He definitely has it right this time... while we were skeptical seeing the lack of crowd on opening night, by the time we left, the restaurant was filling up quickly with the dinner rush. For not having a lot of advertising, word spread quickly. While I didn't get to have the duck fat fries (the duck fat was mistakenly sent to Inovasi), the burger was delicious. It appeared less time was spent on the presentation, but certainly not at the expense of flavor. The wait staff was incredibly attentive. All in all, a great experience.

Ed, don't think you were necessarily wrong with Arriva... they were marketed as gelato and coffee. Now, they're more a pastry/tea/coffee shop. The gelato is sub-par at best, but their selection of fresh teas is great and goes well with a scone or muffin for an afternoon snack!

Hey Bryce:
Arriva Dolce is much better than you give it credit for. Coffee and Gelato are great. Friendly wager. Arriva will be around a year from now, Royce won't.

Beinlich's may be the longest lived but it is one of the worst burgers out there. Even 5 Guys is better

My family and I have been to Royce twice and we can't say enough great things about the change. While we loved Moderno, my children loved Royce's better. The staff was very helpful and seemed a bit more at ease with the family oriented crowd! Nice work on the interior and love the fact that reclaimed wood was used for the transformation. Also, a fun fact that we learned on our 2nd trip was that the staff did the renovations. They all stayed to help revamp the restaurant over the few weeks it was closed. I hope HP keeps this winner around because it is worth it!

How big of an investor are you? Place is not drawing crowds. Still expensive for what you get with a big rent nut to cover every month.

Paradise Pup on River Road just South of Oakton in Des Plaines has the BEST burger anywhere. Once you're had one the rest of them will just annoy you. :)

Walter. You are right. My Apologies.

Ok, here is part of an email from a friend that was not a big fan of the original Moderno's and their take on the new Chef Driven hamburger joint:

“On a different note, my friend and I went to the new Moderno. I don’t know why. We ordered two medium burgers; they came raw (not rare but raw) with cold soggy fries. We sent it back and chef apologized and said the meal was on the house. The burgers then came out well done and dry with fries that were hot but were over fried. It was dreadful.”

Walter: Not my words and unsolicited :)

Ok, as I recall some basic business marketing, a happy customer will tell maybe a couple of people and an unhappy one will tell a whole bunch. That is why a successful business is CUSTOMER DRIVEN one :)

Walter:

I am most certainly not a professional foodie and indeed my food standards are not necessarily that high as I travel so much and am usually so busy that food is an afterthought, so in general food is food as long as it is reasonable fare. I do however place high value on good service.

My point on this restaurant is the concept of being Chef Versa Customer driven. In my few times at this restaurant in the past which I had high hopes for, the food was mediocre to horrible and the service was no better. That to me screams for change and when the new “Chef Driven” concept was put forth it showed me that ego was not going to allow a change that would favor the customers.

Forest b,

You seem to troll all these topics and have something negative to say about everyone and everything. It sounds like you are everything from food critic to business expert. you have been vocal about raw burgers, raw food and peoples investments. The people at Moderno are good people and they are stand up guys. You should consider tailoring your comments to things you know more about and buying business and investing in them probably is not one of them.

rotti:

While there are many things I do not know about, I believe your comments are made with no knowledge of what area I may be knowledgeable. My entire business career is all about investing, owning, starting, running, buying and selling private and public businesses ranging from small businesses in the millions to over a billion within the USA as well as Internationally so I would respectfully disagree that buying businesses and investing in them is not something I know about.

Certainly, the many invitations to Wall Street conferences as well as lectures and trainings given to groups of Russian business managers on Western business practices including negotiation, executive management, marketing, and running a successful business operation would perhaps indicate that someone thinks I have both knowledge and a somewhat educated opinion.

Of course an opinion is just that and everyone can choose if they agree or not. I would hope to not be a negative voice but rather one that points out some of the obvious as a voice of reason.

I have no doubt that they are good people that want to succeed and provide something that has value to the public. The problem has been that they seem to miss the point that they need to vastly improve their product and be more customer oriented. Good people sometimes have a hard time seeing clearly when something is too close to them.

My husband and I, along with another couple just ate there last night. The place was packed. We really liked the atmosphere and the food and thought it was very reasonably priced.