Elk Grove Village pierogi restaurant plans grand reopening Wednesday
An Elk Grove Village mom-and-pop pierogi restaurant that was temporarily closed due to a shopping center redevelopment will host a grand reopening Wednesday in its larger space nearby.
Tata's Pierogi has been open for a little more than a month at 570 E. Devon Ave. — just steps from its old location — but Wednesday marks its formal ribbon cutting at the new place.
A party with free food and soft drinks is scheduled from 4 to 7:30 p.m. Reservations can be made at (847) 264-8944.
The Polish eatery, which opened in the Devon Avenue Market shopping center at Devon Avenue and Tonne Road in 2017, is among the businesses in the remaining 7,680-square-foot portion of what had been a 31,000-square-foot strip mall. An ongoing $7.3 million project required partial demolition to make way for a neighboring 146,000-square-foot light industrial warehouse.
While Tata's was able to relocate within the strip center, Julian BBQ and Grill and Dos Diablos Bar and Grill are still looking to reopen elsewhere in Elk Grove, officials said.
Five months after closing and with some compensation from developer CA Industrial, Tata's owner Lester Jakubowski said he was able to open the new 65-seat restaurant that essentially is triple the size of its old dining room. He relocated pierogi production to a 8,000-square-foot warehouse in Hillside.
A team of six employees make a variety of 15 pierogi there — using a machine to start, but finishing them all by hand — then distributing the finished dumplings to Tata's on Devon, other Polish restaurants, delis and grocery stores. Tata's also is a regular at local festivals.
“We're not going to say this is an easy business and that we made it, but we are definitely going to say the hard work will pay off one day,” said Jakubowski, who officially became a citizen last October after coming to the United States as a student in 1991.
He worked for years in construction, helping to build and renovate restaurants, when the idea of opening a place of his own was sparked.
“I thought, they're not much better than me,” Jakubowski said. “It's the American dream — I can have my own restaurant.”