A piece of history was unveiled this week in West Dundee.
When the restaurant sign for the Village Squire, at 125 Washington St., was being scraped and readied for a new coat of paint, the sign for the original restaurant, Hal Thurnau’s Swiss Chalet, was revealed.
The Swiss Chalet opened in the mid-1950s. Patrons were greeted with white tablecloths, turquoise upholstered chairs, and light brown woodwork which led all the way up to the vaulted ceiling.
Tom Thurnau was in his early 20s when his dad — Hal Thurnau, who died at age 94 in April of 2005 — owned the Swiss Chalet. When he saw the picture of the newly uncovered sign, it brought back a lot of memories for him.
“It kind of shocked me to be honest because we’re going back 50 years,” he said. “But it was a pleasant surprise because I love nostalgia in the first place and that brought back some pleasant memories.”
Before the Swiss Chalet, his father worked for many years as the manager of the Elgin Elks Club, and then managed the food service and restaurants at the Baker Hotel in St. Charles.
“He was a real extrovert kind of person, in the restaurant business you have to be,” Thurnau said. “Everybody liked him. He was real well known in Elgin for years. He was involved with all the people in town that were the movers and shakers.”
He remembers the special at the Swiss Chalet which included a 13-ounce ribeye steak, baked potato, large salad and a relish tray.
“That was his most popular. The steaks were top notch. And the whole thing was $4.25. That was back in 1964,” he said.
More Top Picks Best Amazon Prime Day Tv Mount Deals 2026
Tom Thurnau enjoyed being the son of a popular restaurateur.
“I got to meet all these people he knew,” he said. “I knew all the bankers in town and the successful businessmen because I was little Hal’s son.”
After a fire in the mid-1960s, the building was renovated and renamed The Village Squire. Brothers Paul and George Karas bought the restaurant in 1974.
Eleni Karas Karavasis, the daughter of Paul Karas, said the fire is the reason for the dark look of the restaurant today.
“The ceilings used to be light colored brown wood. Now it is black,” she said.
The Karas brothers closed the restaurant to remodel and reopened in 1975 with an expanded menu.
Donna Farrell, an employee for more than 40 years at The Village Squire, said she could see some letters through the chipped paint on the restaurant sign.
“But I didn’t know it was for Hal Thurnau’s,” she said. “It’s a really neat piece of history here.”
Erin Sauder is a freelance reporter for the Courier-News