Donnie Wahlberg is bringing New Kids On The Block to Wahlburgers in St. Charles Saturday
St. Charles resident Donnie Wahlberg will be back in town Saturday - and he is bringing his fellow members of New Kids On The Block with him.
At 10 a.m. Saturday, they will be stopping by the Wahlburgers restaurant at the southwest corner of Route 38 and Randall Road in St. Charles for what is being billed as the NKOTB Wahlk of Fame ceremony. The New Kids will be performing Friday and Saturday at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont.
Wahlburgers is a casual dining burger restaurant and bar owned by chef Paul Wahlberg in partnership with his brothers Donnie and Mark. The restaurant opened in St. Charles in July 2020.
St. Charles Mayor Lora Vitek will be emceeing Saturday's event. She was enthusiastic about the upcoming event.
"Donnie is committed to the community," she said.
Vitek said that to her knowledge, Saturday will mark the first time all the members of New Kids On The Block will be together at an event in St. Charles. Wahlberg and his wife, actress and television personality Jenny McCarthy, got married at the Hotel Baker in St. Charles in 2014.
In an interview with the Kane County Chronicle in 2019, Donnie Wahlberg talked about his love for St. Charles. The second season of the A&E docuseries "Donnie Loves Jenny" showed the couple's move from New York City to St. Charles in 2015.
"Both of us have really grown up in the entertainment business and traveled the world, lived in big cities, and traveled in and out of big cities," Wahlberg said. "I think that in doing that for so long, we always kind of dreamed of that sort of - I don't want to sound corny - but fairy tale life, where you just live in a small town and your kids can go out and play and walk around the neighborhood. We found that here.
"She had lived in Geneva for a little while before we started dating. When we started dating, we took frequent trips here. And we'd stay in the Hotel Baker or in Geneva. We just fell in love with the place. When I saw how much our kids loved it, too, and how many friends they made, I decided just to surprise her and buy a house. So that's what I did."
New Kids On The Block has sold more than 70 million records worldwide and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2014.