CRYSTAL LAKE – Downtown Crystal Lake is getting a new restaurant.
Retro Bistro, a 25-year fixture of Mount Prospect, is set to open a second location at 83 N. Williams St., which used to house the Williams Street Public House.
The new location will have the same menu and the same feel, said Lorraine Barth, who took over the place with her husband, Christopher, from her parents in 1997.
The menu includes French bistro classics with more contemporary plates, according to the restaurant’s website.
It’s the food Barth grew up with, she said.
“We love it. It’s like our home,” Barth said. “It’s like inviting people into our home.”
The Barths still have some work to do after being granted a liquor license and a $10,000 grant by the Crystal Lake City Council last week, although the work mostly is cosmetic, she said. The goal is to open in late spring.
The grant was a part of Crystal Lake’s job creation and investment programs, which provide grant funding to new businesses that hire new employees and are expected to have a certain level of taxable sales to help cover certain startup costs, something Barth said really helps keep the occupancy costs down.
The restaurant meets all of the requirements of the program, Planning and Economic Development Manager James Richter told the council, which unanimously approved the grant with only a “good luck” for comment.
Retro Bistro plans on hiring eight full-time and 12 part-time employees for its new location, according to city documents.
The Mount Prospect restaurant brought in more than $1.3 million in taxable revenue last year, and similar numbers are expected for Crystal Lake.