On Thursday, July 27, Entourage will open its doors to the public for the first time. Naperville News 17 got a sneak peek inside the new restaurant, whose owners are the same people who opened up VAI’s Italian Inspired Restaurant Kitchen + Bar in 2018.
Just up the road from VAI’s
“We’ve had incredible success at VAI’s. That location was deemed a cursed restaurant, a lot of turnover there, but we feel really great about everything, coming out of COVID stronger than many other restaurants out there,” said Operating Partner Anthony Vai.
Entourage is located at 796 S. Route 59, the site of the former Baker’s Square and half a mile from VAI’s, a conscious decision Vai says should have huge benefits.
“The opportunity being directly on Route 59 and this area is in a bit of a revitalization. Just across the parking lot from VAI’s, the synergy that we can create, with staffing with our customer base to be able to take a phone call at one restaurant and to not have a reservation available, we can say, ‘Hey we can accommodate you at the other restaurant (VAI’s or Entourage). There’s a lot that we can play off of that will benefit both restaurants,” said Vai.
A little bit of everything
Like VAI’s, Entourage will have all food made in the kitchen from scratch. However, rather than Italian-inspired, it will have a little bit of everything.
“America’s a melting pot, right? There’s all these different cuisines that Americans enjoy. So why not tap into all that?” said Vai. “So we have some Pacific influence, some South American influence, some European influence, and then some good old American stuff. We smoke our own ribs in house. We dry-age our meat.”
Vai says what truly makes Entourage unique are their handcrafted cocktails not found at any other establishments.
“There’s a rosemary bubble that we float on one of our martinis that’s on our handcrafted cocktail list,” he said.
On Tuesday, July 25, the restaurant had the first of a two-part soft opening with friends and family of staff checking it out and giving staff the opportunity to work out any kinks.
“We’re very well prepared for the opening. We feel very confident about it, the knowledge, the quality, the environment. We’re ready to show it to everybody.”
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