Five months after Gale Street Inn abruptly closed, the Jefferson Park institution has a new owner who plans to reopen the restaurant in December.
Paulo Villabona, 50, purchased the restaurant in a deal that closed Saturday. He bought the eatery with the help of two family members, who are silent partners.
Villabona, who has lived in Jefferson Park with his wife and two daughters since 2019, has worked in the restaurant industry for 36 years. He started as a dishwasher and then moved to line cook, server and bartender before becoming general manager of Bar Siena at Old Orchard Mall in Skokie.
“It’s been a longtime dream,” Villabona said of being a restaurant owner.
He was considering opening a place in Jefferson Park when he learned that Gale Street Inn closed — reaching out to the former owner, George Karzas, 66.
“We fell in love with the neighborhood and the community. We were lamenting how there wasn’t much traffic near Milwaukee and Lawrence and were daydreaming of opening up a business,” Villabona said. “Then when I read about the restaurant [Gale Street Inn] closing, everything lined up. I said, ‘Let’s bring this back.’”
With the sale came the restaurant’s recipes, most notably its famous tender baby back ribs.
“Seven out of 10 entrees at Gale Street Inn include barbecue ribs, so just have your supporting items [to] knock it out. I think he will,” Karzas said of Villabona.
Villabona said he’s also bringing back several fomer employees and will honor previous gift cards that customers have.
“We’re going to keep the hits, absolutely. But we’re going to play around with it and stretch our wings on some things. We’ll keep the integrity of what it is,” he said.
The restaurant opened in 1963 across the street from its current location at 4914 N. Milwaukee Ave. Karzas’ father bought the restaurant in 1985 and operated it until he died in 1994. That’s when Karzas took the reins, running the business until June.
Karzas cited problems staffing the restaurant as his reason for closing, which came about a year after a complete remodel and a few years after surviving the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in nearly 19% of all Chicago restaurants closing within the first year, according to market research firm Datassential.
“I just had an inability, personally, to find staff. There appears to be restaurant staff out there; I’m just too old school to figure out this new world and how to hire people,” Karzas said.
He believes Villabona’s biggest challenge will keeping “prices down so people will want to go out.” And an owner has “to pay good staff good money, so it’s hard,” Karzas said. “It’s really a labor of love.”
He had thought of selling the business but never listed it for sale.
“We were talking to people [and] people came to us,” Karzas said. “[Villabona] and I would have never met if it didn’t get all the blow up that it did [in June], but I guess everything happens for a reason. He’s a hands-on guy and a passionate guy.”
Mike Jeffers, general manager of the nearby Copernicus Center and Gateway Theater, 5216 W. Lawrence Ave., welcomed the return of Gale Street Inn.
“It’s a great thing for the Gateway Theater and Copernicus Center,” Jeffers said. “With the shows we have coming in and the lounge we have going, it’s going to be a great addition because we have somewhere to send everybody in the neighborhood again.”
Gregg Weinstein, longtime owner of Rex Tavern at 4933 N. Milwaukee Ave., echoed Jeffers.
“We need more restaurants and bars on this stretch of road,” Weinstein said. Since June, when Gale Street closed, his bar saw a drop-off in traffic.
Pondering the impact of Gale Street reopening, he said, “This can only be good.”
