Sugar Grove soon will have another option for dining out and meeting with friends, a restaurant located across from Waubonsee Community College at Waubonsee Drive and Route 47.
Owner Jim Ratos said the restaurant, the Burnt Barrell Inn, will be a hybrid, more up-scale sports bar with depth to its menu.
Ratos said he will be in a partnership with the owner of Legends Sports Bar & Grill in Yorkville, and the 5,000- square-foot Sugar Grove restaurant will be a cross between Legends and Lakeview Grille, also in Yorkville, which is owned and operated by Ratos’ son, Jimmy.
The menu will include fish, steaks and ribs, as well as sandwiches and other fare. On tap will be 20 specialty beers, and specialty bourbons and whiskeys also will be available.
Ratos said the name Burnt Barrell refers to the process of charring the insides of the barrels used for whiskey, which gives the whiskey a smoky flavor.
Ratos said he hopes to break ground this summer or fall, and plans to be open later this year. His land development business, Parkway Development, is currently putting in the necessary infrastructure to develop the area.
A BP gas station will be built in the near future at the northwest corner of Waubonsee Drive and Route 47. There is room for additional development in the adjacent property, but there is nothing definite at this point.
A 1975 graduate of Waubonsee Community College, Ratos hopes the restaurant will be a convenient place for both college students as well as area residents to enjoy a meal and a good time. He noted that college students are not just young kids anymore, that older people are going back to school to retool themselves for a second and third career.
Ratos knows about second and third careers. After graduating with an associate degree from Waubonsee, he opened a restaurant near Ottawa. He came back to Sugar Grove in 1982 and launched the business that would become Parkway Development. Since 1985, Parkway Development has been involved with projects that have added numerous restaurants, medical specialists and other professional businesses to the area.
Ratos also brought the Fireside Grill to Sugar Grove more than a decade ago. He said he hopes Burnt Barrell Inn will be just as exciting.