Restaurant coming to ex-bank in downtown Des Plaines will be called The Dime
The restaurant coming to a historic building in downtown Des Plaines will pay homage to the three-story structure’s origin as a bank.
The operation at 678 Lee St. will be called The Dime, officials confirmed Saturday.
Restaurateur David Villegas revealed the moniker in an image shared Saturday on Facebook. It depicts a decorative flag bearing the name and a reproduction of a U.S. 10-cent piece.
The logo was designed by Villegas’ niece, Natalia Villegas. Villegas is eager to put the image and name on a real flag on the side of the actual building.
“I think it’s a cool idea,” Villegas said. “I think it’s going to work.”
Mayor Andrew Goczkowski thinks the name is classy.
“It ties together our past and our future,” he said.
Completed in 1927, the marble building spent most of the last century as a bank but has been vacant since 2019.
Des Plaines bought the building in 2024 to redevelop it. Villegas’ 10 Scents company leases it.
Under a deal the city inked with 10 Scents in September, Des Plaines will spend up to $12 million to bring the roughly 18,000-square-foot building up to code and make other improvements. It’ll then be up to Villegas to add kitchen equipment, furniture, fixtures, signs and other restaurant-specific amenities, at a projected $4.5 million cost.
Villegas, who converted a former Des Plaines church into the popular Foxtail on the Lake restaurant in a similar public-private partnership with the Des Plaines Park District, has said he’s dreamed of repurposing another historically significant building in the city.
By naming the operating The Dime, Villegas said he’s “just trying to bring it back full circle.”
Villegas teased that the building might actually host two restaurant concepts, with the other in the third-floor space. He didn’t reveal any other details.
A March 2027 opening is planned.
“We’re so excited that this is moving forward,” Goczkowski said. “This is the first of many big things coming to downtown Des Plaines.”