St. Charles puts the word out on fine restaurants

A burger and beer at Rookies, The Beehive or Alley 64. The glorious buffet at Sichuan. The atmosphere and good food at Wok ‘n Fire. The sushi at Sushi Yama. And the historic setting of Rox City Grill at the Hotel Baker.

I’ll take all of the above — and more. And St. Charles is hoping you feel the same way.

The loudest groans across any city seem to occur when a favorite restaurant closes its doors. A lot of groaning has taken place across the Fox Valley the past few years as the recession claimed plenty of victims, some of them longtime or even historic eateries.

The City of St. Charles is hoping to do something about that by encouraging area residents to patronize a St. Charles restaurant during the week of Feb. 23 to 27.

Yes, the city economic development department has organized this event, but it has the backing of the chamber and downtown partnership. The city will mail postcards to residents that will list the more than 30 participating restaurants and provide a 25 percent discount.

The Daily Herald is going to run ads from Feb. 18 to 24 that can be used to get the discount, and a printable version of the postcard will be on the city’s website at stcharlesil.gov. Extra postcards will be available in the lobby of the St. Charles Municipal Center.

“St. Charles Restaurant Week” indicates the city realizes how important it is that restaurants serving the community, especially for the downtown region, avoid joining the Great Recession’s hit list.

I write about restaurants coming and going often in this column. The restaurant week is all about making sure they stay. The chains along Randall Road, for the most part, seem to have full parking lots. So you know people are still eating out.

St. Charles would like you to try a place you may not have visited as of yet.

Gabby’s in TV spotlight

Speaking of St. Charles restaurants, Gabby’s Kitchen will be featured on “Chicago’s Best” at 10 p.m. Sunday on WGN-TV.

The show’s host, Ted Brunson, was at Gabby’s recently filming the session in which waitress Cathy Sams brings him one of the house specials — the Humongous Pancakes.

If you haven’t tried that breakfast specialty, you’re mouth will be watering after you watch this show.

Lots of dog hair

It was surprising to call to make an appointment for our dog’s grooming session and discover that the Fox Valley Grooming Den, on Walnut Street in St. Charles, closed a couple of weeks ago.

Our dogs have been getting haircuts at Fox Valley for 30 years, and you hate to see a routine like that suddenly come to halt.

Not a crazy idea

A recent front-page story in the Daily Herald about the growing popularity of roller derby and the number of suburban women enjoying the sport reminded me of a suggestion I made to the St. Charles City Council that was largely ignored.

It was more than a decade ago, when the old St. Charles Mall was sitting empty and everyone was wondering what to do with it. I put my two cents in a column by saying it should be turned into a roller derby rink.

At the time, it made for a few grins and chuckles. Now, I’m not so sure I wasn’t actually serious. Would that have been worse than an empty lot?

A marathon cause

Aubree Hoepper, a 2007 graduate of St. Charles East, was mentioned in this column a few years ago because she was supporting a charity while running in the Boston Marathon.

She’s at it again, as she prepares to graduate from Boston University in May with a double major in human physiology and psychology.

While planning on doing future research in the field of child psychological disorders, Hoepper is more focused at the moment on the April 18 Boston Marathon, where she will again be running for the charity “Team Hole in the Wall,” which helps children afflicted with cancer and sickle cell anemia.

Donations for this cause can be made to http://teamholeinthewall.kintera.org/boston2011/aubree.

A real Pearl

After reading my recent column about Charlie Kline, one of the oldest Batavians who has never lived in any other town, readers have sent a couple of notes to tell us not to forget Pearl Barber.

Pearl will be celebrating her 102nd birthday on June 3 and she has lived on Van Buren Street in Batavia her entire life — 41 years on North Van Buren, and 60 years on South Van Buren.

Marklund’s best pals

To say the Lederer family of St. Charles has supported Marklund Children’s Home would be an understatement.

Marklund’s board of directors would be the first to agree, which is why it honored Gary, Jean and Beth Lederer as “Friend of the Year” Saturday night at Marklund’s annual Top Hat Ball at the Chicago Marriott.

The family has been involved with Marklund, an organization serving special health needs for children and adults, since 1991 and their son Andrew lives at the Marklund Children’s Home on the Mill Creek campus in Geneva.

During the 1990s, Gary Lederer served on the Marklund board for several years and was board chairman in 1997-98. And he was involved with helping developmentally disabled children well before his own son was helped at Marklund.

Jean Lederer has been a key fundraiser for the organization, even after the family moved to Europe in 2008. Andrew’s sister, Beth, has become the liaison for the Lederer family, and her involvement has grown over the years, volunteering more than 365 hours in the past two years.

dheun@sbcglobal.net