Get Your Scorecards Ready: Two More New Restaurants Soon to Open

If you're having a hard time keeping up with which are closed and which are soon to open, it's no surprise. The ever-changing village dining scene seems to be different every week.

Here's the latest rundown of who's coming and who's gone:

LA DOLCE VITA PER TUTTI

This upscale Italian restaurant is expected to open by mid-October in the 16108 S. Route 59 location where this summer.

Dan Lombardo, who has owned La Dolce Vita della Piazza in Frankfort for seven years and recently sold the 12-year-old La Dolce Vita in Lemont, said he's long wanted to expand to Plainfield and seized the opportunity when Gratto owners decided they were overextended and wanted to sell.

The menu will be identical to the northern Italian cuisine served at the Frankfort eatery with one exception: homemade gourmet pizza, said Lombardo, who is partnering with Wayne Spitzer on the venture. Their specialities are baked clams, pork chops Milanese and fresh seafood, he said.

The restaurant will be open only for dinner six days a week and has enough seating for 85 inside and another 35 or so on outdoor patios at the front and rear of the storefront. The interior is done is shades of olive green and burgundy red, with slate walls and polished concrete floors. A full bar takes up about a third of the restaurant space.

The restaurant will employ about 40 people, Lombardo said.

Mike Guinta, who owns the strip mall in which La Dolce Vita is opening, said he's confident Lombardo has the experience to make the place a success.

"It's going to be a nice place," Guinta said. "He knows what he's doing."

POPOVER SPORTS BAR

For nearly five years, , a Japanese restaurant specializing sushi and stir fry prepared on large hibatchi grills, had anchored the far northern spot at 16108 S. Route 59, at the opposite end of the strip mall in which La Dolce Vita is opening.

Guinta said the combination of a recessionary economy and years of road construction on Route 59 finally took their toll and the restaurant closed about six months ago.

The good news is a new venture, Popover Sports Bar, will soon be filling the void. The restaurant has been gutted, and workers were building a huge rectagular bar Thursday that will be the centerpiece of the new business.

Guinta said he didn't want to identify the new owner until she secures her liquor license and permits from the village, but believes the bar will be open before the end of the year.

DADDY-O'S

The status of this ice cream/fast-food business remains unclear. Owner Brenda O'Sullivan responded angrily to a posted two weeks ago questioning the restaurant's future. She said the business was closed for just one week in order to allow new management to update the menu.

Since then, however, the front door sign saying the restaurant was to reopen has been removed and efforts to reach O'Sullivan have been unsuccessful. If the business does reopen as O'Sullivan promised, Patch will write about it again.