After 41 years operating a nautical-themed eatery serving northwest suburban residents, the Lincolnshire Marriott Resort will close one of the older restaurants in the area with an auction.
The buoys, oars, rope ladders, ship wheels, lobster crates and other nautical decorations that have adorned the walls for years inside the King’s Wharf Restaurant at the Lincolnshire Marriott will all be available at the public auction to make room for a new restaurant included in a $25 million renovation planned for the resort by new owners, the Bricton Group based in Mount Prospect.
Representatives with the firm say the new restaurant concept will try and draw customers from throughout the region, while longtime Lincolnshire residents have said the closing of King’s Wharf long has been overdue.
Pierre Daval, executive chef at the Lincolnshire Marriott, said the King’s Wharf restaurant now is almost exclusively used by theater-goers either on their way to see a play or coming back from a performance at The Marriott Theatre, located within the resort.
“I feel awesome about it,” Daval said of the renovation. “It’s a little bit overdue.”
The $25 million in upgrades, a “massive renovation,” will make significant changes to the entire resort, including refurbished rooms, a grander entrance, a relocated outdoor pavilion and a new restaurant, said Eric Bates, general manager at the Lincolnshire Marriott.
The restaurant project still in development would turn the dated King’s Wharf restaurant into a destination for people throughout the region to come and spend a night out in Lincolnshire, he said.
“What we really would like to do is capture more of the local community to come in and find dining they can’t find anywhere else,” Bates said.
Bricton Group has eyed a new restaurant for the resort once it acquired the business back in January. The silent auction set to mark the closing of King’s Wharf will start at 2 p.m. Sunday at the restaurant.
Bidding closes at 4 p.m. A part of the proceeds from the event also will benefit Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital, the Bricton Group said in a news release.
Once the auction wraps up, work will begin in the coming months to renovate and upgrade the establishment. The new restaurant concept is set to feature a 96-inch open grill in the center of the restaurant, inviting customers to watch food being prepared, Daval said.
The idea is also to make the restaurant brighter with additional lighting and larger windows, he said. A spa and a single premium suite also are set to be added on the third floor.
Other aspects of the renovation at the resort started in 2013, when Marriott reworked its entrance and started minor upgrades to its 389 hotel rooms, Bates said. The entire renovation project could conclude by early July, he said.
“The King’s Wharf is the one that’s going to take the longest and be the biggest change,” Bates said. “We’ve got a little bit of time to play with.”
Ahead of the restaurant closing, a few longtime Lincolnshire residents have said the work was needed much earlier in King’s Wharf’s history, when the area started seeing more eateries set up shop.
Before that point, the King’s Wharf restaurant represented one of the few dining options in Lincolnshire, said David Saltiel, a former Lincolnshire Village Board member who moved to the village in 1985.
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“There really was no place to go,” Saltiel said.
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