Rascals offering area families a new place to eat

GENEVA – Growing up, Dina Pray waited tables at her parents' restaurants in Batavia and St. Charles.

Life has come full circle for the Geneva resident and co-owner of Rascals Tavern and Grill, which opened in May in the space formerly occupied by Gratto Italian Tapas. This is Pray's first restaurant.

She owns the restaurant with her sisters, Jackie Sisto and Christy Calderaro. Pray’s cousin, Joseph Sisto, and his daughter previously owned Gratto Italian Tapas.

In purchasing the restaurant, Pray and her sisters decided to go in a different direction.

“We wanted to make it into a family-friendly sports bar with really good food,” Pray said.

While Rascals does offer such typical sports bar fare as burgers and wings, it also offers such entrees as jambalaya, Mediterranean chicken, Cajun salmon, pasta scampi and butternut squash ravioli.

“Everything is homemade,” Pray said. “The pastas are excellent. Our penne scarola is phenomenal.”

The penne scarola is among her favorite items on the menu.

“It has an Italian sausage in it that is just out of this world,” Pray said. “It’s just so good.”

Family recipes are used to prepare some of the dishes. Pray’s grandfather is originally from Italy. The restaurant steers clear of using any frozen ingredients.

“We get a bread order every day, and all of our sauces and gravies are made fresh,” Pray said. “Our wings are never frozen; our calamari is never frozen; it’s all fresh. We also have a fresh ground salmon burger. It’s fresh salmon that we grind.”

She noted that sports bars do not typically serve salmon burgers.

“We wanted to offer a little something for everybody,” she said.

Rascals also offers a kids menu, which is part of its mission to be accommodating to families.

“I grew up in Geneva and know a lot of families here,” Pray said. “I want them to be able to come here.”

The restaurant also sells a variety of sandwiches, including a steak sandwich, meatball sandwich and Italian beef, as well as pizza. Rascals’ desserts are also all homemade, including the chocolate eclaire cake, carrot cake and the strawberry shortcake.

Rascals’ outdoor patio, which overlooks Third Street, has proven to be a popular feature.

“There’s waiting lists for it on the weekend,” Pray said. “People love it.”

On the weekends, the patio will feature live entertainment, she said.

Rascals is located at 207 S. Third St. in downtown Geneva and is open for lunch and dinner. The restaurant also does catering.

Information is available by calling the restaurant at 331-248-8959 or by visiting www.rascalstavern.com.