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player ready...Some of Northbrook’s leaders and residents say they hope Lucky Fish on Shermer, planned for an opening this week, will energize the downtown’s walk-ability.
But the restaurant is also making plans for non-walking clientele. Northbrook trustees will soon formally say “yes” to setting aside a couple of parking spaces for four hours Thursday through Sunday evenings for regular valet parking for the restaurant at 1349 Shermer Road.
Northbrook trustees April 25 promised to ensure the newest entry to the “Once Upon” family of restaurants got what it needed. The village has no regulations for valet parking.
“They need some way to park a lot of cars, because I believe they are going to get them,” said Northbrook Trustee James Karagianis.
He said he knows that the company’s original Lucky Fish in Highwood is busy, and there’s no reason not to believe that the newer, bigger version won’t be busy, too. The restaurant has 150 seats – half inside and half outside.
The two parking spaces aren’t actually in front of the new restaurant, but are in front of the Window Tech blind company, 1351 Shermer, and Edwards Florist, 1353 Shermer. But both businesses are closed by the time the parking spaces will be in use each evening.
The spaces are already off-limits from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. to discourage use by commuters. The valets will be picking the cars up there, then parking them in unused spaces in the nearby Metra parking lot. That lot will be close enough for a lot of non-valet-using evening customers, who already use it for Trattoria Oliverii, 1358 Shermer, and DrumStix, 1363 Shermer.
Trustees said they are likely to charge no more than a token fee for the use of the spaces, as they did when they set aside some on Meadow Road for the old Northbrook Garage, formerly at 1347 Shermer Road, the current location of Graeter’s Ice Cream store.
Trustees said that they’ll permit valet parking, and check back in six months to see whether permission should be extended, or suspended it if it didn’t work out. In the meantime, they’ll work on a valet parking code, which, unlike other towns, Northbrook doesn’t have. Valet services have operated in Northbrook, but they haven’t been policed through an ordinance.
The “Once Upon” crew promised to hire a valet firm that will be “licensed and insured and have experience operating valet services in busy downtown areas” as it waits for regulations.
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