A car crashed through the patio area of Evanston’s Sarkis Cafe Thursday evening after it was struck by another vehicle at the intersection of Gross Point Road and Crawford Avenue.
A 25-year-old woman from Chicago driving a 2015 Kia made a left turn at about 6:15 p.m. from southbound Crawford to eastbound Gross Point Road in front of a 2003 Honda driven by a 54-year-old Buffalo Grove man, said Evanston police Cmdr. Joe Dugan. Dugan said the cars collided and due to the impact the driver of the Honda lost consciousness with his foot on the accelerator. The Honda shot through the patio area of Sarkis Cafe, which is situated between Crawford Avenue and Gross Point Road, coming to a stop in the restaurant’s parking lot, he said. The Honda driver was treated for minor injures at Skokie Hospital, Dugan said.
The 25-year-old Chicago woman was not injured during the incident, he said. She was cited for improper left turn and failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident, Dugan said.
Marla Cramin, a Northbrook resident who purchased the 50-year-old diner from its original owners in 2001, said Sarkis Cafe is still operating but that the damage the to the patio “is bad.”
She said the crash “destroyed lots of tables and went through both sides of our fence.”
Cramin said thankfully no one was severely injured and the popular diner was closed and its employees already gone at the time it occurred.
She said it was her 15-year-old daughter who first told her about what happened. The teen saw the video of the crash posted on social media and immediately called Cramin to see if everything was OK.
Cramin said she was thankful someone shot the video and described it as “kind of cool” to watch.
She said part of the patio will remain closed until the damage is fixed, but other than that the restaurant will continue to operate as usual.
“Our signature sandwich is called ‘the Disaster,’ and I’ve been telling people it takes a bigger disaster than this to stop us from selling our ‘Disasters,'” Cramin said.
Lee V. Gaines is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.