Customers, Accolades Come to Owner of Three Winnetka Restaurants

A wine lover's dream has come true in Winnetka. With Patrick O'Neil's new restaurant, you can walk up to a station, take out a credit card and sample a chardonnay or a pinot grigot.

O’Neil, whose restaurants have toasted the North Shore for two decades, imported the idea to the Midwest after he saw it in Florida. O’Neil has been trying different things to shake up the foodie status quo, and this week the Winnetka-Northfield Chamber of Commerce salutes him as the Business Leader of the Year at its 36th Annual Recognition Lunch on Wednesday.

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“I was very flattered,” O’Neil said of the honor. “I think the three restaurants in one town helped get my name nominated.”

O’Neil owns three Winnetka eateries today. There is the eponymous O’Neil’s on Green Bay Road, Little Ricky’s on East Elm and Trifecta Grill has been a dining option on Chestnut for the last seven weeks.

O’Neil only received the OK for the wine station idea at Trifecta last week in a 4-2 vote from the Winnetka Village Board. The next day, the argon-powered machines were up and running.

From Cleaning Gutters to Running Three Restaurants

It was just another step in the odyssey for O’Neil, one of seven children of a corporate executive and a nurse, who has been working since 12, been in the restaurant business since 14, and realized early on, amid raised eyebrows from his parents, that college wasn’t for him.

O’Neil moved out after high school, and life wasn’t easy for a while. “I was very poor and very hungry,” he remembered.

Both on the North Shore and in Florida, O’Neil had a series of odd jobs and ran his first businesses, one of which included cleaning gutters. Glamorous? No. But he learned and had some fun along the way.

“We had camaraderie as we worked and we laughed all day,” said his buddy Jeff Kelley, who now works in corporate communications.

When he was 26, O’Neil got the chance to start the Dancing Noodle restaurant in Evanston with the help of a six-figure loan from his father, who apparently was now convinced that Patrick had taken the right path.

(William O’Neil is 81 now, yet still keeps the books for his son and helps out seven days a week. “He still runs the show even though I own the restaurants,” Patrick said.)

That move propelled O'Neil into the restaurant business full-swing, learning its ups and downs quickly. That first night in Evanston he learned the hard way that it is always a good idea to buy a cash register, as he and the rest of his family were in the back making change for customers.

In the past 20 years O’ Neil has opened eight restaurants. Some have been sold, and he now has the three Winnetka restaurants in his arsenal. He has learned firsthand the high wire act that is the restaurant business in any era, regardless of the strength of the economy.

“People think we make so much money in the restaurant business, [but] we really don’t. It’s high risk, it’s high investment,” O’Neil said. “It’s like picking up nickels in front of a steamroller; it’s a tough business for the amount of work you put in. That is why you better have a passion for it.”

Why Winnetka?

So far in its infant life, Trifecta has been a big success with two-hour waits on the weekends for the patrons. Achievements like this feel great, he said, especially after enduring the near closure of O’Neil's in Winnetka as well as the complete shuttering of one eatery in Racine, Wis. after 72 days.

Operating out of Winnetka, O'Neil contends that familiarity breeds success. “I grew up here and I understand the people here,” he said. “The demands are higher here and the customers are going to tell you exactly what you want here.”

He has had his battles with the Winnetka Village Board through the years, particularly on issues relating to the serving of alcohol, but O’Neil does have the respect of the elected officials who know what he has done for the community.

“I think Patrick embodies the Winnetka spirit,” said Winnetka Village President Jessica Tucker. “He has the local entrepreneurial energy and creativity to find a successful service that the community enjoys.”

Tucker acknowledges the battles with O’Neil have been there. It is all part of the territory. “The businesses are trying to find a way to get through these tough economic times and find something different that will attract customers,” she said. “But Elm Street isn’t Rush Street, and we want sophisticated restaurants but not necessarily bars.”

What's Next For O'Neil

Immediately on the horizon for O’Neil is the success of Trifecta. Then he and his wife Mary, whom he met at 24 and told her he was going to marry on their first date, are looking to take up residence in Racine once their sons, Patrick Jr. and James graduate from New Trier High School. Both sons are interested in moving into the family business one day.

O’Neil will keep the restaurants going, in addition to his warehouse business, high volume stock trading, and some real estate ventures.

But there is a love for restaurants that keeps him on his toes.

“It’s high energy,” O’Neil said. “It’s meeting and greeting and seeing all the people. It’s like having a party every night so that is the hard part. You are constantly entertaining.”

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