By now, you’re all aware of Old Chicago’s big announcement about their location atop Riverfront Village: they’re closing for the winter. The story was covered by WMBD-AM and the Journal Star. From WMBD:
Old Chicago along Peoria’s riverfront is closed until April 4th, according to CFO Dale Paulsen. Paulsen says it’s best for the riverfront restaurant to open on a seasonal basis until there’s a lure of more customers to the area.
This decision has raised a number of questions in my mind.
First, why are they waiting until April to reopen? Isn’t March Madness one of the busiest times of the year downtown? Why would a pizza restaurant want to miss a time when 20,000 people a day — most of them young kids who presumably would like pizza — descend on Peoria’s Civic Center? They’re going to open up right after this large event?
Second, what impact is this going to have on the City financially? We’re already losing money on this due to a non-profit organization moving into the old Damon’s instead of a tax-paying restaurant or other retailer, plus we’re having to replace the defective stairs at taxpayer expense, even though that should have been the developer’s responsibility. Now we’re going to lose sales tax and HRA revenue for three months, too? What implications does this have on repayment of the bonds used to build Riverfront Village?
Third, they really expect the museum to be their salvation? If they won’t open the doors when 20,000 people a day are downtown (March Madness), why would a supposed 1,000 people a day (predicted by the museum group) be worth their while? And if museum patrons wouldn’t park in Riverfront Village’s lot and walk across the street to see the museum due to fears of safety, weather conditions, or whatever reasons were given for requiring an attached parking deck, wouldn’t the reverse also be true?
Fourth, I thought Riverfront Village was built to lure people to the riverfront. Now Old Chicago is wanting customers to be lured by something else? Doesn’t this point to a fundamental failure of the Riverfront Village plan? Former Mayor Jim Maloof was quoted by the Journal Star in 1995 as saying, “The entire community is going to be thrilled when they see the magnitude of this project and what it is going to do for our downtown.” Fifteen years later, what has it done for our downtown, exactly?
Is Joe’s Crab Shack going on hiatus, as well? I would think that Old Chicago might do some promotions to draw people downtown. I prefer not to patronize Grand Prairie, so sending people to the hinterland for OC pizza isn’t the answer.
I hate to be a pessimist, because I’ve always enjoyed Old Chicago, but…
Are they really going to re-open in April? Ice cream shops open and close seasonally… but not restaurants like Old Chicago. If they can’t be profitable in winter I don’t think they can during spring and summer. The tables on the patio can’t make THAT much of a difference.
I suspect that the “we’ll reopen in April” line is a lie to appease their former employees and the public. It’s a whole lot easier to pack up and disappear in the middle of the night if you tell people “oh… yeah… we’ll be right back.”
I really hope I’m wrong.
I couldn’t believe this was freakin front page news.
Well CJ, I know you’re no dummy and I know you read other blogs so I know you know how I feel about this as I posted on this several days ago. Still, I got an email from Old Chicago (I’m on their customer mailing list) and it says OC is closed for re-modeling. Is this for the new stairs to be installed because there isn’t a single construction truck down there parked anywhere.
No, this is to appease the public and it’s probably timed so the city council elections are done and gone when OC announces their “Goodbye”. Another failed project we can add to the City’s list.
This was “freakin front page ” because of the implications to all the projects into which our civic leaders have invested out money.
C.J’s analysis is spot on.
Very interesting. I’ve never heard of a full pizza restaurant closing seasonally.
But perhaps Emtronics is right that they’re closing for remodeling? That makes more sense to me on the face of things, though I haven’t heard one way or the other.
a good way to determine their financial status is to FOIA how they are on paying HRA taxes. recall, River Station was far behind in payments (as i recall, they never paid a dime), liquor license lost, collapse.
Its hard to imagine Riverfront Village can be profitable at all if a pizza pub cannot make it there. If beer and pizza cannot attract people, there is little hope educational exhibits will.
The food appeals to the younger crowd mostly. I never really liked the pizza or the menu. Still why go there to eat if there is nothing else to do downtown? People pack the one at the GP and then they are off to the Rave.
“Gas station quality” pizza and cheap beer will not lure me down to that dirty, noisy sports bar. I am glad to see Old Chicago close. The food is disgusting.
Decent Chicago quality pizza and upscale beer could lure people down there. Sadly, there is no authentic Chicago pizza in the Peoria area.
Now is a good time to close all businesses in that ugly building and build a park for the nearby museum……
Free ice skating downtown on the riverfront would attract people who then would want to eat, if the food were acceptable and there were musicians to entertain. It’s not rocket science. See Millennium Park in Chicago for an example of how to do it.
free ice skating? who pays for the free rink, the free skates, the free maintenance….
the free insurance…?
Who used to pay for free skating when it was at Bradley or Glen Oak? Why did Bradley quit icing the skating area?
Try Mickie’s Pizza in Westlake. Locally owned and does a lot of fundraising. Great pizza.
Can we finally tear down that eyesore of a platform down there and restore the area back to green park space? Who am I kidding… Add the platform to the list of tax subsidized clusterfarks. I am sure we will be bailing it out soon.
Mazr- I tried to go to Mickie’s at Westlake last week. It was locked and cleared out. There was no story in PJStar either.
Mahkno- I’d support the return of the park, as well. Especially since the pairing of stilt village and chain eateries seems to have fizzled.
Conrad…..that’s bad news. Bummer. Haven’t been there since summer.
Just checked their website. They are now on 4th street in Dunlap.
parks do generate income, jobs, potential tax return thats for sure…..
CJ, you have a fierce common sense that may blind you to the subtleties of economic development and running a business :-}
Seriously, this place is not going to reopen. I won’t miss it. I’ve been there twice (not by my choice) and mostly remember the dirty tables and carpet, discourteous wait staff, and barely mediocre food.
This development is an eyesore and green space should be restored. Plenty of other places downtown where a restaurant could set up shop. Serve good food and Peorians will cross the street in the rain to come.
I think the point is the number of places that are just tossing in the towel. We do not have so many eating joints that the population cannot sustain them. So the issue would be 1. income effected by economy and continued higher tax rates. 2. crime whether real or perceived. 3. All of the above. The economy is not rebounding in the midwest at any time soon. Look at the last recession. Peoria’s economy is not solid enough nor fluid enough (seemingly opposites but not necessarily) to sustain long term economic downside. We invest in strip mall development leading to businesses that cannot sustaing family income wages. We have an eagle “tif” area on the Bartonville side of town that should be teeming with industrial/manufacturing, but we don’t lure those businesses in. We do offer substantial money to spur projects for local government, including the county. These feel good temporary union job projects will not bring in long term family wage incomes either, but allow for grandstanding which is very important during election season.
I would submit the issue falls back to crime. Why stay in Peoria when you can be safe in East Peoria. It’s a no brainer. One can argue that the murders are blocks or miles away, but the average visitor or one with a family could care less. They want to be safe. People complain about being stereotyped, but come on, are they honestly looking in the mirror before the leave the house thinking, I look like a fine, upstanding citizen. Again, visitors don’t care if they are thugs, wanna be’s, or just kids. They drive past and take their money with them. The budget was passed with the full intention of dropping another 13 officers. There is no way that anyone can argue that the safety of the community was number 1 in the decision making in the past two years and we are reaping the consequences. The Mayor is anticipating more cuts to personelle. Mayor Ardis is generally correct in that staff cuts are certain, but I would guess that there is still money to trim and efficiencies to gain. We spend $45,000 to rent twin tower space. Is that the best use of that money? What are we doing about infill? Maybe we should make it cheaper for business to infill than to build in green space. We need to look at the economic tools given to us and stop using them to promote more sprawl. filling in vacant buildings provides more traffic and hopefully less crime and less blight. Yes this infringes on a “free market” or perhaps is just adds some guidance to promote and restore other areas of town with something other than tax dollars. If there are ways to fund pet developers for pet projects then there are ways to spur growth in other areas, and there are ways to keep essential services. Quite frankly essential services are why people pay taxes in the first place. I think some of our officials need to revisit that each and every vote to spend money on other items.
I am no fan of OC. That being said, I am a fan of Richards, Sully’s, Hoop’s, Kelleher’s, Whammy Bar.
While the locations on the Riverfront are better, I have been staying clear of downtown after dark. The thug attitude among the streets leave me to question the safety of downtown, especially late at night.
I realize it is not so bad most of the time, but a few times of being out after 10pm downtown has made me stay away due to the safety issue. That sucks for all involved, and while there are many a night with no incidents, others have the same feeling as well.
I guess all your fears were (half) founded. The building has been fully remodeled and ready to re-open, BUT I just found out it won’t be Old Chicago anymore. It’s going to be an entirely new restaraunt. No name was given to me. It must be a big surpise.
It’s not a big surprise. It is going to be called the Retro American Tap. It was in the PJStar, and they’ve had help wanted advertisements around for a week or two.
The Retro American Tap has the same owner as Old Chicago. He wanted something different. I just hope the service improves.