Burr Ridge trustees OK facade improvements for new restaurant

Nov 20, 2023

At Monday's Burr Ridge meeting, the board of trustees approved a plan from the owners of Pella Restaurant to add a new awning on the restaurant and a new coat of paint on part of the building.

The restaurant is expected to open in a couple of months at the Village Center. It will be a Mediterranean restaurant and, when it opens, it will be the largest restaurant in the village. It will open at the old Banana Republic and the Loft spaces.

The owners say the restaurant has been years in the works and had been slated to open over the winter. They’ve been held up in part by planning commission concerns over the issue of painting over bricks and concerns over additional awnings.

However, the owners made clear Monday they planned only to repaint about 20 feet of bricks that had been replaced in order to match existing painted bricks and they planned only to add awnings where none existed in order to create a wraparound effect in order to make the whole building identifiable as the same restaurant, as it was previously two different establishments.

"I drove over there this evening and, in my opinion, whatever help we can offer needs to be done," said Trustee Russell Smith. "The facade and the colors look dysfunctional now."

He agreed that the space looks like two different buildings.

"I know we’re trying to keep things as they used to be. Sometimes change is good and change can enhance a building," Smith concluded

"I think in all fairness we should give them the opportunity to make it look really nice," Trustee Anita Mital added.

Planning commission chairman Greg Trzupek attended Monday's meeting, and he said the awning wasn't an issue, but the commission did object to painting brick as paint can harm brick.

"The only thing we’re objecting to is painting the brick," he said. "The canopy is fine."

However, the president of the sign company pointed out that until the painting issue is resolved, he couldn't install the canopy anyway.

Andrei Smahon, president of Triangle Sign and Awning in Elmhurst, said, "In a perfect world they’re supposed to do the painting first and then we come with a canopy and they don't overlap. … Painting around our structure will just be further complications."

And with the expected opening being in about seven weeks and it taking eight weeks to design and create an awning, he needed to know what to do.

"This is the first this board has heard of your request," said Mayor Pro Tem Guy Franzese, as Mayor Gary Grasso was absent. "These delays that have happened to date aren't our fault and you’re now transferring this delayed pressure to this board which I don't think is fair."

However, after some discussion, the owners of the space said they only planned to repaint replaced bricks to match bricks that have been painted already. At that point Trzupek dropped his objections and the board voted to approve the final design of the restaurant.

Jesse Wright is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.