A painter from the Czech Republic is set to create a mural on the blank back wall of Devat Auto Service, formerly Jeff’s Auto Garage, later this summer.
Monika Hubackova, co-owner of the business alongside her husband, Ladislav Devat, said they decided they wanted to better advertise their business by taking advantage of the back wall that faces the BNSF railroad tracks, which now only houses white paint.
Hubackova said the mural will be based on a beloved Polish cartoon at the recommendation of Miroslav Přidal, the Czech artist she’s contacted to design and paint it. She said she and her husband initially wanted a different cartoon that is more popular in the Czech Republic.
“He used to live here in Chicago, so he knows Chicago. I think he left the country in 2009,” she told the Landmark. “He told me, ‘Forget this, what you’re telling me, what you want to have there.’ There is another one, similar, an old cartoon, which Polish people know, too, and everybody from the Czech Republic, or whoever is coming on the train, they’re going to see it and know it.”
She said the initial idea drew on the strong historic ties between the greater area around Riverside and the Czech community, but Přidal’s design will allow them to appeal to a wider audience, including the significant Polish population in Chicago and the surrounding area.
Hubackova said the final design for the mural, which members of the village board previewed on Thursday, June 4, was drawn by Přidal onto a photo she sent him of the white back wall of the business.
“Now, we’re waiting,” she said. “We need him to confirm when he can come. He said sometime in August, but I don’t know.”
At that June 4 meeting, trustees approved an application from Devat and Hubackova for a $5,000 grant as part of the village’s facade improvement program.
The program allows any business downtown to apply for funding for half of the costs of improvements to the public-facing portion of its building, whether that’s new signs, paint, masonry or something else. Each project is eligible for up to $5,000 in funding, and each business has a $10,000 lifetime maximum.
“The village said they’re so happy” about the mural, Hubackova said. “They said we can start anytime, and they just need one signature.”
She said she and her husband have operated the auto body shop at 20 E. Quincy St. since 2023, though they only changed its name recently, having continued with the Jeff’s Auto Garage name.
“We decided to change the name because we bought [the shop] in January. We used to rent it from Jeff and pay rent, and now we are the owners,” Hubackova said. “My husband, he’s actually got over 30 years of experience. He went to school in the Czech Republic. He knows how to fix all kinds of cars … He used to work for somebody, and then with his partner in Evanston, and then he decided to do it on his own. We’d been looking for an auto shop closer to our house, and we found this one.”
Hubackova said she’s lived in the area since 1998, when she began working as a server at a Czech restaurant in Berwyn. After 18 years, the owners retired, and she took over for a few years until she shifted gears to run the auto shop alongside her husband.
“I used to serve food for people from Riverside. I didn’t even know I was going to be here with my husband,” she said.
She said she is excited to have the mural be completed by the end of the summer and that the village has been nothing but helpful in moving the project along.
“We really like that the village is cooperating, and they like the ideas,” she said. “I like this town; we are so happy to be here. It was hard to find a good location, and it’s close to downtown. It’s a historical town. I love it. It reminds me of my country.”
