I think there are enough people in the area that the bars can survive. There really needs to be some original concepts brought in, though. Trying to make the same thing work over and over doesn't seem to be working.

You would think they would survive due to the location in the down town area. Honestly, the food was overpriced for what you really got and to dine in you would be sitting on top of the person next to you.

Great-I just got a gift card for Xmas from there. Nice,real nice.

Brandon the only things the bars you to survive is you and your brother, but ryan also helps the revenue of the police department

I love a good Irish pub and went there with high hopes only to be disappointed. The food was way too salty, and I could tell the burger was a frozen patty. We saw a gaggle of guys hanging out the alley door smoking cigarettes when we arrived and when we left. If they were kitchen staff, there attention should have been on the food instead. Still, sad to see a fellow business owner lose their business.

Between the new Nevins, Tap house, Moe Joe's, Uptown,
Durbin's, Katie OConnor's, and the sports bar near Renwick and Rt 59; the market is saturated. There are only a couple of stand out bars and the rest are so so in my opinion. What we need downtown or near it is higher end places. We need to figure out how to grab a Rosebud's, a Hugo frog bar, a Starbucks, and some real stores. Maybe a Anne Taylor or Gap type store. Giving the first few tax breaks to start the flow might be smart. The mix and style of businesses we have right now doesn't increase revenue, give us choices, or bring Plainfield into the future successfully.

For the Future, Starbucks was actually looking at a location in downtown Plainfield, when the small shopping center at the corner of Rte. 59 and 126, across from Walgreens. For whatever reason, it didn't work out.
If you are in downtown Plainfield, and need a coffee kick, you can always run into Moe Joes. They have Starbucks equipment there and do sell Lattes and such. Last night, a few of us were throwing ideas against the wall, a bar that offers cheap beer 7 days a week can probably find a footing with the 21-29 crowd. If someone wanted to scare the beejesus out of the locals, and LGBT bar would be a great addition. If Plainfield were smart enough and desperate enough, they would reach out to popular eateries in Chicago *cough* Kumas *cough* and offer them incentives to open a location in Plainfield.

"For the future" and Brandon: both great ideas. It would be very nice to stay closer to home than Naperville for a high-end Hugo's type establishment, but how easily could the downtown area stand big crowds? Same thing with an LGBT club. Yes, it would scare the locals like crazy but could end up being quite popular because there don't seem to be any around (or maybe I just never noticed). Where would people park?

I agree... but by changing the downtown look to bring people and business in is only a step. Now you need to make big moves to bring in the popular brands. Cold stone, Starbucks, Chipolte, Maggiano's, Eddie Bauer. Otherwise it will become a dead little town like downtown St. charles with all the business on the outskirt's. Which is great for for keeping a traditional look, but I would rather it look like downtown Lagrange or Napreville, then downtown St Charles. But that is a long way out, and may never happen without big changes

Their prices were too high, their beer selection was terrible, and the service stunk. They didn't reach out to the community. For whatever problems Finnegans had, they did a lot of things right, which Mickey's should have tried to improve on not completely ignore. Mickey O'neills never got half as busy as Finnegans did.Finnegans had a strong customer base that O'Neills ignored. Once those people went somewhere else then you're competeing for Moejoes, Uptown, & Katie O'Connors customers. Craft beer is where the beer market is going. Some Patch readers may not enjoy or be interested in Craft beer, but nationwide has the largest growth in the beer market and it provides bar owners & stores higher profit margins. It is the only growing segment in the beer market. They lost an opportunity with a very strong customer base that already existed in this market. Finnegans didn't fail because their concept didn't work, they failed for a multitude of other reasons that if they were smart the group behind O'Neills would have capitilized on.

I like the concept of downtown Plainfield turning into a mini Naperville, but the big advantage Naperville has is more space to spread out it's businesses. Lianne, i'm at work, so i'm not going to google local lgbt bars, but you are right, while it might bother some, it would definitely attract a new audience into Plainfield.
Maybe a small Italian place in the old Finnegans? Baci's survived for decades in the town, and their going out of business was building related as much as the food. I'd gladly go to a place that did things like hand made Ravioli, or a brick pizza oven.

Another business bites the dust....way to go plainfield....

Everyone wants to bring in big name restaurants/bars to downtown but the fact of the matter is the big names won't come. They don't want to exist in an area where traffic counts are less than 20K a day and parking cannot support a crowd. The other thing is I see a lot of comments about everything being too expensive, well guess what that is how restaurant/bars stay in business. Myself if the meal is good I will pay the price, there is value in quality. When it comes to bars i don't want to go where beer is $.50 or a $1 because then the crowd acts as cheap as the beer being served. Look at Nevin's Brewing, not cheap but the place is packed every night because the crowd doesn't mind paying for a quality product. La Dolce Vita, not cheap but packed because of a quality product. People visiting downtown Plainfield won't support a good restaurant/bar, Naperville people support their downtown. Let's face it the downtown area is doomed to be a $1 beer hangout and those bar owners will turn over every other year because that concept does not pay the rent.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but one of the reasons Baci's went out of business was back taxes, just like Finnegans. This isn't 1990, the market is definitley saturated with Italian based eateries. Lets face it the market in Plainfield has changed dramatically in the past 20 years. There are a lot of choices and a lot of choices in nearby towns. Whatever you do, you have to do it well. The last thing I'm going to pay for on my night out is pasta. There are plenty of stuggling Italian places or ones that just closed in Plainfield. LGBT? Is their a huge need for that in Plainfield? Doubtful, even in the city they struggle. If you want a niche bar like that you really need to make sure you have a market for and they are willing to drive for it. I don't see people coming to Plainfield for a LGBT bar, especially if it's the only one. Limiting your audience is not a proven way to succeed.

I would elaborate on my "too expensive comment", by saying their food prices were too expensive for what they offered, bad, boring, typical "bar food". I have no problem paying for quality. I have no desire to drink a Miller Lite with a $12 burger.

You need Volume to turn a profit--You need space to turn a volume--This place provided a very large(oversized) beatuiful bar top and cheated the seating arrangement leaving the paying patrons no place to sit--standing in an asile being bumped throughout your stay does not support the prices charged for speciaity (overpriced)product. And yes --for some reason the "Craft" beer thing is a trend--same as the Disco/bell bottom pants and big hair--a stable business needs to provide a stable product like a stable domestic beer (Miller High Life, Please) that has proven it's worth thru the test of time. A Moderate price for a stable product will succeed in Plainfield -gouging the public pocketbook to drink a snob bitter brew will not.

Not to get into a discussion about craft vs. Miller, but this is where the market is going not as a disco ball/ bell bottom trend, but much like Schlitz & Old Milwaukee domestic mass produced beer is losing market share. It's loosing share because people want a quality product with a higher alcohol content. And you are correct about the space issue. That bar was too big for the space. Miller High Life sales along with all domestic beer sales have been steadily declining for the past 5 years. It's not being a snob, it's realizing that there is much better quality out there for about the same price. I don't enjoy water, that smells like socks, with a bit of alcohol in it just because it's $3.

The problem with some of the infrastructure (bars) is that Plainfield is suffering from the same problems which have devastated Lockport, Lemont, Romeoville and other small town communities. In their attempt of preservation of the small town look - what was overlooked by planners was parking, and sensible traffic patterns!
What this town needs is a Railroad Station with a huge parking facility to rejuvenate our town! We need a road over or under the tracks to connect the Westside to the East! Our planners need to ATTRACT large businesses to Plainfield without giving up the ship in tax breaks. A railroad station would certainly help downtown, and so would completion of the Edward Hospital campus. Property Taxes have gone through the roof in the last 10 years, and also must be balanced to what we as a community offer. The downtown bars are quaint, but few other businesses can afford the overhead, and lack of parking. The car shows during the summer may help the bars businesses, but drive away people due to the horrible gridlock which they create! Remember – not every person is a car buff.
If we are to engage ourselves in promoting a river walk as planned, Plainfield will need a sensible parking areas needed to pull people into our town, from the surrounding communities. Finding a way to improve the GRIDLOCK we have will be the paramount step in promoting our little town!

I'll disagree with you on one point Cindy: PBR, which owns Schlitz, are seeing their best profit in four decades. The younger crowd has kind of taken PBR, Schlitz, and the like, and made that their own. It is one of the top selling beers at a couple different Plainfield bars.
John, I LOVE the train station idea. It's been something that they have been flirting with for years, but for whatever reason, the pieces have never fallen into place properly.
And for what it's worth, there is a pretty good sized parking lot right next to the library, which, when the weather isn't bad, is a very small walk into downtown, and it remains empty at almost all times. I think the only cars that really park there are employees of the businesses.

This restaurant didn’t survive because of poor management and lack of owner participation. Rizzo wasn’t fully vested in here because he had a large group of local investors (20-25 of them I hear) all kick in 5k each to get the business started. He was playing with other people's money and therefore made little effort to correct the inadequacies of the staff working there. It’s a shame because this location, properly managed, could get a good business. Hopefully someone else will pick this space up and put the effort in to make it a successful business. In the meantime I'll be drinking at Tap House till something better comes along.

@Cary, what i'd always been made to believe was that a train station wouldn't be located right in downtown, and the space neccessary to construct one would leave plenty of room for parking improvements. For some reason, I always thought that the train station was going to start in Yorkville and work it's way through Plainfield and then into the city, with other stops as well.

Until they fix the parking and gridlock problems, the downtown area with be the death of many more businesses to come. Location is everything, and because of these problems I stay away from the downtown area. A train station would be great for the community, but downtown is so crowded as is, I don't think they have the space to fix the traffic issues.

The service there was horrible. When I see that, it's always a sign of bad management. But I do agree that the space does not lend itself well to being a restaurant. Not enough seating at all. And if you order beer while sitting upstairs, you wait almost 30 minutes for it to arrive. I always assumed Finnegan's failed because they invested so much in the decor at the beginning. You're better off having a hell-hole like Gruben's with "ok" food and plenty of indoor and outdoor seating. I'd assume a place like that has much less overhead costs. I've walked past Finnegan's because it looked crowded and I knew i wouldn't be able to see the ONE tv and end up watching a game at Gruben's.

Plainfield is just set up wrong. That's another reason why downtown Plainfield is what it is. No matter what they do, like moving Route 30, Lockport street is still a main route to get from one side of town to the other.

Moe joes is a joke I see SEVERAL underage drinkers in there that I personally know and I know there average age is 18/20

Stacy, Grubens is actually for sale, from what i've heard.

@Cary, there is a very real possibility that exact thing has been one of the stumbling blocks, finding the balance. That said though, the fact that there are people on this thread being solutions oriented and open to debate ideas on how to improve this town is a good thing. We know now that people on the village board do pay attention to what is being said. If we don spend time mud slinging, we can show the Plainfield Village Board what we want from our town.

To expensive! Plainfield needs more places that are affordable to the everyday person. My husband and I go out to eat every weekend. We will not pay $5.00 for a beer, $3.00/3.50 seems to be the going rate at most places. If it's cheaper, we probably will go there more often!

Too many businesses have failed in downtown Plainfield. The problem is that this area doesn't have enough people willing to pay the prices needed to pay the rent that is required to run a business in downtown Plainfield. Hopefully when half of the buildings are empty, the owners will consider lowering their rent enough to allow businesses to succeed instead of preying upon fledgling entrepreneurs who blindly follow their dreams of owning a bar or shop and see their dreams and life savings go down the drain.

Another problem with downtown Plainfield (that others on this thread have mentioned as well) is accessibility. NOBODY who travels down RT 59 from North or South of Plainfield is impressed by having to slam on their brakes and sit in traffic jams in a 30 MPH zone. The attempted small town feel of stops signs, speed bumps and 25 MPH on Lockport st. is a failure for business. The result is that outsiders tend to view Plainfield as an uptight little hick town despite the growth of the past couple decades. My wife and I run a small business and have lived in the area for almost 10 years but we will NEVER consider opening a location in downtown Plainfield until rent prices are lowered and traffic is allowed to flow in a manner that is conducive for business to succeed.

Byob restaurant with good food

Brandon, I agree. I think it all stems from a delusion on the part of the "powers that be" that Plainfield is something that it's not. It can't be a commerce mecca and an uptight little town at the same time. Plainfield isn't, never was and will never be like Naperville. Lower the taxes, raise the speed limits, take down the stop signs and maybe businesses will start to flourish. When RT 59 was expanded a few years ago EVERY part of the expansion was LONG completed before the RT 59/RT 30 area. That right there tells me that the powers that be in Plainfield did more to prevent the work from being completed than they did to help it.

What upsets me is that they did not tell their employees about the closing even though they knew about it beforehand, leaving most jobless. From what I observed, the management was poor. The boss I believe would always be sitting around while the employees were running around trying to fix problems that were out of their control. Sad to see the place close since I enjoyed going there for the live music.

Cindy, I didn't want to sound like I was disagreeing with you on your point. I am a huge fan of craft brews, too. I'm a porter/stout drinker, so my options are extremely limited unless I go to smaller companies.
But Pabst does, in fact, own PBR. Pabst holds the rights to PBR, Schlitz, Colt 45, Old Style, among others. They sub out their work to Miller Brewing facilities. I think you are underrating Pabst, as well. There are entire neighborhoods in Chicago, such as Lincoln Park, where it is the beer of choice.

Miller brews it, but yes technically Pabst still owns it. Yes it is hot in Lincoln Park, around DePaul, etc.... I'm just saying most domestic mass produced beers are not doing well or dying off. PBR came back with the right PR.

Blame anything all you want, the real reason places can't survive downtown is the high rents which were brought on by the building owners having to pay exorbitant real estate taxes because of the improvements to the location. Has anyone ever done the math to figure out how many beers and/or burgers one must sell to pay $10k (or whatever) per month rent? The increased taxation brought about by the improvements have caused many a downtown entrepreneur to fail. What "burger and beer vendor" can profit enough to pay these rents? None. The Village spent how many million "revitalizing" downtown, the county took notice and tripled property taxes, the landlords tripled the rents to pay it and the customers went away because they wouldn't pay $15 for a hamburger and $5 for a beer. If two people have a burger each and three beers each and end up with a $60 tab and a DUI on the way home, it doesn't take Einstein to figure out why they'd just go buy some meat and beer at Jewel, party at home, and take a pass on the "experience."

I agree with Cindy that Finnegan's did a lot of things right. The place was always packed. Very few towns will attract big name tenants because you need foot traffic or traffic counts. We have neither uptown. I think we should raze all of the Village from Lockport Street to Main Street and incent a developer to come in and build more dense and affordable housing. This would provide affordable housing, increase the density which will provide the foot traffic to support not only what we have but more and better businesses uptown. Also I thought the place was expensive for what you got, but everywhere you go it costs $10 plus for a meal (see Red Robin and others). Maybe a good pizza joint would work well.

I agree with Vincent. I am not a gambler because I find it a useless endeavor. However, if there are people that want to do this and do it right here at home instead of Joliet or Aurora, and it keeps profitable businesses in town, I'll sit there smiling and watch their habit support us all day. People who gamble will gamble...if not here, somewhere else. The bigger question is "why somewhere else?" It's not like anyone's saying bring in big casinos and the bad element that may follow. This is simply a few poker machines (VERY small scale) that will generate revenue for Plainfield and its business community, instead of people of the town going elsewhere to feed their habit. As much as I'm opposed to gambling on a personal level (for my own reasons), I think we're being foolish by not allowing this. People foolishly spend hundreds if not thousands on lottery tickets...I don't see anyone in town trying to ban that.

Sorry if this was covered but what about parking in the lot where everyone parks for brewery fest. Not sure about zoning but multi level or at least blacktop that area would work. It would not be any father than downtown Naperville parking to some of their stores. What about relocating the academy on the corner. That school is older and could be better located. It could possibly be rebuilt on some available farm land.

Irish Restaurant/Pubs are great and I love them, but, Katioe O'Connor's, Fox's, Durbins, Mickey O'Reilly's, Tommy Nevin's...........Isn't this just a little bit of saturation for Plainfield?

Good place to go is Hop Scotch and Vine, family owned everyone is very nice and while the menu is somewhat small, have ne'er had bad meal

I wish Plainfield would allow Taverns without mandating that a restaurant is attached. I think a good old fashioned pump room, like used to be in the back of the old Foremost liquor stores would be cool. The proverbial after work shot-n-a-beer joint where the "food" is a frozen pizza, pretzels, popcorn, slim jims, cheese sticks, chips, etc.(no need for a kitchen), a pool table, a pinball machine and a jukebox somewhere and there was package goods, cigarettes, cigars, etc. available to go. Trying to run a bar with the baggage of a restaurant is going to be a failure and trying to run a restaurant with the baggage of a bar is going to be a failure. If the two were separated like they used to be, I think there would be a greater chance of success. Back in the day, you never heard of a local watering hole going under, nor a local restaurant. Now that it's a law that they have to be combined, they go under left and right. I suppose I just wax nostalgic, but them sure were the days.

Any updates on the employees and management? Last I heard they did not pay them, return their phone calls, or let them go into the bar to retrieve their personal belongings. What a shame