Ballydoyle wants to open restaurant in Naperville
By David Sharos For The Sun March 14, 2013 6:18PM
City Council members want more information before granting a late-night bar permit for a Ballydoyle Irish Pub Restaurant in downtown Naperville. | Sun-times media file
Updated: April 16, 2013 4:15PM
A Ballydoyle restaurant may go into the old Rosebud site at the corner of Chicago Avenue and Main Street in downtown Naperville.
Members of the Naperville Liquor Commission reviewed the Ballydoyle plan Thursday afternoon.
The proposed Naperville venue would be known as Empire by Ballydoyle. The company currently operates restaurants in Bloomingdale, Downers Grove and Aurora.
Ballydoyle is looking for a late night permit in order to serve liquor after 11 p.m. at the site.
City prosecutor Michael DiSanto explained that there is a cap on the number of late night permits in the city and that, pending the Liquor Commission’s approval, the City Council would have to vote to approve raising the cap to allow for the late night alcohol sales.
“With a Class B restaurant and tavern, there’s no permit necessary if liquor service is cut off at 11 p.m., but the Ballydoyle group wants to go longer than that and needs a permit,” DiSanto said. “It’s entirely possible this could be approved within the next 30 to 40 days.”
Mayor A. George Pradel expressed concerns about a possible “night club” environment being developed at the site, as well as saying that “there seems to be too many businesses of this type being developed in the same area.”
Owner Phil Cullen stressed that the restaurant concept is based more on food than liquor sales, but he said that the late night permit was essential to the concept. After more than an hour of discussion, the commission voted 7-0 to approve the request and send it on to the City Council for discussion.
Members of the commission expressed a desire to visit other Ballydoyle restaurants to see how large the late night crowds are, as well as the security measures that are taken to deal with them. Pradel and others expressed concern about adding extra police to the downtown area and leaving residential areas with less patrols if another late night establishment is opened.
The site Ballydoyle is looking to fill at 48 W. Chicago Ave. has been empty since the Rosebud restaurant there caught fire July 11, 2010. The fire was eventually ruled an accident.
The blaze left the space unusable for Rosebud, which later worked out a plan to move to 22 E. Chicago Ave., where it now operates Rosebud Italian Specialties and Pizzeria.
