Belladonna in downtown Yorkville closing at end of February

YORKVILLE – A downtown Yorkville restaurant will be closing at the end of next month – but only to re-open with a new name and new concept.

Lynn Dubajic, economic development consultant for Yorkville, said in a report ahead of the city's economic development committee meeting next week that Belladonna Tea & Coffee, 101 W. Van Emmon St. in the city's downtown, will be closed for about two weeks to make some cosmetic changes and will re-open under the new name Mandrake.

Dubajic said in the report the new concept will be open for lunch and dinner.

"Their focus will be seasonal small plates and fine dining with wine pairings," Dubajic wrote in the report.

Adrian Frost, co-owner of Belladonna, said the business is breaking away from the specialty coffee shop model in Yorkville because of a lack of traffic in the city's downtown. However, he said, he and co-owner and chef Jarrod Johnson wanted to still keep a business in the area that they consider home and also are looking at possibly partnering with another nearby restaurant group and moving the specialty coffee shop operations elsewhere in the western suburbs of Chicago.

"I don't want to say too much just yet" due to the talks still being preliminary, Frost said.

Frost said the concept for the seasonal food and wine offerings, which will change about every six weeks, is meant to be kind of a fine dining experience with the ability to try several different offerings at once. He also said the thought is to not have the experience be quite as stuffy as other restaurants with similar fine dining models closer to Chicago.

"And not anywhere near as expensive," Frost said with a laugh.

The city's economic development committee meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 4 at City Hall, 800 Game Farm Road.

The update comes after city economic development officials said late last year that Casa Santiago, 227 Heustis St. in the city's downtown, is rebranding itself from its current Mexican restaurant concept to a farm to table one with a new restaurant name Butcher Block 360. City economic officials said in meeting documents that new concept is set to re-open in the coming weeks.