The barbecue sauce, they don’t mind talking about. But the pizza sauce is a family secret.
Family traditions are going to be a big part of Long Grove’s newest addition once the renovation of its building is complete. Village Pizza & BBQ of Long Grove is livening up the Mill Pond-side restaurant that for years was the Long Grove Cafe, and owners Rusty Gault and Joane Shunia-Gault are putting in a brighter color palate, a new bar and long-standing Shunia family recipes from the first Village Pizza & BBQ, in suburban Detroit.
“This area is like our home away from home,” Shunia-Gault said of Long Grove.
“She’s always had an admiration for the area,” Gault added.
The couple are bringing the name of the family restaurant, founded 28 years ago and still operating in Milford, Mich., to Long Grove. They said they have visited the summer festivals for years and enjoyed the rustic feel here. When they decided to take the Village recipes and open a second location, they heard of the Long Grove Cafe’s closure and seized on what felt like an opportunity.
They moved to Wheeling on Nov. 1, and have been renovating the 4,000-square-foot building for much of the winter. Flat-screen televisions will fill the dining rooms, four video-gambling machines will occupy one corner, the patio will be open again this summer, and Village Pizza & BBQ will have a lot more light.
“We love ‘bright,'” Shunia-Gault said. “If it was up to me, everything would be white, but we can’t do that.”
They will offer thin and hand-tossed round pizzas, and the square Sicilian style — similar to the deep-dish Chicago style, but with cheese on top instead of sauce. And then there is that sauce.
Their barbecue sauce uses Sweet Baby Ray’s for its base, they said. For the broasted chicken they will offer, that involves a family-secret combination of spices that Shunia-Gault was not inclined to discuss. And the pizza sauce — Shunia-Gault relishes keeping that an unknown.
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“If you ask me what I want, breakfast, lunch or dinner, I’ll say ‘pizza. Our pizza sauce,'” she said.
“I’ll say ‘ice cream,'” Gault confessed — and the restaurant will offer several ice cream options on its dessert menu.
Shunia-Gault grew up working at the pizza place her father and brother Tommy started, but the original Village is almost exclusively takeout, delivery and catering. The venture she and her husband are starting will focus on sit-down customers, with a capacity of probably 80 inside.
Both said they want to sit down with and befriend their customers.
“It just adds more opportunity for us, and it’s a new adventure,” Gault said. “In Milford, it’s ‘Put a box in front of them and say have-a-nice-day.'”
Food service runs deep in the Shunia family. She is the youngest girl of six siblings, and another of her brothers owns two delis, which her father makes the soups for. When the new Village location opens in Long Grove, she said she expects him to be in her kitchen with her, whipping up the first batches of soups while she is baking pizzas.
“Every time he visits, we’re going to make him work,” she said. “We’re a very close family.”
Shunia-Gault said he and his wife were excited to get their own extension of the family brand started. They expect to open the first week of February.
“It’s a great place to visit,” he said of the northwest suburbs, “and a great place to live.”
Twitter: @RonnieAtPioneer