Families protest Show-Me’s

• Reprints

Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM

Parents and children holding signs and shouting “Stop this show,” put on a show themselves Friday afternoon during rush hour along Ogden Avenue in protest of a new sports bar and restaurant on its way to Naperville.

About 30 residents, including families with children, gathered Friday afternoon in opposition to Show-Me’s.

The sports bar and restaurant slated to move into the former location of Famous Dave’s, 1126 E. Ogden Ave. upon approval of a liquor license, features a wing and seafood menu and a wait staff of girls in short shorts and midriff-revealing tank tops, dubbed “Show-Me’s Girls.”

“I’ve been living here for 14 years, my whole life,” said protester Emma Sliwinski. “I don’t want to see this godforsaken place loaded with drunks, drug addicts and strippers.”

“We don’t want this to open here. It’s not what we want our corridor to Naperville to be,” said Emma’s mother, Joyce Sliwinski, who in addition to protesting Friday, added her name to a growing petition against the establishment.

In response to the outrage, Mayor and Liquor Commissioner A. George Pradel will be holding an expanded meeting of the liquor commission Thursday afternoon to hear residents’ concerns.

But while residents said they planned to attend and have their say, some seemed to think it might not matter.

“He wants to hear everyone out at the liquor commission meeting and then just rubber stamp it,” said resident George Isaac, between leading the group in chants.

“We moved here to get away from this ugliness, and the mayor’s bringing it to our backyards,” said Samantha Isaac.

As the city’s liquor commissioner, Pradel has final say on whether the restaurant will be approved. As part of his decision-making, the mayor visited the franchise’s Springfield location last weekend.

Though he has not publicly given his support either way, he called it, “a really laid-back crowd and just people having fun and enjoying fellowship.”

But residents are concerned about the image of the restaurant as viewed from photos and restaurant reviews posted online. “Horribly disturbing photos,” said Emma Sliwinski. “Really pretty girls in those really short shorts.”

The next meeting of the liquor commission will include a public forum and be held at 4 p.m. in the council chambers of the Naperville Municipal Center, 400 S. Eagle. St.