Durbin’s owner will operate Teehan’s in downtown Tinley Park

The owner of Durbin’s Pizza restaurants in the southwest suburbs will operate Teehan’s, an Irish pub that is a fixture in downtown Tinley Park and whose owner is retiring.

The Tinley Park Village Board approved a lease agreement Tuesday with Tom McAuliffe that calls for him to take over the business on Oct. 1. Trustees also approved a liquor license for Teehan’s H.S. LLC.

It’s a temporary lease, which runs through April 1, 2024, but McAuliffe will also operate a re-christened Teehan’s, with plans by the village to rebuild it at its current location, 17329 S. Oak Park Ave.

“We’re keeping the tradition alive,” McAuliffe said Wednesday.

After 34 years as the main operator of her family’s tavern Regis Teehan is retiring at the end of this month. The bar has been in her family since 1917, and she recently agreed to sell certain assets of the business, including the name, to the village for $200,000.

The closing is expected to take place early next month.

McAuliffe said that sometime next year Teehan’s will close while a replacement building is constructed at the site, the northeast corner of Oak Park Avenue and North Street.

“Hopefully it will be rebuilt quickly and we can reopen soon,” he said.

Teehan’s is in the footprint of the village’s planned Harmony Square development, which is to include a concert stage and splash pad, as well as apartments to the north of the Oak Park Avenue Metra station.

McAuliffe operated a Durbin’s for 16 years at 17265 S. Oak Park Ave., just to the north of Teehan’s. He said he has known Teehan’s owners for many years.

Durbin’s closed in late March 2022 after McAuliffe couldn’t come to terms on a lease with the property owner.

Before that, McAuliffe had opened Durbin’s Express, at 18250 S. Oak Park Ave., in Tinley Park, and the plan had been to keep both locations running.

There are also Durbin’s outlets in Burbank, Evergreen Park, Midlothian and Palos Hills.

According to Regis Teehan, her staff will stay on during the transition.

“No one is losing their jobs, and no one is losing their tavern. For now, the only real difference is that, come October 1st, I will be retired,” she said in a recent news release announcing the changes.

According to a Chicago Tribune business profile in May 2003, the first business on the site was built in 1852 and called the Pacific Hotel, reflecting the owner’s hope the nearby railroad line would ultimately extend to the Pacific Ocean.

Teehan said the plan by the village is to essentially replicate the building, with some updating. She said the village has shared some of their plans for preservation with her and she feels optimistic about this next chapter for her family’s tavern.

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“Everyone I’ve talked with from the village has made me feel confident that the Teehan’s legacy will be honored in the reconstruction and reopening,” she said in the release.

Teehan said her great-grandfather bought it in 1917 and her grandmother ran it before her father took over.

“It’s a very positive thing,” McAuliffe said. “We will keep the tradition going, hopefully for another 100 years.”

The larger Harmony Square development includes 62 apartments in a five-story building that will have parking and commercial space on the first floor. It will be adjacent to Teehan’s.

To the north, on village-owned land that once was the site of the former Central Middle School, there are plans for 63 town homes.

The Tinley Park Plan Commission is scheduled to consider approval of the plans for the residential development at a meeting Thursday.

mnolan@tribpub.com