New restaurant in Palos Hills, medical facility for homeless
Dave Nalezny had already opened a successful restaurant on Chicago’s North Side but was eager to create a new experience for residents of the southwest suburbs.
“We wanted to go out and open a restaurant on the South Side,” said Nalezny, who began his culinary career at the age of 14. “We wanted to open a restaurant for blue collar people and have a cozy place that had a neighborhood feel.”
So, the idea of opening a new Park and Field Apres became a reality. Nalezny said that he and his wife, Kitty, and his brother, Dan, began the process of preparing to open the restaurant at 10331 S. Roberts Road in Palos Hills.
The new restaurant officially was unveiled earlier this month at a grand opening after six months of preparation. The restaurant is located next door to the Palos Hills City Hall in the former Bertucci’s restaurant.
Nalezny said the name Park and Field is an homage to Chicago’s baseball history. It is based on old Comiskey Park, the former home of the White Sox, and Wrigley Field, where the Cubs still play. Apres means coming in for a variety of food after a taking part in a certain sports activity.
The vintage sports club design, which includes a bar and several flat-screen TVs along the perimeter featuring sports programming, was designed in large part by Kitty, Nalezny said.
“We try to do the simple things nice,” Nalezny said. “We will change the cocktails depending on the season. We have over 70 craft beers, and we have a variety of wines. But it is not expensive to eat here. We don’t have anything on the menu over $20. We didn’t want to have investors. We have saved all our money to do this. It’s all us. We have worked very hard at this.”
The menu includes skirt steak chili, ginger carrot soup, seared double chuck patty burgers, Caribbean pork shoulder and seasonal salads. Vegan dishes are also on the menu, including vegan burgers. Strawberry shortcake is offered for dessert.
Park and Field Apres is open from noon to 9 p.m. Sunday, closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, and open from 4 to 11 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays. The restaurant is open from 4 p.m. to midnight Fridays and noon to midnight Saturdays.
Jewelry store opens in Palos Hills
Hani Quaiti is living the American Dream after opening another new business in Palos Hills.
Quaiti, 34, said his family arrived in the U.S. from the Middle East in 1984. The family quickly moved on from working at gas stations and stores to owning their own businesses on Chicago’s North Side.
Quaiti said his father moved from the city to Bridgeview because it was too congested. He opened a jewelry store in his new community.
Quaiti was looking for new opportunities and opened Pita Falafel Drive Thru & Grill at 10348 S. Harlem Ave. in Palos Hills.
The restaurant became quite popular, so Quaiti began inquiring about opening other businesses.
That pursuit came to fruition on May 14, with the opening of Dana’s Jewelry at 10344 S. Harlem Ave., right next door to his restaurant in Palos Hills.
“We liked the area and began talking to the city about getting involved in further development. The mayor has been very helpful, and the city has helped us out a lot,” Quaiti said.
Quaiti said that he has further development ideas in the adjacent area to go along with the jewelry store and the drive-thru restaurant. That news has been greeted favorably by Palos Hills Mayor Jerry Bennett and the aldermen who attended the grand opening.
City officials said the area along 103rd Street and Harlem Avenue once featured shuttered businesses. The efforts of Quaiti and others have made the location a bustling business center.
As for Quaiti and the rest of his family, they are looking forward to the future.
“Our goal was to work with gold and sell jewelry, and our family is now doing it,” Quaiti said.
“We wanted to make improvements, and other people wanted to make improvements,” Quaiti said. “We always wanted to have a jewelry business. It was always a dream of my father that this could happen. I’m glad we could make this dream happen.”
Beds Plus construction underway in Summit
LaGrange-based Beds Plus, a social service agency dedicated to helping homeless people, has begun construction on its new service center in Summit.
Work began in April on the new Linda Sokol Summit Center on 63rd Street, just east of Archer Road.
The center will be the first homeless medical respite facility in Cook County and the second largest in Illinois. Medical respite care is medical care for homeless persons who are too fragile to recover from an illness/ injury on the streets, but their condition is not serious enough to have a prolonged stay in a hospital.
Synergy Construction Group is turning the former bank into the service center. Work includes new flooring, plumbing, electrical, lighting, interior demolition and removal of the bank vaults.
Mercy Circle joins Pat’s Pantry food drive
Mercy Circle, a nonprofit continuing care retirement community at 3659 W. 99th Street in Chicago, will join Ald. Matt O’Shea, state Sen. Bill Cunningham, state Rep. Fran Hurley and the Mt. Greenwood Community and Business Association to support Pat’s Pantry with a community food drive.
Area residents may drop off nonperishable food and toiletry items at Mercy Circle Wednesday, June 1, through Tuesday, June 7, between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Boxes to deposit donations are available inside the main entrance.
To benefit Pat’s Pantry, Mercy Circle residents and staff members will deliver all donations on Wednesday, June 8, to the Mt. Greenwood Community Church.