‘We had a nice run’: Park Tavern, one of original venues of Rosemont entertainment district, closes

One of the original venues of Rosemont’s entertainment district, Park Tavern has closed, and the village is paying the owner $1 million to buy out the remainder of its lease.

Once a popular destination for upscale bar food and the late-night party scene, Park Tavern officially shut its doors at 2 p.m. New Year’s Day, village officials said. Signs are posted on the front doors saying “Thank you for the great 12 years.”

Gone are the tables, chairs and other furnishings, but most of the kitchen equipment remains.

“We had a nice run, but I think Roger Greenfield, the owner, was just tired,” Mayor Brad Stephens said.

The village board approved the buyout and lease termination Monday. Greenfield took the opportunity after a conversation with Marc Offit of Braden Real Estate, the village’s broker for the 200,000-square-foot Parkway Bank Park complex.

“We just were doing courtesy calls to see how our tenants were doing,” Stephens said.

Adobe Gila's, Kings Dining & Entertainment and Zanies Comedy Club remain as original venues of the village-owned entertainment district. Stephens said it was always the intention that concepts would change and businesses would come and go.

Take, for example, Toby Keith's I Love This Bar & Grill, which closed in 2015 after failing to pay rent and taxes. The space was split up and converted to Joe's Live and Bub City, run by the owners of Joe’s Bar on Weed Street in Chicago and Lettuce Entertain You.

“If you look at one of the best operators around, Rich Melman, when something gets tired, you gotta repurpose it,” Stephens said.

Unlike the owners of the Toby Keith’s bar, Stephens said Park Tavern was up on all of its rent and taxes. Greenfield, a longtime restaurateur who launched the Bar Louie chain in the early 1990s, is said to be retiring.

Stephens and Offit are now marketing the two-story, 7,000-square-foot brick building shell to lease to a new user, with strong initial interest, they say. It could be a bar/restaurant, or something else, the mayor suggested.

Conversations are expected to include management of Zanies, since Park Tavern’s top floor Skybar patio extends onto the comedy club’s roof. The village owns the entire building.

With the amount of interest just days since the gastropub’s closure, Stephens said he expects a new user could be secured this year.