More restaurants planned for busy Hoffman Estates corner
Schaumburg-based Ala Carte Entertainment hopes to expand its restaurant presence on the southeast corner of Higgins and Barrington roads in Hoffman Estates, if it can convince more village board members that a gas station should be part of a new development.
Company Vice President Mark Hoffmann on Monday described his vision for a new restaurant building with a drive-through, a smaller frozen custard business and a gas station on the two-acre property where the long-shuttered Macaroni Grill now stands.
He also dropped a hint of plans he has for the former TGI Fridays his company also owns on the corner's restaurant campus, saying he'd like to redevelop it as an interactive golf venue with food.
Ala Carte Entertainment already owns the Moretti's and Moretti's Unique Events on the same corner - two further refits of those buildings' original tenants.
But while two trustees spoke in support of the plans for the Macaroni Grill property, the rest of the village board responded negatively to the gas station component. Hoffmann said the whole concept is contingent on the gas station and he hopes those skeptical will be convinced by more detailed plans.
"We look forward to giving them the full vision of what we want to do," he said Tuesday.
During a courtesy review by the village board Monday, Hoffmann described the corner as one of the best in the Northwest suburbs and said he'd already researched the marketability of a gas station there.
The plan would be to raze the existing restaurant and replace it with a 6,643-square-foot combination of convenience store and restaurant that would serve Italian beef, sandwiches, hot dogs, burgers, salads, free-range chicken meals cooked on a wood-burning grill and Mexican cantina menu items.
A separate area in the building would contain a video gaming lounge.
The site would still have enough room for a separate 1,489-square-foot name-brand frozen custard store with a double drive-through.
The gas station would include 20 fueling positions.
No specific time has been set for the filing of a formal proposal or Ala Carte Entertainment's next appearance before the village board.
The only businesses on that corner Ala Carte Entertainment doesn't own are the Steak 'n Shake and Burger King.