Pete Miller's Closes, Staff Aim To Save Evanston Jazz Institution

EVANSTON, IL — Pete Miller's Steak and Seafood abruptly closed its doors Monday at 1557 Sherman Ave. as the owners of an Evanston institution that featured live jazz seven nights a week for 25 years decided to get out of the restaurant business, according to a staff member, who described the closure as "devastating" to local restaurant and jazz community. Former employees are now racing against the clock to find a new owner to purchase the brand and keep one of the city's oldest restaurant alive by launching a campaign called #SavePetes before the space needs to be vacated at the end of the month.

"We regretfully announce that we are closing our doors, effective immediately," a sign in the window said. "To our many patrons we sincerely apologize and thank you for your loyalty."

Owners Sonas Hospitality Group purchased Pete Miller's in 2011 from the Clean Plate Group, The group formerly operated the Davis Street Fishmarket, Merle's BBQ and Tommy Nevin's Pub, which was also acquired by Sonas and shut down to make way for construction of the Albion at Evanston development. The restaurant's namesake, Harold "Pete" Miller, was a jazz-loving frequent customer of the Davis Street Fishmarket and a recipient of the Purple Heart in World War II, according to a listing brochure for the restaurant.

In addition to the closure of Pete Miller's, Sonas also shuttered the adjacent Midnight Pig Taproom, Muldoon's in Wheaton and Nevin's Brewing Company in Plainfield. Rohit Sahajpal, one of the owners, has not responded to a request for comment.

General Manager Cory Robinson started working at Pete Miller's nine years ago as a waiter, shortly after Sonas took over, he said. The 42 laid-off employees in Evanston include an expediter who had worked there from the day it opened in 1994, as well as a sous chef who started 19 years ago and one manager who started out as a busser 18 years ago, he said.

"This is very much a tight-knit group of people that worked here. It was a very engaged group. That was one of our selling points. People came here because they knew our staff very well and we were very connected with the community," Robinson said.

"They want to stay here. They don't want to go. So my mission is to find someone who appreciates the contribution that this restaurant has made to the community and someone who has the means to keep this tradition alive," he said.

As word of the closure spread this week, local musicians bemoaned the loss of one of the few remaining spots to see daily live jazz. Pete Miller's never had a cover, and for several years in the early 1990s hosted a festival at Fountain Square called the Jump & Verve Jazz Festival with the Evanston Chamber of Commerce. Over the years, it has hosted sets from such notable jazz musicians as Dr. John, McCoy Tyner, Stanley Turrentine, José Valdez, Kurt Elling and Bobby Broom, whose wife was general manager in the 1990s.

Back then, Broom said, "a burgeoning jazz education scene in the Chicagoland and surrounding areas brought handfuls of broke and hungry young jazz students to hear what they felt was great jazz music for no cover charge."

"Anybody traveling to Evanston was told to go there for the food and the music. The place was always packed and exciting," the jazz guitarist recalled in a blog post. "Anybody traveling to Evanston was told to go there for the food and the music. The place was always packed and exciting."

Robinson said he has been approached all week by members of the Evanston community distraught about the news of the closure, which was prompted not by any lack of business but by its ownership group deciding to get out of the restaurant business. He said he and many members of the staff are not ready to give up.

"We've seen one of the best years on record," the general manager said. "We had a record-breaking summer and we had a lot of momentum, which, of course, was stopped by the unfortunate end of Sonas Hospitality."

According to Robinson, staff had been informed that the owners were looking for some new investors, but they were unaware of the closure until the last day of service on Aug. 19.

The reason why the ownership declined to disclose the impending closure may have something to do with what happened last time they gave notice they were shuttering an Evanston favorite. In November 2017, the announcement impending of Tommy Nevin's set off what staff described as a chaotic scene, with Northwestern University students looted everything that was not nailed down, according to staff.

Following the closure of Nevin's, Sonas converted a portion of the Pete Miller's space into the Midnight Pig Taproom, a self-serve beer concept with 30 electronic taps allowing customers to swipe a card to sample a rotating choice of brews including local Evanston brewers and Nevin's Brewing Company, which closed along with all other Sonas properties other than the Kerry Piper in Willowbrook.

Before the closure of the restaurant the Pete Miller's property was offered for sale by its current owners, Evanston-based Westley Realty Group, at $400,000 in July, according to a listing on the Multiple Listing Service. According to the listing brochure, the space's annual rent is $322,413.

It's not clear how much lower the purchase price would be now that liquidation of the interior has begun.

Before Pete Miller's opened, the space on Sherman Avenue for nearly a decade housed a Bennigan's, which opened shortly after Women's Christian Temperance Union picketed the first liquor store in a city that had been "dry" up until 1972. Prior to being remodeled to be turned into the Bennigan's, the building was the longtime home of the Smithfield's grocery store.

Related:

• 'It Was Chaos' As NU Students Engage In Mass Looting At Nevin's
• Last Call At Nevin's Pub: Beloved Evanston Bar Closes For Good
• Evanston's First Self-Serve Beer Taproom Opens