New restaurant Ahaar Indian Kitchen and Bar approved in Schaumburg’s historic district

Schaumburg trustees have approved the new restaurant Ahaar Indian Kitchen and Bar to occupy the former site of Deerfields Bakery in the village's historic district.

The new restaurant is located just south of Phat Phat Chinese Eatery.

The location itself led Schaumburg Township Historical Society President Denise Suender to voice concerns about parking availability and the planned dark blue color of the building at 25 S. Roselle Road, which will be used as a full restaurant for the first time.

But unlike the more than century-old building Phat Phat occupies, the future site of Ahaar was built only in the 1980s to look historic, Schaumburg Landscape & Design Planner Todd Wenger said.

Zoning board Chairman Harry Raimondi said his panel’s recommendation came with the expectation patrons would use valet parking and a neighboring shared lot.

The restaurant seats about 120 and will employ about a dozen workers.

Neither the zoning board nor village board had an issue with the change of color from an antique red to a dark blue. Suender’s criticism of the building’s standing out in the historic district was more widely seen as an asset for a business in need of visibility.

“They want it to look different so that when people are coming there or going by they’re going to see it and say, ‘That’s different, what’s going on there?’ and attract attention to it,” Mayor Tom Dailly said. “So, I think the color in that sense is appropriate.”

The restaurant is not seeking any financial assistance from the village, unlike Phat Phat next door, which retained the original red brick structure it inherited from the Easy Street Pub.

That building was deemed architecturally significant enough for the village to reimburse its landlords $250,000 of their renovation costs when the Chinese restaurant opened in 2019.

About 5½ months of renovation work on the former Deerfields Bakery will be required, Ahaar owner Sandeep Kumar told the board. He anticipates opening the restaurant in late summer.

Deerfields Bakery permanently closed during the pandemic after 20 years of operation in the building.