The Olive Garden restaurant at the North Riverside Park Mall will undergo an extensive renovation this summer – both inside and out — and on the heels of Meijer pulling out of the Cermak Plaza in Berwyn, officials at Jewel-Osco in North Riverside have announced a project to update the interior of that store.
According to plans on file with the village of North Riverside, each improvement project is expected to cost about $350,000.
Olive Garden, 7513 Cermak Road, will make extensive improvements to the interior of its roughly 9,000-square-foot building. Work will include refurbishing the dining room and lobby-bar area, including new wall finishes, carpeting, ceilings, furniture, décor, window coverings, cabinetry and lighting.
The changes will increase seating capacity from 285 to 321, according to the plans.
Outside, a new central tower will frame the restaurant’s main entrance and will include a large, new sign. The tower will be faced with simulated stone. The rest of the exterior will be repainted.
The plans on file with the village state that work will be done during non-business hours, so that the restaurant can continue to operate during the construction period.
It’s unclear exactly when work will begin at the restaurant, but Karyn Byrne, the village’s code enforcement officer, said work was slated to take place during the summer.
The restaurant’s interior was last remodeled in 1999, according to village records.
Interior makeover at Jewel
Meanwhile, work to update the interior of Jewel-Osco, 7201 24th St. at the North Riverside Plaza Shopping Center, could start as early as late June, said store manager Mike Curtin.
The 55,000-square-foot grocery store/pharmacy has received major updates over the years, and last underwent an interior upgrade was in 2009. The cost of the modest renovation at that time was $28,000, according to village building records.
Work at Jewel will be confined mainly to three areas – near what is now the customer service desk, the deli area and the produce/bakery area.
A new customer service desk and office will be located in the area that houses the now-unused Osco checkout registers. The lottery and change counting machines will be moved to the area now occupied by the customer service desk, near the west entrance doors.
The grocery store’s express checkout lanes, meanwhile, will move from east side of the checkout area to the west side, creating more room for product display as customers filter into the deli area.
A new freestanding “hot bar” with soup and other hot food items, new self-serve deli cases and refrigerated kiosks will also be installed along with some new flooring in the eastern portion of the store.
The produce and bakery areas will be reconfigured as well, with new freestanding product display units. The Osco pharmacy counter will also be refurbished.
According to Curtin, work ought to take a couple of months to complete, possibly wrapping up in August.
