Burr Ridge Night Spot Foes Organize

BURR RIDGE, IL — Burr Ridge residents have formed a group and hired a lawyer in their battle against a proposed night spot in County Line Square called "Are We Live?"

They are fighting Filippo "Gigi" Rovito, the politically connected owner of Capri Ristorante. Through another person, he is proposing what would normally be considered a nightclub, but Mayor Gary Grasso said last week it was wrong to label it as such.

The group against the establishment is calling itself the Committee to Keep Burr Ridge a Very Special Place, which plays off of the village's motto. Represented by attorney Neal Smith, the group said the application for the night spot has a number of problems.

The Plan Commission plans to hold a hearing Monday on the proposal.

Smith has sent a brief laying out the committee's objections. Chief among them is the listing of the applicant. Rovito's name is not on the application. Instead, a woman by the name of Sandy Andrews is listed, describing herself as "Representative for Applicant." This lack of information, Smith said, is "shrouding" the applicant's name from public view.

"The residents are entitled to know the identity of people petitioning their elected officials, and the Plan Commission should not gloss over Andrews' glaring omission," Smith said.

Andrews told Patch recently that she was the contractor for Rovito.

Capri, which is a few doors down from the proposed night spot, is a popular Italian restaurant in Burr Ridge. Yet many residents have been discussing Rovito's criminal past online lately

In 2013, the Burr Ridge Police Department conducted a liquor license background investigation of Rovito. According to a memo from Police Chief John Madden, Rovito was a convicted felon with multiple convictions. Among them were aggravated sexual assault and delivery of heroin, the memo said.

Court records show the victim of Rovito's 1991 sex crime was a 14-year-old girl. He was released from prison in 2002 after about five years, the chief's memo said.

For the night spot, Andrews' original proposal described Are We Live as a place serving "Small Plates and Live Entertainment." But in an email last week, Andrews told the village that it would not include live entertainment after all.

"The only music that there will be is what is piped in through the speakers," she said.

Smith, the lawyer, noted the application does not include a request for outdoor dining, but a memo from the village planner, Doug Pollock, indicates that outdoor dining is part of the special use application.

Smith further contended Andrews is not entitled to request a special use to serve alcohol because she does not have a Burr Ridge liquor license.

The village, Smith argued, has not followed the requirement in its code that requires a hearing to take place within 60 days of the date of an application. Andrews' application was Dec. 21, meaning the hearing should have been held by the end of February.

"The 60-day hearing requirement is important, especially since the relief Andrews has been seeking is a moving target," Smith said.

The requirements under the zoning ordinance are important, he said.

"They exist so that the public is informed about what is happening, and so the Plan Commission and the Village can all do their job and make an informed decision," Smith said. "The Petition of Andrews utterly fails to inform the public or enable the Village to do its job."

Mayor Grasso has ties to Rovito. One of the plates at Capri Ristorante is called "Linguini alla Mayor Grasso."

On Nov. 22, 2017, Rovito gave $5,000 to Grasso's campaign, according to state Board of Election records. But Grasso returned the money on Dec. 28, 2017. This was six days after the CBS affiliate in Champaign ran a story headlined, "Shady campaign cash flows to GOP candidate," which involved, in part, Rovito's donation to Grasso. Grasso has declined to say why he returned the money.

In an email Monday, Grasso confirmed Rovito is not a client. He said Rovito has a lawyer for Monday's hearing.

"For transparency and standing, we have asked Mr Smith for the formation documents of the committee he claims to represent and its membership and officers, especially since a letter I saw from this committee gave a Hinsdale PO Box with an odd zip code for Hinsdale that I do not recognize," Grasso told Patch.

Grasso wrote a post on Patch supporting Capri and defending the Are We Live proposal. He accused a Patch reporter of showing a bias against Italian Americans in covering the issue. Rovito and Grasso are Italian Americans.

In an email Monday, Smith said it was interesting that Grasso was paying close attention to the zoning petition at such an early stage, even before a hearing has taken place before the plan commission, of which the mayor is not a member.

"In any event, I don't need to establish 'standing' to speak at a plan commission meeting. This is not federal court," Smith said. "I am simply helping a dynamic coalition of individual residents, businesses, and homeowner associations get the message out that there are major problems with the zoning petition and the land use adjustments it seeks."

Andrews, Rovito and Smith couldn't be reached for immediate comment.