Fresh Change: Café Gaston Updates Décor, Keeps Homemade Approach

Yasser Elkayyal didn’t plan on being in the kitchen.

The Orland Park resident is really a structural engineer by trade, but in 2002 he started learning how to cook French cuisine. His family had just purchased from original proprietor Gaston Pareles, and Gaston insisted he learn the craft.

“While learning from Gaston, I started experimenting, adding a little more Mediterranean touches to dishes,” Elkayyal said. “Because of that our specialties are completely original. You’ll never find it anywhere else.”

Nearly 10 years later, a change was due.

The neighborhood bistro-style café serves eggs and pancakes for breakfast, sandwiches and salads for lunch and entrees including homemade crab cakes, grilled salmon, beef bourguignon and a chicken bowtie pasta that Italian patrons swear by for dinner.

Food is cooked to order with fresh ingredients. Menu items rotate in and out with the seasons, including their homemade soups. They now serve a pumpkin soup that packs the butter taste of a piecrust with the spices of pumpkin pie into a creamy soup.

All of that stays the same.

“We’re not secluded to the menu,” Elkayyal said. “A customer asked for grilled salmon on top of one of our salads. We had never done that before, so we melted bleu cheese crumbles over the fish, served it up and the woman said it was the best salad she ever had.”

The changes to Café Gaston are in appearance only.

What began as a simple plan to redo the restaurant’s floors became a slightly more involved project, resulting in a new awning and stone-influenced murals along the seating area’s walls.

“My artist friend Donatas Zadeikis came up with some great ideas,” Elkayyal said.  “I gave him the keys and he just drove.”

The café is hosting a “re-opening” event Wednesday evening to introduce patrons to the new features, with food and raffles for attendees.

Over the last decade, commitment to fresh from-scratch cooking and a home feel gave way to a dedicated group of regulars. Some can be found at the restaurant almost every day of the week.

“We’ve been coming here for years,” said regular Katie Dimperio. “It feels like being in your own kitchen.”

And yet, it seems there are still lots of Orland Park residents who are unaware of this original establishment near the sea of chain restaurants along LaGrange Road.

“People come in all the time and say ‘I’ve lived here my whole life and just found out about this place,’” Elkayyal said. “All I want to do is get people here once. Everyone who’s come here once came back to eat again in the next couple days after.”

To reach that end, Elkayyal and his brother Nader who shares managing duties, are sticking to quality.

“The style and the way we make out pastas, and the way we make our seafood, it’s all our way,” Elkayyal said. “Just find us. It’s not hard.”

The “Grand Re-Opening” will be held at the restaurant, 14438 John Humphrey Drive, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday evening.