Brunch hot spot coming to Southland
Batter & Berries plans late spring opening at Olympia Fields site
Craig Richardson said he and his physician wife, Tanya, made a hobby out of going out for breakfast or brunch.
It was an opportunity for the couple, residents of Chicago’s South Shore community, to “spend time together and catch up,” he said.
But a hobby became a business when they decided to open Batter & Berries in the Lincoln Park neighborhood in 2012.
Raved about online for its food and highly rated, the breakfast and brunch spot will soon expand with its first suburban location, in Olympia Fields, scheduled to open in late spring.
Richardson said they were wooed by Olympia Fields officials, and are refurbishing space in Butterfield Plaza, at the southeast corner of Governors Highway and Vollmer Road. Other tenants in the center include Bizios Fresh Market, Lou Malnati’s Pizza and Charter Fitness.
Along with the Lincoln Park restaurant, Batter & Berries has a seasonal walk-up location on Chicago’s Riverwalk that opened late last summer and will return this year, Richardson said.
The restaurant is ranked 18 out of nearly 8,600 Chicago-area restaurants by TripAdvisor, but online reviews also cite what some call “insane” wait times of an hour or more.
Lincoln Park has 70 seats and the Olympia Fields location will have 100, not including outdoor seating which could add another 30 seats, Richardson said.
He said the Lincoln Park location has a strong following in the south suburban area. Batter & Berries’ executive chef, Ken Polk, lives in Olympia Fields.
“We have people drive up all the time from all throughout the south suburbs and Indiana,” Richardson said. “This will make it a little more accessible for them.”
While customers of the Lincoln Park restaurant are allowed to bring their own alcoholic beverages, Olympia Fields will have a selection of liquor, he said.
Plans also call for making the new restaurant available in the evening for private events.
Richardson said he first met with Olympia Fields officials about a year ago, including Mayor Sterling Burke and Trinette BrittJohnson, the village’s economic development consultant.
He said the village, its amenities and area demographics “checked a lot of boxes” as far as being a desirable location. The shopping center, he said, has good local traffic but is also near Interstates 57 and 80.
Burke said that Olympia Field residents, in surveys, said they wanted more restaurants. Apart from Batter & Berries, Burke said officials are working to bring in other “boutique-type” known favorites, Batter breakfast for twists & restaurants. with Berries and on French lunch traditional is toast flavor flights of French and toast a new that changes on a weekly basis. “We try to provide some different, creative breakfast and brunch options and I think people appreciate that,” Richardson said. “We are very much a ‘wake up and enjoy your day’ type of place.”
Richardson said he worked for insurer State Farm for 22 years, and he and his wife had talked about opening a restaurant.
“I wasn’t even taking it real serious and one day she brings a lease home” for the Lincoln Park location, he said.
“She found a space that had been a restaurant, had a kitchen and bathrooms already in place, so it required minimal buildout,” he said.
The location is a little more than a mile from Wrigley Field, and Richardson said his wife played off both pancake batter and batters in baseball when coming up with the name. Richardson said he was focused on berries and “we just sort of merged the two ideas.”
The couple also are considering opening a restaurant later this year in Chicago’s Austin community on the city’s far West Side, he said.