WhirlyBall adding restaurant to spot set to open this fall
A new restaurant called The Pivot Room is coming to Naperville this fall inside a WhirlyBall game center that's soon to open near Route 59 and I-88.
The restaurant's name comes from an action WhirlyBall leaders hope customers will do when they visit, pivoting from games to food to drinks in any order they choose, said Adam Elias, WhirlyBall's vice president of strategic planning.
"You naturally can pivot to dinner or pivot to another beer," he said. "It's a place where guests can gather around, enjoy a delicious meal together and ultimately linger for the evening and relax, then pivot to a night filled with activities and fun."
The restaurant will feature "chef-driven takes on classic American fare," Elias said, and will include an outdoor patio with a view of the hitting range at the nearby Topgolf sports entertainment venue. Its location at 3103 Odyssey Ave. allows WhirlyBall and The Pivot Room to join an area of the city becoming known as a place to play.
"We're excited to be neighboring with Topgolf, just creating more of a destination space in Naperville where folks can go have fun on a regular basis," Elias said.
The Pivot Room's menu includes appetizers, pizzas, salads, sliders and chicken entrees, among other dishes, and servers will help diners pair their choices with a list of more than two dozen rotating craft beers from local and regional brewers. Elias said the food is "elevated" from the options originally available when WhirlyBall - a game described as a cross between bumper cars, lacrosse, basketball and hockey - got its start.
"We've grown from a concession stand in Lombard in 1993 to a full-service culinary experience that you'll see today," Elias said.
The shift has matched the times.
"The expectation of dining from consumers has continued to grow," he said. "As 'entertainment' continues to evolve, being on the forefront, we feel adding a restaurant was a natural next step."
The Pivot Room in Naperville will be the second such restaurant to open in a WhirlyBall facility, following one in Brookfield, Wisconsin, that's also set to open this fall.
Some menu items will be available only inside the restaurant itself, but others will be game-friendly, Elias said. Guests will be able to order many of The Pivot Room's specialties while they're courtside waiting for a turn at WhirlyBall or laser tag, or while they're bowling at one of the facility's 12 lanes.
The restaurant also will cater all private parties or events booked at WhirlyBall, no matter whether it's a corporate meeting of business executives or a bar mitzvah of 13-year-olds.
Elias said WhirlyBall is hiring a about 200 people to work at the 41,000-square-foot facility, including a staff of roughly 75 for the restaurant.