From 400 employees to 8, a suburban restaurant group rides out the pandemic

When Bob Karas talks about his life's work, he isn't just talking about himself.

He's talking about siblings, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews.

And he's talking about his late father, Paul Karas.

Members of the Karas family own 12 restaurants around the suburbs, including Village Squire, Alexander's, Rookies and Old Republic.

Paul Karas moved to the United States in 1963 with no money and no English skills, according to daughter Eleni Karas Karavasis. He worked several jobs at a time, sometimes more than 120 hours a week, to make enough money to live and send some home to his large family in Greece. By the late 1960s he was able to open a restaurant and in 1974 bought the Village Squire in West Dundee. He died in October.

That empire has grown over the decades to include more than 400 employees.

In no time flat, that number has been reduced to eight.

The future is uncertain and the margins are slim. “The restaurant industry is very fragile,” Bob Karas said. “People think, 'Oh, they've got 12 locations, they're rich, they're millionaires',” he said. “No. I work more now than I ever worked my whole life and we're not making the money we used to make with fewer restaurants and less work.”

They're hoping for federal and state program help, but with so many restaurants the process is difficult and slow. Being open as a carryout restaurant isn't cutting it.

“We've got no money coming in,” he said. “This carryout is a joke. We probably should have just shut down, buttoned it up and waited it out.”

Two restaurants are doing OK, but others are temporarily shuttered, he said.

“We do love this business,” he said. “If we didn't we would have folded quite a while ago.”

• Do you know of a suburban small business with a compelling story to tell about working through the pandemic? Send photo director Jeff Knox a detailed email with LIFE'S WORK in the subject line at jknox@dailyherald.com, and we'll consider it.