Pamela’s Parkside Grill Installing Large Screened Windows Overlooking Harmony Park
View from inside Pamela’s Parkside Grill looking outside through
the new expansive window openings that overlook Harmony Park.
Pamela’s Parkside, 27 West Campbell Street is an exciting addition to the thriving restaurant and entertainment scene in downtown Arlington Heights, located at the former Regina’s Italian restaurant near Campbell Street and Vail Avenue. Pamela’s Parkside Grill serves diners with carefully prepared New American cuisine ranging including sautéed seafood, Chicken Piccata,grilled calamari, salmon, and grilled steaks.
The renovation by Anthony James Builders, Inc. is underway the week of April 18th with construction scheduled to be completed no later than Tuesday, April 27th with hopes to be open the weekend before Tuesday. Renovations
A view of construction of giant picture windows from
the Campbell Street and Vail Avenue intersection.
Story posted Thursday, January 14, 2010 in Journal Online
Pamela Olin-Maybloom hopes to combine an artistic flair with familiar favorites on the menu at Pamela's Parkside in downtown Arlington Hts.
Pamela Olin-Maybloom got the keys to Regina's on Christmas Eve. By 6 a.m. Friday, when Santa was delivering the last of his presents, Pamela was already knocking down interior walls. By Tuesday, remodeling was finished and the steak and seafood restaurant, now called Pamela's Parkside, hosted its first wedding reception.
"It's like extreme restaurant makeover," the new restaurant owner said.
Being the follow-up act for Regina's, an Italian restaurant that served Arlington Hts. for 25 years, would be a challenge for any owner, but Pamela is completely new to the business.
"I have never even been a waitress," she said.
Which is why she's leaning on her husband and co-owner Howard Maybloom, who trained at the Culinary Institute of America and managed The Four Seasons restaurant in New York City.
The couple bought the restaurant to combine their passions, Howard's food and Pamela's art. While Howard runs the kitchen, Pamela, a metal sculptor, is working with local artists to create the ambiance, which she describes as an indoor park. The floor is wood, the walls are a brushy green and even the ceiling is painted like the stars and sky.
"My goal is to further local artists," Pamela said. That effort goes beyond the restaurant's enclosures. Artists will paint dinner tables while customers watch the process and dine. The tables will be auctioned for charity every year and replaced with new designs by new artists.
The changes go further. Pamela's Parkside features a new bar area with a Nintendo Wii video game console for patrons to play.
But despite the new interior and menu, there will still be something for those longtime Regina's customers. Old Regina's recipes will be rotated onto the menu and Pamela said they'd serve any customer's favorite Regina plate by request.
"We're hoping to be as much of a go-to place as Regina's was," she said.
Pamela's is located on Campbell Street in downtown Arlington Hts.
Chef and artist want to keep things fresh on the plate and on the walls
An Arlington Heights couple — one a chef, the other a sculptor — has transformed an established old restaurant into a trendy spot that features artwork by local talent as well as an upscale menu.Tearing out the inner walls, laying a new wood floor and repainting set the stage for Pamela's Parkside Grill in what was once Regina's Restaurant.
"Regina's was a favorite of many people because it didn't ever change," new co-owner Pamela Olin said. "They were exactly the same for 25 years. We are taking kind of the opposite approach."
Olin, an artist who has focused on steel sculpting for more than 16 years, said she wants to display the work of four to six local artists each month.
Howard Maybloom, Olin's husband and restaurant co-owner, said he's going to make sure there is always something new on the menu as well.
Maybloom, who grew up in the restaurant business and received culinary training at the Culinary Institute of America, is in charge of the kitchen, and Olin manages the front.
"We merged," Maybloom said. "We're both serving our passions."
Jeffrey Kraft, a Wilmette art dealer who has known Olin and Maybloom for several years, was so impressed by the brunch served on New Year's Day that he brought his mother-in-law there to celebrate her birthday.
"It's real, fresh ingredients cooked well," he said. "It's not only that it's good food. The place looks clean and crisp and new."
Olin and Maybloom, who bought the restaurant on Christmas Eve, started renovating it the next morning. On Dec. 29, Pamela's hosted a wedding reception.
The wedding party and guests "were walking in the door while we were still getting construction debris out the back door," Olin said.
Still, artwork was already decorating the walls for the wedding celebration. Among the decor were several food-related paintings by artist Kate Tully, of Prospect Heights.
Tully, who met Olin when she took a Welding for Women class Olin teaches at Harper College, said she was eager to show her work at the new restaurant. A mural painter, she saw it as an opportunity to get exposure.
"Sometimes people are a little intimidated to go into an art gallery, and I think they're more apt to go into a restaurant and have something to eat," she said. "I like that whole idea of selling in a restaurant."
Restaurant and art gallery combos might be expected in larger cities, but they're fairly innovative for the suburbs, said Tully's sister, artist Margaret Tully-Nicosia.
"I think it's great that someone moves out to Arlington Heights and wants to bring the arts, feels the need for an artistic community," said Tully-Nicosia of Park Ridge.
And there's no doubt the artwork is helping draw customers, Maybloom said. When people walk in the door, their eyes immediately dart around the room checking out the pieces, he said.
"Their mouths are open before they ever get anything to eat."
Eclectic Pamela's Parkside Grill up and running in old Regina's spot
February 4, 2010
Pamela's Parkside Grill,
27 W. Campbell St., Arlington Heights.
Open for dinner, Tuesday through Thursday, 5-11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 5 p.m. to midnight
and for Sunday brunch, 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Closed Monday. (847) 394-2728.
By ELIZABETH OWENS-SCHIELE
An extreme restaurant makeover has transformed the former 25-year-old Regina's Italian restaurant in downtown Arlington Heights into Pamela's Parkside Grill.
Pamela Olin-Maybloom and her husband, Howard Maybloom, closed the deal on Christmas Eve, began demolition at 6 a.m. Christmas morning and opened for a wedding reception five days later with a whole new look and menu.
"While construction debris was going out the back door, the bridal party was coming in the front door," said Olin-Maybloom. The makeover to the long-time, downtown institution includes the demolition of the interior walls opening up the 105-seat room, the creation of a new, 12-seat triangular bar just inside the front door, sea foam green walls covered with the work of local artists, including some of Olin-Maybloom's own "Fulfill" steelwork creation just outside the front door.
"My goal was to bring the park inside," Olin-Maybloom said. "I wanted to evoke a sun-dappled-leaves-kind-of-feeling inside."
Although still evolving, Maybloom hopes to create a menu that compliments the art.
"I want as much drama on the plate as in the room," Maybloom said.
The menu taps Maybloom's decades-ago experiences at New York's Brasserie and Four Seasons where he picked up recipes for his baked French Onion soup and escargot and builds with traditional, Old World steakhouse favorites such as oysters casino, shrimp scampi to cowboy cut rib-eyes.
"Our menu is eclectic and everything from Asian to Cajun," he said, noting his favorite regional dishes such as sushi and blackened red snapper with red beans and rice that have yet to be introduced on the menu. With a heavy emphasis on steaks and seafood, Maybloom has been choosy in his selections using only wet-aged, certified angus beef for his steaks ($22 to $46), free-range chicken for his oven roasted brick chicken ($16) and only the best Boston Fishmarket lump crabmeat for his pan-fried crab cakes ($23). He also raves about his 16-ounce, White Marble Farms double rib pork chop ($22) that takes up to 25 minutes to cook but is worth the wait. For loyal Regina's fans, Maybloom is still serving their recipe chicken piccata, parmigiana and up to 10 special Regina recipe requests each night since he bought all of their recipes and the extensive wine list.
"We make chicken vesuvio but we also make mac and cheese on request, and that wasn't on Regina's menu," Maybloom said.
Although prices may appear a little steep, Maybloom says he offers value with all entrees, which include soup or salad and a choice of two sides such as twice-baked potato to green beans almondine.
Living just steps from new his restaurant in busy downtown Arlington Heights, he's very familiar with his competition.
"We decided downtown needed a good dessert place and an upscale fine dining menu without being foo foo -- nothing overly sauced or overly delicate," he said. For desserts, he's creating Grand Marnier, ginger and chocolate souffles to a gluten-free death by chocolate cake and chocolate lava cake. He's also introduced a Sunday brunch menu.
A professional artist most of her life, Olin-Maybloom no longer sells her steelwork at art fairs but teaches welding for women at Harper College. She's a big supporter of local artists and plans to bring them in to paint the tabletops in a palette of colors of her choice with "fun faces, food, nature and people having fun," while hosting monthly artists' receptions.
Although she has never been in the restaurant business, her husband says the transition to her front-of-the-house duties at the restaurant have been a natural for Olin-Maybloom, who is majority owner, and he says, "the personality of the place." He prefers to stay in the back of the house.
"This is something I've always wanted to do," Maybloom said. He left restaurants early on to start his own automotive business yet he's continued to cook at home for his wife of five years and entertain often.
Their future plans include opening for lunch, live entertainment on Saturday nights, Wii games while-you-wait near the bar, another makeover perhaps in the spring with new booths, a private dining room, and table-height sliding windows overlooking Harmony Park just in time for the summer concerts.
The couple admits they still have many customers who are "physically rocked" by the transformation of Regina's into their new restaurant.
"They had quite a following and we hope people will give us a chance," Olin-Maybloom said, "and we do hope to hold the same type of place in people's hearts."
Pamela's Parkside Grill has remade former Regina's into its own space
By Deborah Donovan | Daily Herald Staff
Published: 1/29/2010 12:01 AM
Here's what happens when an artist buys a landmark restaurant in downtown Arlington Heights and redecorates the dining room.
In two days, working alongside contractors and her husband, Howard Maybloom, Pamela Olin-Maybloom transformed the 25-year-old Regina's Ristorante into Pamela's Parkside Grill.
They ripped out a wall, repainted the room complete with a ceiling mural showing a peek of sky and installed artwork throughout.
"As wonderful and intimate and quaint as it was, we wanted to open it up and bring some air into the space," said Olin-Maybloom. "We wanted to bring the park inside."
And in more clement weather, big windows will open onto Harmony Park.
She describes the new color on the walls as sun-dappled green, and notes the biplane pulling an "Eat at Pamela's" banner on the ceiling.
Maybloom, executive chef, is the one with the restaurant education and experience, including stints in management for The Four Seasons and Brasserie in Manhattan. He also was involved with restaurants in this area, although not recently. His wife, who calls herself "welder babe" in some circles, teaches artistic welding at Harper College.
The theme for Pamela's is fine dining in a comfortable environment, said Olin-Maybloom. The menu features steaks, veal, ribs and lamb; fish and seafood; salads and a vegetarian dish. Desserts are a highlight, to attract the after-theater crowd.
Works by area artists will be installed every month, with a reception for the artists from 5-9 p.m. the first Thursday of ech month, starting Feb. 4.
Olin-Maybloom also wants artists to decorate table tops in the restaurant, which at the end of the year will be sold to raise money for charity - minus enough to buy new tables.
The place also will have live entertainment, starting Jan. 30 with singer Cindi Cronin.
Despite the economy, the Mayblooms think this is a good business to be in because "everybody's gotta eat," said Olin-Maybloom. "We also figure we will work harder for ourselves than for anybody else."
Although Maybloom had known Phil Campanella for 20 years, he learned Regina's was for sale by seeing a classified ad. An easy commute from their home across the street made the purchase more attractive to the Mayblooms, who retained Regina's staff and some of its recipes.
Phil and Regina Campanella still operate their other restaurant, Regina's Via Trent Uno in West Dundee.
Arlington Heights does not have a gallery to showcase local artists, noted Olin-Maybloom, who said she started selling her own work in restaurants and coffee houses when she was a child.
"They never took a large percentage, and you have a captive audience of people waiting to eat. It was my dream I never thought would be realized of having an old-style salon where artists and others can gather, exchange ideas and foster each other."
Pamela's winter hours are 5-11 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday; 5 p.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday brunch.
Weekday lunches except for Monday will start in February.
