan; however, no payments have been made since the judgment, Wisniewski said.

Meanwhile, the city’s licensing clerk discovered the restaurant’s corporation had been dissolved in 2010. “They have been requesting licenses for a corporation that didn’t exist,” Wisniewski said.

Oliveti’s business license, which is renewed annually, was renewed for 2011 and 2012.

However, since the restaurant’s corporation was dissolved, the business is no longer eligible for a liquor license, which has been suspended by the city, Wisniewski said.

Oliveti’s departure follows the demise of other longtime establishments on Ellinwood Street — Sim’s Bowl and The Depot restaurant — and the neighboring dry cleaners that were demolished last year.