A new beginning for The Can in Naperville

Donate Today Buy This Video

The saying “what feels like the end is often a new beginning,” was on full display at the grand opening of The Can, formerly known as Pepe’s Mexican Grill in Naperville.  

“It’s our grand opening for our bar that we’ve relocated from our old location,” said The Can co-owner Matt Rocush.  “ [The] restaurant was there for 47 years and the bar was there for 30 [years], we had to move when they tore the strip mall down, so we found this location, we did a soft opening a couple [of] months ago, but we finally got up and running we got everything together and we did our grand opening today,” said Rocush.  

A new location in Naperville

The new location at 634 E Ogden Avenue will give Rocush and the other owners the opportunity to host events they could not do at Pepe’s.  

“We have dart tournaments every Thursday night, we just started a fall dart tournament every first Saturday,” said co-owner Sandy Rocush.  “We have golden tee machines, we have foosball, we have the pool tables.”

“We really wanted to have a lot of activities for, whatever you might want to do when you come in,” said co-owner Rod Peterson.  “We got room for parties, we’ve had a few already, so if people want to come in for whatever kind of event we have plenty of space for that.” 

A new opportunity for The Can

While the owners are upset with the closure of Pepe’s, they’re looking forward to their new opportunity at The Can.  

“Very happy that we can come back in a new form but, we miss having the restaurant because it was there for 47 years and so many generations of families that came through and enjoyed Pepe’s food, but the bar itself took on a life of its own at the old location,” said Matt Rocush.  

A new beginning with a bright future on the horizon

If you have a story idea, we want to hear from you!