New Burr Ridge Restaurant Set To Open This Summer

BURR RIDGE, IL – Pella Signature, which is set to be the largest restaurant in Burr Ridge, is now expected to open this summer.

Last July, the owner, Alexander Kostandinov, had hoped to open the doors by last winter.

The Mediterranean restaurant is planned for 720 Village Center Drive, in the old 13,000-square-foot space of LOFT and the Banana Republic.

The space is designed to accommodate up to 500 people at a time.

Pella submitted a plan to paint the entire facade, much of it brick, the same color. It is different colors because the building contained two stores.

After the Plan Commission denied the request in April, Kostandinov altered the plan, saying he would not paint the facade along Lifetime Drive.

At Monday's Village Board meeting, Trustee Russell Smith suggested his colleagues drive by the building.

"Whatever help we can offer needs to be done," he said. "The facade, the colors look dysfunctional right now. It is a 15-year-old structure. You can see the brickwork and everything is weathered."

Trustee Guy Franzese, who was presiding over the meeting in Mayor Gary Grasso's absence, asked whether the restaurant opening would be delayed if it took another month for approval.

Kostandinov said it would. He said the project has taken almost two years, with supply chain issues and rising costs.

"I do believe if we take another month, we're going to miss the whole summer," he said.

Franzese said it was the first that the Village Board has heard of the request.

"These delays that have happened are not our fault. For whatever reason, they've happened," he said. "You're now transferring this delay and pressure to this board, which I don't think is fair."

Franzese also disagreed with the argument that the bricks needed improvement, saying they were 15 years old. He said his house was 34 years old and built out of recycled bricks that are now probably a century old.

"They are not shabby. I have a tough time believing (the restaurant's) bricks are shabby looking," he said. "I'm not buying that argument."

Franzese said he was on the Plan Commission in 2005 when the panel weighed in on how the Village Center would look.

"We didn't want it to look all one color. We wanted inconsistencies ... so you didn't see a monotonous slab of color," he said. "We didn't want a monotonous strip mall."

He said other Village Center businesses have multiple finishes on their facades.

Trustee Anita Mital, though, said it made sense to have one color for a business.

"You can't have one building with three difference facades," he said.

The owner and his representative further explained the plan, and the chairman of the Plan Commission said he had no problem with it.

The trustees then voted unanimously for the request.