Apple Villa Famous Pancake House & Restaurant, which has been part of Hoffman Estates for nearly all of the 21st century and counted U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth among its local fans, has closed.
The popular eatery was named Business of the Year by the Hoffman Estates Chamber of Commerce & Industry in January 2015.
A since-removed note on the door at 3101 Barrington Road, photographed and posted on social media, thanked customers for 19 years of memories and encouraged visiting the remaining location at 1961 W. Wilson St. in Batavia.
Andy Spentzos, co-owner of Apple Villa Famous Pancake House & Restaurant, accepts the award for Business of the Year at the Hoffman Estates Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s annual Celebration of Excellence in 2015.
Christopher Placek/cplacek@dailyherald.com, 2015
In accepting the 2015 award, co-owner Andy Spentzos dedicated it to his father whom he said was responsible for teaching him and his brother Peter everything they knew about the restaurant business.
Spentzos could not be reached at the Batavia location Monday, but officials familiar with the Hoffman Estates restaurant mourned its passing.
Apple Villa Famous Pancake House & Restaurant, left, in the Fountain Crossings strip mall on Barrington Road in Hoffman Estates closed earlier this month, but a second location in Batavia remains in operation.
Paul Valade/pvalade@dailyherald.com
“I’ve known Andy for the 10 years I’ve been here and the food has always been great,” said Hoffman Estates Economic Development Director Kevin Kramer. “We were saddened to see they were closing. From the village’s side, there was nothing we could do.”
“We were all really taken aback,” Hoffman Estates Chamber President Tricia O’Brien said. “It was a surprise.”
Though the same photographed but now removed note on the door blamed the landlord for not extending the lease, Kramer cautioned there are always two sides to such accounts.
Representatives of the brokerage firm of Edgemark Commercial Real Estate Services in Oak Brook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Kramer said there’s a scarcity of second-generation restaurant spaces presently, but he didn’t know of any potential tenants ready to move in at short notice.
U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth and her husband, Bryan Bowlsbey, order lunch at Apple Villa restaurant in Hoffman Estates the day after winning reelection to the 8th Congressional District seat in November 2014.
Daily Herald file photo/2014
In a post-Election Day interview with the Daily Herald at Apple Villa a decade ago, then-8th District U.S. Rep. Duckworth cited the restaurant as a personal tradition and election lucky charm for her in her hometown.
Kramer said Duckworth’s successor and incumbent of the 8th Congressional District seat, fellow Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi of Schaumburg, also once filmed a campaign commercial at Apple Villa.