St. Charles leaves room downtown for another landmark

I had plenty of interesting feedback from last week's column about those places in our communities whose names stick in our heads, no matter what business or service is operating out of that building at this time.

Before I share those, there was one comment that needs some clarification. I mentioned that the site of the recently leveled Manor Restaurant on Main and First streets in St. Charles would no longer house a building as part of the First Street redevelopment.

It was my understanding that another building at that site would be set back a bit, as that corner would be an opening to the new river plaza. Not true, downtown planners have told me.

Dan Marshall of Marshall Architects in St. Charles has designed a new building with the look of "old" traditional for property owners Joe Salas of the Hotel Baker and Maurice McNally of McNally's Irish Pub.

David Richards of the St. Charles Downtown Partnership said that the new building won't be part of the tax increment financing portions of the overall redevelopment.

"It is not officially a part of the First Street redevelopment project under way by Bob Rasmussen and his partners, but the new building will quickly become an iconic landmark of St. Charles' downtown district," Richards said.

The building will front Main Street and have an entrance along Main. My initial thought was correct - it's not likely we'll be calling a new building "The Manor" in the future (even though plans call for a restaurant and offices), but plans call for a building in that same spot.

More names that stay: One reader, Burke Nihill of Geneva, read about how the Twin Dor is fondly recalled along Third Street, even though Niche currently operates out of that same location.

But Nihill said he and his wife think more along the lines of the Chez Francois restaurant, the French restaurant that came in after Twin Dor's closing - especially because their first "date" there was on a wedding anniversary in 2005, about a month after the birth of their first child.

"As much joy as a new child brings, it's obviously a stressful and exhausting time for new parents," Nihill said. "At the time, Chili's still represented the nicest of our date spots, but for this anniversary date, which doubled as the first extended break from the baby, we decided to splurge.

"I called several local restaurants to make reservations, and Chez Francois was the first place to have an open table. That night, we enjoyed the most delicious meal, terrific service, and the most wonderful time reconnecting as a couple on a short reprieve from the baby.

"In the years since it closed, when referring to that short block of Third Street, my wife and I consistently identify it with Chez Francois."

'Place' had different names: I actually called the St. Charles Place restaurant along East Main Street by its previous name of "The Galleon" by mistake the other day, and realized it was another perfect example.

But my wife chimed in immediately, and started calling it "Lord Chumley's," which was the name when this location first opened its doors to customers in the mid 1970s.

Sandwiches and names: Phil Kessler of St. Charles reminded me about one of my favorite sandwich joints in the entire region. It was called Rojo's, and I still call the current Jalapeño Grill by the Rojo's name, even though a Rodeo Red's, and a Sally's Sub House have been in that same Y-intersection spot where Geneva Road turns into Second or First Street, near the Prairie Street bridge. More than 35 years ago, it was a gas station.

Kessler also asked if I remembered the Sally's Sub House that used to sit on the corner of Kirk Road and Route 38. That one has been "out of sight, out of mind" for a long time.

Used to be there: Readers took a different twist on my "same name" concept, and just enjoyed reminiscing about what used to be at certain locations.

Examples included the Coast-to-Coast hardware store that used to take up an area that is now a Geneva shopping strip that consists of Vulcan Golf, Josef's Meat Market, Soup to Nuts, and a Benjamin Moore paint store along West State Street.

Another was the fact that the Erday's clothing store, which sold its State Street storefront to Kiss the Sky record shop, has actually moved to the north end of that building - where it was located to begin with some 50 years ago.

Others included the Beehive Tavern and Grille in St. Charles, which used to be Hoops and, well before that, it was a restaurant operated by the late Jimmy Kacheres. Also, The Vertical Drop ski shop is still referred to as the Colson's building, where that department store operated at that same corner of Second and Main streets.

Also, new residents may not know this, but those who have been around for even the past few decades would remember the old Piano Factory being converted into the Piano Factory Mall, which is now better known as the Brownstone development along the riverfront.

Longtime fans of the pub scene in St. Charles may still call the Pub 222 by its former name, Back of the Yards.

dheun@sbcglobal.net