Business & Tech

Another Restaurant Bites the Dust?

Route 59 Grill hasn't reopened after promising a "new concept" earlier this summer, while Daddy-O's promises new management but appears dormant. Phones for both have been disconnected.

Route 59 Grill posted a sign on its door in mid-August saying it would reopen this month with a new dining “concept,” but it’s not clear if that will actually come to pass.

The phone number for the Plainfield restaurant at 15521 S. Route 59 has been disconnected and calls and e-mail to owner George Tsakanikas have gone unreturned. The diner/fast-food style eatery looks exactly as did prior to closing.

Meanwhile, questions have also popped up about , an ice cream/fast-food shop at 15012 S. Fox River St. A sign in its window says it would be closed for a week to allow new management to take over, but it, too, shows no signs of life.

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The business’ phone number has been disconnected and was reassigned to another business in town about six weeks ago. A phone number listed on the restaurant’s Facebook page has been disconnected.

Attempts to reach owner Brenda O’Sullivan were unsuccessful. According to the Illinois Secretary of State’s office listing for the restaurant, the corporation was involuntarily dissolved on July 8.  

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Daddy-O’s opened in May 2010; Route 59 Grill in November 2010.

The restaurant business is a notoriously difficult field in which to be a success. According to research conducted by an Ohio State University professor in 2007, one in four restaurants will close or change owners within their first year of business. The number increases to three in five over three years.

That’s certainly consistent with the most , including Finnegan’s Irish Pub, which opened in 2010 and closed in September after it lost its liquor license due to back taxes; Cebollitas Mexican Restaurant, which opened in November and closed this week; and Thomas Albert American Wine Bar & Lounge, which opened in May and was sold to new owners this month.

Another new restaurant, , which was to open in July and appears to be almost completely finished, remains closed. It’s located in the same strip mall as Live 59 and the new Encore Dinner Playhouse, set to open next month.

H.G. Parsa, the professor who did the restaurant viability study, told Bloomberg Businessweek that there are many reasons a dining business will fail. Many of those he interviewed attributed their failure to personal reasons – the business taking too much time away from family, a divorce, illness or retirement creating conflicts or the owner simply being in over his head with a “muddled concept” and an “inability or unwillingness to give the business sufficient attention, whether due to lack of time, passion or knowledge,” he said.

Interestingly, Parsa says a bad location may not be as big a hindrance as some believe. He told Businessweek that "a poor location can be overcome by a great product and operation, but a good location cannot overcome bad product or operation."


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