Long-awaited pub-style restaurant Hopscotch expects mid-May Schaumburg opening

A much anticipated British-style, Indian-influenced restaurant named Hopscotch is targeting a mid-May opening in Schaumburg’s Town Square.

General Manager Mike Williamson said this could be as early as the week of May 11, but there would be several days of an invite-only build-up to a yet unannounced public launch.

Behind the concept are Dipak Lodhia — who created the restaurant brands Porto's Peri Peri and Vasco's Peri Peri before they were bought by investors — and business partner Subbu Vibha Iyer

Lodhia’s vision was a pub-themed restaurant reminiscent of his native London, but with a more diverse range of dishes.

While the food offerings are meant to be eclectic, the restaurant's name is a reference to the alcoholic beverages — including “hops” and scotch — in which it plans to specialize.

The eatery will include a “Tuck Shop” of sweets with an outdoor window for passersby in Town Square. Among the treats will be 99 Flake ice cream cones — vanilla soft-serve with a Cadbury Flake chocolate bar, a British favorite.

Other draws beyond the menu will be two levels of outdoor patio space, state-of-the-art golf simulators, interactive batting and cricket machines, a gaming room and event space.

The restaurant was proposed in the winter of 2022 for the last undeveloped 1.7-acre lot in the Town Square project of the early 1990s at 40 S. Roselle Road.

The two-story building with a 6,342-square-foot footprint lies west of Oberweis Dairy and east of the Schaumburg Township District Library.

Lodhia bought the site from the village for $225,000 after the project’s approval in 2023. At the time, officials anticipated the village would receive $120,000 annually in food, beverage and sales taxes from Hopscotch.

The delay of a groundbreaking until the summer of 2024 was primarily due to getting locked into a 9-month process with a bank that went nowhere before Lodhia had the opportunity to move on to a different bank, he said.

From the very beginning, Lodhia said there was one way Hopscotch would differ from his earlier restaurant endeavors — which he was persuaded to part from by interested buyers.

“This is going to be mine,” he said.