Meat & Potato Eatery thriving in former Garibaldi's spot

The old Garibaldi's restaurant along the Randall Road corridor in Carpentersville, which sat vacant for more than six years, finally has a thriving tenant.

After many rumors over the years about new tenants moving in, at the beginning of December Meat & Potato Eatery quietly opened inside of the building at 2258 Randall Road, owner Colin Hegarty said.

Since the building sat vacant for so long, owners had to do many renovations inside to ready it for opening a new restaurant, he said.

"It was extremely extensive," he said. "We completely redid all of the construction inside."

Now, visitors to the restaurant won't recognize the old Garibaldi's spot with the new layout, décor and atmosphere.

Meat & Potato Eatery is a fast-casual restaurant that offers dine-in, carryout, delivery and catering options, and also a drive-through lane.

The menu features a variety of foods, including the restaurant's specialties, which are the M & P Bowls. The M & P Bowls have various items such as chicken, or chili or gyros, served over french fries. If you'd prefer, the food can be served over other types of potatoes, including mashed, or over vegetables.

In addition to the bowls, the restaurant serves other separate meat and potato options, and even serves up vegetables and salads.

Some popular items so far, Hegarty said, have been the restaurant's kebabs, meatloaf and pot roast.

"We've had a lot of support from people who've really liked those," he said.

Presently, there is a second Meat & Potato Eatery in McHenry, and a third is expected to open in a few months in Lake Zurich.

The concept comes from the same company that owns the popular Brunch Café locations in the area.

Hegarty said Brunch Café has been popular, but the restaurant is only open for breakfast and lunch, and many customers were wanting more. Meat & Potato is open for lunch and dinner.

Owners had been thinking about opening a location in the area, and when they drove past and saw the old Garibaldi's, they knew that was the perfect spot, he said.

Garibaldi's, which served pizza and Italian food, occupied the building for 7½ years before it closed in 2011. The state shut it down after it failed to pay its sales taxes for almost a year, documents showed.

"We drove past it one day and the opportunity was there," Hegarty said.

Though they haven't done much publicizing or advertising, he said, people have been finding them and people are hearing about Meat & Potato Eatery through word-of-mouth.

"We've gotten a lot of support from the local community and a lot of repeat guests," he said.

To contact Meat & Potato Eatery call (847) 844-0544.

• Amy Williams' column covers all the news of business along the Randall Road corridor from Batavia to Crystal Lake. Contact her at randallbiz@comcast.net or (847) 894-5036.