River Lane Pub gets new name, new owners

River Lane Pub in Geneva got plenty of good plugs from this column, mostly because it had a plenty-good cheeseburger and was generally an excellent neighborhood pub.

But it ran into some problems with the city last summer by selling alcohol to a minor during Swedish Days. River Lane wasn't the first, and won't be the last, local tavern to have a problem screening underage patrons during the city's huge summer festival.

Though that incident wasn't a great public relations move and was likely fairly costly in legal bills for the pub, there may have been other factors that caused owner Laurence Vanni to close its doors.

It is good news, however, that the owners of Alley 64 in St. Charles plan to soon reopen River Lane Pub under the catchy name of "The Dam Bar and Grill" because of its location near the Geneva dam.

"We are just in the process of waiting for the liquor license to be approved, and that usually takes about 30 days," said Alley 64 general manager Erin Downing. "We are hoping to open shortly after the holidays."

Downing previously worked at River Lane Pub and, in fact, met the owners of Alley 64 - Jeremy and Nick Casiello - when they were at River Lane one night.

"We just got to talking one night when they were at River Lane, and they hired me for Alley 64 - and now we'll be going back to River Lane," Downing said.

In what amounts to good news for past River Lane patrons, Downing said the new owners - the Casiellos and two other business partners - have no intention of changing anything about the food or bar atmosphere.

"We know it is a good neighborhood bar and grill, and we want to keep it that way," Downing said.

What would she say?: When hearing that the county was going to have to demolish the Roberta Campbell House on the events center grounds, I had to wonder what my late colleague and friend would have thought.

Sure, Roberta would have understood that the house, which has been the site of numerous art exhibits and meetings of all sorts, was flooding regularly and was becoming an expense the county couldn't afford.

But the longtime Batavia newspaper columnist, historian and lover of the arts might have delivered a tongue-in-cheek wisecrack about the Republicans in the county letting the house deteriorate.

The house may soon be gone, but Batavians who knew Roberta Campbell won't forget her. She was a voice for the Democratic Party, when there were just a chosen few of that ilk in the county. She was friends with people in high and low places, and her friendship with Phil Elfstrom and her reputation as an honest and fair voice led to the house on county property carrying her name.

You could fill this newspaper with all of the interesting things Roberta did in her lifetime, but longtime Batavians are likely to remember that she penned the book "Batavia 1833-1983" that was published in 1983 as part of the city's 150th birthday celebration. She also was the second presenter during the first year of Batavia's Books Between Bites program in 1987, reviewing "Empire" by Gore Vidal.

The helmet on the tree: You don't always see a decorative Viking helmet at the top of a Christmas tree.

But that was just one of the interesting things we saw last weekend when looking over the contestants on display for the annual Christmas Giving Tree at the Geneva History Center during the Christmas Walk.

The trees are decorated by various agencies and service organizations emphasizing their missions, and visitors place $1 votes for their favorites. The winning organization keeps all of the money from its votes; the others split their money with the history center.

The voting continues until Dec. 28 and the winner is announced on Dec. 29.

It's probably not fair that I mention a few that caught my eye, because all of the trees were really nice. But, I can't resist. That Viking helmet sits atop the Geneva Academic Foundation's tree, and the Paul Ruby Foundation had an interesting twist with ornaments that showed photos from the organization's Concert for a Cure. And the Fox Valley Volunteer Hospice had a "Legend of the Butterfly" theme with ornaments to match.

All great stuff for great causes.

He was decked out: As noted last week in this column, 9-year-old Daniel Sandberg of Geneva is taking it upon himself to raise money for the Geneva History Center.

He kicked off his campaign by passing out donation cards at the Christmas Walk and he did it in style - decked out in a classy tuxedo.

And he picked a good time to look sharp. History center volunteers are telling me the center enjoyed its highest-ever attendance mark during the festive Christmas Walk.

I believe it. The place was packed.

Walk, don't run?: Thanks should go out to the folks in my service club who donated to my effort in the TriCity Family Services first Snowflake Shuffle 5K run and walk.

It would be excellent to report that I ran like the wind and finished the 5K in about 25 minutes around the Mill Creek golf course and subdivision. But, as Ralph Kramden would say - "Hardy, har, har." Of course, it was a "walk, don't run" motto for me. But I was moving fast and finished in 45 minutes, so that has to count for something.

Far more importantly, the agency put on an excellent event that drew more than 300 participants. If those 300 can convince another friend to come along next year, then it becomes even bigger and better.