Restaurant & Hospitality

Pennyville Barcar – Expansion & Remodel

The Pennyville Barcar expansion and remodel in Park Ridge, Illinois joins the bar at 114 Main Street to the neighboring Pennyville Station restaurant, which shares an owner. The Jenkins Group designed the connection, which removes a portion of the masonry wall that separated the two buildings. The owner combined the two parcels into one property, so the wall no longer counted as a party wall that limited openings. The new opening gives staff an employee-only route between the spaces and gives patrons a way through, with new structural support over the opening and an accessible ramp connecting the two rooms. A sprinkler system was added on the Barcar side, because the restaurant already had one.

The Barcar itself was reworked as an open, indoor-outdoor bar room. The storefront window system was removed and replaced with folding partitions, and the mechanical system was modified to serve the open storefront, with air curtains added at each window. The bar was relocated with new plumbing and electrical service, and finishes and lighting above it were replaced. Behind the bar, kitchen equipment was relocated and a dishwasher added, and the restroom fixtures and finishes were replaced in kind. The firm also prepared an earlier permit package that converted part of the existing garage into a food storage room with a walk-in cooler. The design went through Park Ridge plan review and the Appearance Commission in 2022, and a July 2022 revision held the wall opening and ramp until the two parcels were legally combined so the remaining work could proceed.