Jim Nicolaou’s latest restaurant project is a pressure-fried chicken place in downtown Geneva. He plans to have chicken tenders, on-the-bone chicken, chicken sandwiches and sides like homemade macaroni and cheese, with counter service and carry-out options.
It’s a lot different from the other venture he and his father, Nick, own, Riganato Old Towne Grille, which sits just down the road from the planned chicken restaurant.
Honeybird, their new venture, will be more casual, without servers and will operate in a smaller space. It’s also serving fried chicken, unlike the Greek and Italian fare Riganato is known for.
Now, as they prepare for construction to begin in the coming weeks, Honeybird’s owners are getting some financial help from Geneva as part of efforts from the city to encourage development along State Street.
Honeybird is set to be located at 427 E. State St. in Geneva, a one-story commercial building that was previously office space but has been vacant since 2022, according to Geneva City Administrator Stephanie Dawkins.
The redevelopment of the space is expected to cost around $700,000, the city has stated, some of which it recently agreed to reimburse to Honeybird’s owners and developers, Jim and Nick Nicolaou.
Following final approval from the City Council on July 21, the agreement is that the city will reimburse Jim and Nick Nicolaou for $135,883 of those redevelopment costs — a little under 20% of the total estimated expenses for retrofitting the space to convert it into a restaurant, not including the costs to acquire the property. That money will be reimbursed via either sales tax generated by the business or TIF increment funds, depending on the resources available each budget year, the city has said.
427 E. State St. is located in the city’s TIF District 2. A TIF, or tax increment financing, district is a sort of economic development incentive in which the value of a property is essentially frozen, and the extra or “increment” taxes created by developing the property go into a special fund used to pay for costs related to improving the area.
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That TIF district was created in 2000 to spur private and public investment along East State Street, according to the city.
Along with other conditions of the agreement, the developers have to provide the city with an itemization of what they spend to improve the space once the project is completed, to show that they made the expected investment of about $700,000. The terms of the agreement also stipulate that the restaurant must be in operation by May 31, 2027.
This is the second round of financial help the city has given Honeybird to help its owners redevelop the building.
In December, the City Council approved giving its owners a $38,608 grant from American Rescue Plan Act funds that had been set aside for historic preservation and adaptive reuse. The city said this would amount to 80% of the cost of bathrooms compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act and a fire alarm.
Since then, Geneva has given Honeybird the green light on several requests for its planned renovations.
At the April 10 Planning and Zoning Commission meeting, a public hearing was held about the owners’ requests for a variation to reduce the street yard parking setback along Woodlawn Street, relief from interior parking lot landscaping requirements and a special use permit to have a restaurant in the city’s B3(E) business district.
The changes are meant to enable the building’s owners to convert the building into the planned dine-in and carry-out restaurant, and to replace and expand the existing parking lot, Dawkins said at the April 21 City Council meeting, during which those requests were given final approval by the council.
The owners’ plan for parking is to provide six on-site spots, per the city, along with six parking spots at the next-door property at 421 E. State St., which Nick and Jim Nicolaou also own.
At the public hearing, the city commission also addressed a few concerns about the restaurant proposal.
Jim Nicolaou answered a question about odor control for the food, saying that frying food at Riganato hasn’t generated concern from neighbors, “maybe besides once in a while saying it smells good,” and said that they don’t foresee an issue with smoke or smell pervading the neighborhood.
The commission also asked about how patrons will enter and leave East State Street and the possibility of increased traffic. Christopher Rosati, the project’s architect, said at the meeting that drivers can exit via Woodlawn Street and also from the next-door location.
Now, as Honeybird’s owners prepare to start construction, Jim Nicolaou described some of the details he and his father are working out.
The plan is to make “broasted,” or pressure-fried, chicken, he told The Beacon-News on Wednesday.
But it’s not their first time operating such a venture — Jim Nicolaou, 50, said his family used to operate a pressure-fried chicken restaurant in the suburbs when he was a child in the 1980s. He said it was something he and his father wanted to do again, and that a few years back they had started discussing starting another restaurant.
“We remember some of the recipes,” Jim Nicolaou said. “And we’re going to kind of recreate that with some new ideas and stuff like that. … We always liked broasted chicken — or pressure-fried, however you want to call it. And we always thought there was a market for it.”
They’re also planning to fry the chicken in beef tallow, rather than oil, he said.
“The flavor’s definitely better,” Nicolaou said, though he noted that it would rule out fried vegetarian options. “All you have to do is ask people that (were) around in the ‘80s if McDonald’s fries were better then or now.”
As for the space itself, Nicolaou said they want to have 25 to 30 seats inside the restaurant, and a small patio. The restaurant will offer counter service, as well as carry-out dining.
In addition to chicken, Nicolaou said Honeybird might also offer “broasted” ribs. And they’re considering dedicating one of their pressure fryers to gluten-free offerings if there’s enough demand for it.
Now, with the promised city financial help, the owners said they’re just waiting on a final permit before they can begin construction, which could start as soon as the next couple weeks, according to Nicolaou. They’re hoping to open the restaurant in late 2025 or early 2026, he said.
“It’s not a giant place or anything,” Nicolaou said. “It should get going pretty quickly, but there’s a lot of little elements that have to come together.”
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