Village Tavern & Grill in South Elgin will be serving its patron-popular chicken fingers once last time Tuesday before it shuts its doors after eight years in business.
Owner JR Hutson said a number of factors contributed to the decision to close the 464 Redington Drive restaurant.
“We’ve been going back and forth with our landlord over some issues and decided not to fight those anymore,” Hutson said. “That’s on top of the rising costs of food. It’s tougher and tougher to serve good food at a fair price. It’s crazy how much prices have gone up, and it’s too much for people. They can’t afford to come in as much as they used to.”
As one example, he cited the cost of the chicken breasts used to make chicken fingers, the restaurant’s most popular dish. After the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the price of a case increased from $42 to $170, and has not come down much since.
“Prices jumped so much, we couldn’t even make any adjustments to our menu to make up for those costs,” Hutson said.
Dining-out habits have changed since the pandemic too, he said. The pub used to get a bump in business later in the evening but that’s not been the case in recent years.
Another factor was a business partner’s decision to bow out after being involved for five years. His full-time job was making it difficult to remained involved with the restaurant, Hutson said.
Finally, he said, the fees charged by food delivery services so many people now use are steep.
And being located off of Randall Road means there is a lot of competition, Hutson said. His is not the only place to feel the pinch, he added. In recent weeks, the IHOP and the Golden Corral restaurants on Randall in Elgin have both closed.
“From where we are, you could throw a baseball and hit five or six restaurants,” Hutson said.
That’s a far cry from what things were like when Hutson opened his first Village Tavern & Grill in Schaumburg 32 years ago and followed it up with a partnership that opened the Village Tavern in Carol Stream in 1996, he said. While he is no longer involve with either, both continue to be open.
Hutson, 65, said he has been in the restaurant business his entire adult life. He started his career in his hometown of Tampa, Florida, and continued when he moved to Chicago for a job in 1987.
For a time he worked as a manager at Studebaker’s, a Schaumburg nightclub owned by the Chicago Bears legend Walter Payton. It was that connection that led to a major incident in Hutson’s life when Payton accidentally shot Hutson in the knee in the club’s office in April 1988 while playing with a gun he thought was unloaded.
Payton was not charged in the incident, and Hutson eventually received a court settlement from Payton.
Because of the disability that resulted, which required multiple surgeries, Hutson said it was his wife, RC, who kept the business running for as long as it has. RC also runs her own charcuterie board and grazing table catering business.
Hutson and his family lived in Lisle, Schaumburg and Bartlett before finally settling in South Elgin in 2000.
“During COVID, customers who came by for their carryout orders would sit in their cars, then give out envelopes with generous tips to support our staff. That kept us going,” Hutson said.
In fact, he said, parting with staff and not regularly seeing friends he and wife have made during their time at the Village Tavern will be the hardest part of closing.
“Tuesday may be the last time we see a lot of people. It’s going to be hard to say goodbye,” he said.
Mike Danahey is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
