When Frank Biederer thinks Vernon Hills, he thinks shopping malls.
“When I think of Vernon Hills, all I think of is traffic and congestion,” said Biederer, 35, a Vernon Hills resident and an executive search consultant. “When I think of nightlife, I think of the city.”
The city, of course is Chicago, and Biederer is not the only one who thinks that way.
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But Vernon Hills business and civic leaders want to change the way he and everyone else looks at their town. Where they now see a shopping haven, local visionaries picture a suburban entertainment center to rival the big city.
Bowling alleys. Billiard halls. Theaters. And restaurants as fancy as any surrounding Michigan Avenue. Local leaders are attempting to recast perceptions of Vernon Hills, the central shopping district of Lake County, in the image of the nation’s flashier addresses.
“We’re getting a California Pizza Kitchen,” said Craig Malin, deputy village manager and an architect of many of the town’s plans. “Vernon Hills is typical of the upscale edge cities across the country where you find those restaurants. River North, Boca Raton, Santa Barbara.”
In fact, suburban experts say this is the next step for a town like Vernon Hills. Solid in its status as Lake County’s marketplace, it’s logical that town leaders try to build on that, said Michael Ebner, a Lake Forest College professor and noted authority on suburban growth patterns.
“People who shop need to eat and drink as well,” Ebner said. “It makes sense.”
Highland Park capitalized on its position as a shopping center in the pre-World War II era by building Ravinia, a concert park. Today in suburbia, towns such as Elgin and Aurora also are seeking economic revival, and their chosen method is riverboat gambling.
Such stories support Vernon Hills’ premise, Ebner said: Suburbanites want to play in their own back yards.
Entrepreneurs in Vernon Hills agree. Led by two local businessmen, a newly formed coalition of business leaders is working to lure more entertainment and recreational facilities to town. Jim Harp, co-owner of Slate Street Billiards, and Brian Dorfman, owner of Zanies comedy club, recently organized the Vernon Hills Entertainment Coalition.
They say all Vernon Hills needs is a little image boost.
“It’s a hot spot,” Dorfman said. “What other town do you see in Lake County where everything you want is here within a mile? You have movies, live entertainment, restaurants, shopping. I mean, everything at your disposal.”
A few improvements are in the works. The village plans to build an 8-acre outdoor theater next year. A pedestrian mall at the town’s center also is in the plans.
On Milwaukee Avenue-just south of the mall complex that put Vernon Hills on the map-designers are working on a thematic restaurant park that will include a steakhouse in an old abandoned barn.
Suburban residents want to stay in the suburbs for their entertainment, Harp said. Some fear the city and don’t need much of a push to stay home.
“They say, `Oh my God, there are going to be gang problems,’ ” Harp said. ” `There are going to be muggers. I’ll get my car towed. I’ll get my car stolen.’ “
But many suburban residents still have a hard time picturing Vernon Hills as the hip place to hang out on weekends. After all, Chicago has world-famous institutions, such as the Art Institute, Adler Planetarium and Shedd Aquarium, Comiskey Park and Wrigley Field-stiff competition for a new bowling alley down the street.
“I can’t think of a place in Vernon Hills I’d go to for entertainment,” Biederer said.
Carol Gustafson, a Vernon Hills secretary, said she is not above going to live theater in the suburbs, such as at Marriott’s Lincolnshire Resort. But when she wants a really good meal, she said, she takes off for Chicago.
“I’m looking for a nice, adult, sit-down place,” she said. “Not a rush-you-out-the-door, screaming kids kind of place.”
And as for Chicago’s premier restaurateurs, well, they’re not exactly worried about the competition.
“I don’t think the suburbs will ever be able to have the diversity and the complexities you have in downtown Chicago,” said Rich Melman, president of Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, which owns such Chicago staples as the Pump Room and Scoozi!, as well as a few newer suburban restaurants. “There’s a diversity of restaurants like you’re never going to have in the suburbs.”