| Park Grill | |
|---|---|
 | |
  Location within the Chicago Loop | |
| Restaurant information | |
| Established | November 24, 2003 |
| Owner | Syndicate of shareholders |
| Chef | Alfredo Sandoval |
| Food type | ContemporaryAmerican cuisine |
| Dress code | Casual |
| Location | 11 NorthMichigan Avenue,Chicago,Illinois, 60602, United States |
| Coordinates | 41°52′57″N87°37′24″W / 41.88246190°N 87.62342390°W /41.88246190; -87.62342390 |
| Seating capacity | 300 |
| Reservations | Yes |
| Website | Park Grill |
ThePark Grill is the only full-servicerestaurant included inMillennium Park inChicago,Illinois. Its outdoor seating area is the largestal fresco dining area in Chicago. It has placed among the leaders in citywide best-of competitions for best burger and is widely praised for its views.
The exclusive location, the lucrativecontract terms, theinvestor list, and a close personal relationship between a managingpartner of the restaurant and theChicago Park District'sproject manager led to a formalethics investigation,courtlitigation, and extensivepress coverage, and ranked among the most prominent scandals of the administration of ChicagoMayorRichard M. Daley in 2005. The more than 80 investors include some of Daley's friends and neighbors. One of the most financially successful restaurants in Chicago, the Park Grill remains exempt fromproperty taxes after a multi-year litigation which reached theIllinois Supreme Court.
The Park Grill is located on NorthMichigan Avenue inChicago in theHistoric Michigan Boulevard District.Cloud Gate, a public sculpture, is located onAT&T Plaza on the roof of the Park Grill.[1]
During the summer months, the restaurant's outdoor seating area becomes the largestal fresco dining area in Chicago.[1][2][3] During the winter months, the restaurant's outdoor seating area becomes theMcCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink,[4][5][6] and diners in the 300-seat[7] The Park Grill overlooks theice skating rink through floor-to-ceiling windows.[8]
In late 2001, Matthew A. O'Malley and James Horan proposed Park Grill and Park Cafe to "provide both white-tablecloth meals and picnic-hamper fare for visitors in Millennium Park".[9] In 2003, theChicago Park District awarded a 20-yearcontract to run the Park Grill to apartnership, including several ofMayorRichard M. Daley's friends and neighbors.[10][11]
The current managingpartners of the Park Grill are O'Malley and Horan.[9][10] O'Malley, who once worked for the U.S. RepresentativeDan Rostenkowski, runs the re-purposed firehouse, Chicago Firehouse Restaurant, which is located around the corner from the home of MayorRichard M. Daley,[12] who has been a steady customer. The son of AldermanEdward Vrdolyak has also been a business partner with O'Malley.[10] Matthew O'Malley and his brother Paul were picked to run the Clock Tower Cafe at the Sydney Marovitz Golf Course inLincoln Park on the Chicago lakefront.[13][14] James Horan is a restaurant owner and caterer. He is president of Blue Plate Catering, which runs a cafe at Gallery 37, an after-school program created and fostered by Mayor Daley's wife, Maggie Daley.[9][10]
O'Malley obtained commitments from over 80 prospective Park Grillinvestors,[10][15] including some of Mayor Daley's friends and neighbors.[10][11] Eachshare of the restaurant cost investors $200,000.[10] Among the investors are Daley's friend Fred Barbara,[10][16][17] a nephew of the late ChicagoAldermanFred Roti.[10] Barbara has ties to theHired Truck Program scandal[10][18] and theblue bag recycling controversy.[10][19] Other investors include relatives of Daley's political adviser Timothy Degnan,[10][16] two neighbors of the mayor, Ray Chin,[10][17][20] anO'Hare Airport contractor, and Rick Simon, a controversial figure who runs ajanitorial business and sits on the board of theChicago Convention and Tourism Bureau.[10] Also among the investors was Daley's cousin Theresa E. Mintle, then theChicago Transit Authority's director of governmental affairs[21][22] and former congressmanMorgan F. Murphy, who has had business dealings with convicted labor union officialJohn Serpico.[10][23] Among the vendors for Park Grill was an architectural metal company owned by the son of then Chicago AldermanBurton Natarus (42nd).[10]
O'Malley's and two other groups submitted proposals to run the restaurant in September 2001. The Park Grill group's proposal was twice as long as the other two but, technically, promised the Park District the lowestrevenues.[24] By the end of the year, O'Malley's team had been selected to run the restaurant,souvenir andconcession stands, and a cafe in the new Millennium Park.[10]
The Park Grill contract was signed February 11, 2003.[10][13][25] The contract requires that Park Grill to pay a percent of netsales and an additional fee of $275,000 per year, but the latter was not due until the Park Grill recouped half its build-out costs.[24] As part of its deal, the Park District pays for water, gas, andgarbage collection at Park Grill.[26] The garbage pickup costs taxpayers about $245,000 annually.[10]
The Park District team, including an outsideconsultant, spent 18 months negotiating acontract with O'Malley's group.[10] During that time, Laura Foxgrover, a top official in the Park District department directly overseeing the deal, gave birth to O'Malley's child.[10][13][17][24][nb 1] Prior to working for the Park District, Foxgrover had been an employee of O'Malley as director of operations[17] at the Chicago Firehouse Restaurant.[13] Foxgrover held the title "seniorproject manager" at the Park District at an annualsalary of $94,000.[10] In May 2002, Foxgrover wrote a memorecusing herself from negotiations, without saying why, and never told her superiors she was carrying O'Malley's child.[10][25] The girl was born in September, 2002.[10]
Foxgrover remained involved in the Millennium Park restaurant after she recused herself from contract negotiations in May, 2002.[13][27][34] In October 2003, Foxgrover spoke in favor of the restaurant getting aliquor license before aChicago City Councilcommittee while O'Malley owed Foxgrover at least $5,000.[13][17][35] On the same day, Foxgrover worked to get O'Malley's Clock Tower Cafe aliquor license.[13] In one July 2003e-mail, Foxgrover, then the acting director of park services, said that if O'Malley'scontractor had any questions for the Park District, she will be the point person.[27] In August 2003, Horan sent out an e-mail mentioning a discussion Horan had with Foxgrover, in which Horan asked Foxgrover if the Park District would waive a form ofinsurance on the restaurant'sconstruction.[27] A provision in the Park Grill contract allows the restaurant to arrange a series of summerconcerts on the Millennium Park ice-skating rink, drawing crowds that bolster food and drink sales. In summer 2004, O'Malley and his partners askedClear Channel-ownedWNUA Radio to conduct the concerts. In February 2005, Foxgrover led a five-member Park District committee that chose Clear Channel overJAM Productions to operate the new concertvenue atNortherly Island on the former site ofMeigs Field.[24][34][36]
Foxgrover was the subject of anethics investigation.[13] An ethics officer for the Chicago Board of Ethics concluded that Foxgrover did not violate the district's ethics ordinance and should be allowed to keep her $90,000-a-year job as the Park District's director of development.[37] By 2008, Foxgrover had left the Park District to work for O'Malley's restaurant management company.[32]
On March 16, 2005, Cook CountyAssessor, James Houlihan's office sent Horan and O'Malley a letter notifying Park Grill that it was being assessed at $502,550 and that it would be sent a bill in the fall for 2004property taxes.[26] On August 5, 2005, Horan and O'Malley filed alawsuit against the assessor, asking that a judge prohibit the county from imposing property taxes.[26][38] The owners asserted that their contract to run Park Grill was a property tax exemptconcessionaire agreement and not a taxablelease.[26][39][40] The state's attorney's office, which defended the assessor in the case, said "our position is that the Park Grill is a leaseholder and as a leaseholder they are subject to taxes."[26] In 2009, anappellate court affirmed the circuit court's finding that the agreement to run Park Grill was not alease but alicense.[30][41][42] In December 2010, theIllinois Supreme Court with a 4-3 vote affirmed the lower court decisions maintaining the Park Grill's "agreement with the Park District created an untaxable license as opposed to a taxable lease" to do business.[43][44]
MayorRichard M. Daley criticized the Park Grill deal, blaming Chicago'sCorporation Counsel Mara Georges, saying that lawyers for the city and the Chicago Park District erred and that the city wanted to renegotiate the pact. "Lawyers do make mistakes," Daley said. "That's what it was. ... It's embarrassing to them. Yes it is - the corporation counsel and the Park District counsel."[16][45][46] Chicago Park District Superintendent Tim Mitchell said the Park District also wanted to renegotiate the contract.[24][25] In a February 9, 2005 letter to O'Malley and Horan, Georges warned that the concession agreement "does not authorize your occupation of the Park Grill facilities" because the city owns the land, and City Hall should have been party to the original agreement when it was not.[11][28][47] On February 11, 2005, Daley asked state lawmakers to impose tougher penalties for defrauding tax payers, and was questioned by reporters about why the Park Grill had not paid any property taxes and gets free gas, water and garbage pick-up.[48] Erma Tranter, president of theFriends of the Parks watchdog group, speaking at a Park District Board of Commissioners meeting, questioned why the Park Grill contract had yet to be renegotiated 11 months after Mayor Daley vowed to do so.[31] TheChicago Sun-Times dubbed the Park Grill the "Clout Cafe"[27][41] and included the contract award process in a year-end review of 2005 Daley administration scandals.[29]
The grand opening was set for November 24, 2003.[49] In its first year of operation, Park Grill paid $162,656.72 in rent.[16] The Park Grill began making money for its investors in 2006, its third year of operation, when investors split $527,250 in profits.[50] In 2008, the Park Grill was named one of the top 100 highest-grossing independent restaurants in the U.S., serving approximately 300,000 meals and grossing approximatelyUS$12 million insales, making it the seventh largest independent restaurant in terms of sales inChicago in 2007, according toRestaurants & Institutions magazine.[51] The Park Grill remains exempt from property taxes, and the contract has not been renegotiated.[30][52]
Daley announced he would not seek a seventh term, and in the final months of Daley's last term, the owners of the Park Grill, including O'Malley and Barbara were reported as interested in selling.[53][54] Daley's successor, MayorRahm Emanuel appointed Theresa E. Mintle, one of the Park Grill investors, as his $174,996-a-year chief of staff. Three days after Emanuel took office and Mintle started work as his top aide, Mintle transferred her financial stake in the restaurant to her husband.[21]
On December 1, 2011, the Emanuel administration sued the Park Grill operating company, and the Chicago Park District, asking a judge to end the generous 2003 concession agreement with the Chicago Park District. The city wants the Park Grill operator, which is trying to sell the restaurant, to pay more for the privilege of operating at the park.[22][55] On December 15, 2011 the Park Grill operators filed a counter suit against the City and Park District.[20] In June, 2013 O'Malley and Foxgrover were married byIllinois Supreme Court JusticeAnne M. Burke. By October, 2013 the City had paid more than $749,000 and the Park District more than $585,000 in legal fees.[56] Deposed in August, 2013 in the lawsuit, Daley responded "I don't recall" 139 times.[57][58] "In the Park Grill situation, city taxpayers were taken advantage of. They did not get a fair pricing for that property," Emanuel said.[59]Chicago Sun-Times columnist Mark Brown summarized "the Park Grill story" as
Guy meets girl. Guy owns a restaurant. Girl handles valuable Park District restaurant concession. Guy and girl make a baby together. Guy gets concession deal. Mayor knows nothing. Nothing! But a bunch of his pals invest in what city lawyers later call a "sweetheart deal."[46]
On September 24, 2015, the court ruled in favor of the Park Grill, rejecting the Emanuel administration's claims that the contract was invalid.[60][61][62]
Themenu istraditional American food with international influences.[63][64]Zagats describes the cuisine asNew American.[65][66] Bernard Laskowski, formerly of Chicago restaurants Marche and mk, is the executivechef.[67] The Park Cafe, adjacent to the Park Grill, offers takeout food such as salads and sandwiches.[68]
The restaurant is notable for its views, its location, and its cuisine, especially its hamburgers.Zagat lists Park Grill as one of the "choice outdoor spots in town."[69]New City Chicago magazine named it one of the top 100 essential restaurants in the city, urging, "Ignore the scandal over sweetheart deals with the city for a moment and consider this: Park Grill sits in the hottest spot in the city today, if not in America."[70] In the 2006/07 and 2008/09 editions,Zagats respondents ranked it among the best of Chicago in the "Outdoors" and "Views" categories and lauded its fireplace.[65][66]
Park Grillhamburgers achieved high citywide rankings in several publications, including best burgers inTime Out Chicago (2005),Chicago Magazine (2008) andCitysearch (2008).[71][72][73][74][75]
The Unofficial Guide to Chicago points out the "spectacular view of the Chicago skyline, fronted by the ice rink atMillennium Park."[76]Fodor's Chicago 2010 says "Location trumps service at Park Grill, where a seat on thepatio in summer, in full view of Millennium Park, is among the best in the city. Sadly, the waitstaff lapses ..."[77] TheNational Geographic's website'sChicago Walking Tour: Millennium and Grant Parks recommends the Park Grill as it "allows you to admire the surroundingarchitecture passively."[78] The restaurant was noted as one of the "99 Best of Chicago," named as one of three under the category of "Best Restaurants with a View" inNight+Day Chicago.[79] The location, "under 'the bean' or next to a swarm of ice skaters, all convenient to the Loop," was cited byCrain's Chicago Business as a reason for including Park Grill as one of Chicago's best restaurants for business dining in 2010.[80]
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