Maple Tree Inn Booked For Weeks After Opening In Homewood

HOMEWOOD, IL — Maple Tree Inn, the famed Cajun restaurant that officially reopened at the former site of The Cottage on Dixie in Homewood earlier this month, is booked solid. Not just for the New Orleans Mardi Gras holiday on Fat Tuesday but for weeks to come. Diners looking to make reservations last week were informed the restaurant is booked solid through March 7 and indications are now that the restaurant isn't taking any bookings until late March.

That doesn't mean anyone who hasn't made a reservation yet won't be able to dine there until that time. An employee at the restaurant at 18849 Dixie Highway said at the start of every night there are a few tables reserved for walk-ins specifically, and "if there's any type of cancellation, or if something does not work out for whatever reason... we will open that spot up for people on a wait list or walk ins."

Reservations, when they do open up in late March, are made through Open Table. The restaurant opens on weekday nights at 5 p.m. and at 3 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.

Maple Tree held a ribbon cutting on Feb. 12 after a series of soft openings, according to a news release. The new space has private parking for up to 60 cars behind the restaurant and a dining occupancy of 125.

“A roll out of this magnitude required finishing-end practice, rehearsal and then do it again,” said Katie Wennberg, who owns Maple Tree with her husband, Erich. “In addition to the expectations we created for our long-time followers, we only had one chance to make a first impression with the Homewood Flossmoor community."

The permanent reopening comes less than two years after a fire destroyed the longtime Maple Tree Inn restaurant owned by the Wennbergs in Blue Island. After the fire and before the opening in Homewood, Maple Tree operated temporarily a bistro in Blue Island.