Beef N Barrel Dinner Menu for Oct. 23rd 2018

The story of Beef N' Barrel begins with Gus Lander, a young man who emigrated from Greece to Chicago in 1913. Mr. Lander entered the restaurant business in 1930 at 134 S. Wabash, around the corner from the Palmer House. He named his restaurant simply, Lander's, and offered breakfast, lunch and dinner along with a selection of cocktails. Today, the location is now home to Miller's Pub and can be found adjacent to the EL tracks.

In the photo above we see customers sitting at booths and tables as well as an extensive bar that are all reflected in the large mirror on the far right wall. The menu below showcases their breakfast items on the left, lunch in the middle and dinner on the right.

When his daughter, Denise, married Sam Boznos, Gus and Sam teamed up to begin  Beef N' Barrel in Elk Grove Village. Like Denise, Sam was also the son of a first generation Greek immigrant. At the time of their marriage, the Boznos family was running Par King Skill Golf, a miniature golf course that Sam and his brothers had redesigned from the Boznos family's original 4G Practice Fairways at Dempster and Waukegan in Morton Grove.

Gus Lander had expanded his small restaurant empire by opening Lander's Chalet at the corner of Higgins Road and Route 83 in Elk Grove Village in late 1964/early 1965. It was a supper club that offered dinner and dancing and later, fashion shows. The restaurant had a number of different dining rooms, all with their own name: Knight Room, Camelot Room, Mural Room and Crescendo Room.

By 1967, Gus and Sam, his new son-in-law who had been brought into the business, were inspired to build a completely different restaurant with a bit of a western theme. It opened as Beef N' Barrel and featured the Belt Buster 1/2 lb. hamburger, barbecue sandwich, and the Spiked Shrimp. The most popular feature, though, was the free-flowing peanuts that were literally free and bottomless.

They later expanded this brand to Lincolnshire and Schaumburg. According to Sam's son, Dean, his father drew up the plans for the Schaumburg restaurant in their basement. It opened three years later in 1970.

The Schaumburg restaurant featured the same menu and the same Western theme. Additional details provided by Dean include the red and white checked tablecloths, the red baskets that held the sandwiches, the fringed miniskirts worn by the waitresses and the cowboy boots and hats worn by both the waitresses and the bartenders.

This is the building today–with that same iconic, pyramid roof on top. Clearly, it's been added onto.

Around 1975 or 1976, Sam Boznos closed the Beef N' Barrel on Algonquin Road and reopened it as Hedon Place, complete with cobble stoned walkways that wound threw ficus trees.

According to Dean, "the four sections of the pyramidal structure of the building featured a different type of setting." The east room had semi-silk tablecloths with "sleek white votives" on the table. The central section became a dance floor where the sounds of disco filled the air in the evening. The upstairs loft became a romantic, dimly lit night club bar, lined with couches. The western section retained that theme and was called the Comstock Lode, complete with thick acrylic tables that contained chunks of fool's gold and Gold Rush items. The southwest area was cordoned off so that somehow "art deco [met] late seventies decor."

Hedon Place closed in 1980 when it was purchased by the owners of The Snuggery. According to Dean, the other two Beef N' Barrel restaurants lasted a bit longer until Gus Lander passed away in 1984. Amazingly enough, the Elk Grove Village building still stands.

We are so fortunate that Mr. Boznos contributed the various photos and details of these restaurants. He came across the other postings on this blog devoted to the Beef N' Barrel, contacted me and kindly passed them on.

The Lander/Boznos family were quite the entrepreneurs, unafraid to launch unique, thematic restaurants designed to entice their customers into trying something new and coming back for more. What a wonderful bonanza!

Jane Rozek
Local History Librarian
Schaumburg Township District Library
jrozek@stdl.org

*Current Beef 'N Barrel photo is credited to Google Map.

You can read more about the Par King Skill Golf course here.

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Source: https://ourlocalhistory.wordpress.com/2019/07/14/the-story-of-two-restaurants-beef-n-barrel-and-hedon-place/

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