Beelow’s Gets Outdoor Seating, No Musical Accompaniment

For more than an hour at the village board meeting Monday, a dozen Lake Zurich and Deer Park residents voiced their opposition to a proposed outdoor seating area with live entertainment at Beelow’s Steakhouse, located at 763 South Rand Road. 

The board ultimately gave the go ahead for the business to build the outdoor seating area, with live entertainment allowed only inside the establishment.

Prior to comments from the public, Village President Suzanne Branding announced owner Dan Beelow planned to withdraw his request for outside live entertainment. 

Despite Beelow’s withdrawal, concerns still remained over noise that could be generated from patrons consuming alcohol outside during later evening hours.

The village board approved liquor consumption at the establishment until 10:00 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, but customers would still be allowed to sit outside until 11:00 p.m.

Patrons will be able to order drinks until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays in the outdoor area, but the area will be closed at midnight, per the village liquor code.

“I think outdoor seating is great; I just don’t want to hear it, this is in my backyard,” said Jeff Lange, Deer Park resident who has two young children and whose property is located less than 250 feet from the proposed addition.

Another resident living in close proximity to Beelow’s said he doesn’t believe the proposal follows village ordinance.

“The ordinance requires that Mr.Beelow demonstrate there is no impact on the neighborhood; and that has not been proven,” said Kurt Schafer, Lake Zurich resident.  

Later in the meeting, Beelow said he may come back to the board in the future to get approval for outside entertainment, or at the minimum request to install speakers outside.

Lange said he and a handful of other concerned residents spent close to $2,000 on an architect who specializes in acoustics, sound isolation and noise control, to survey Beelow’s proposal.

“I found that the village code is ambiguous; it doesn’t address noise quantitatively. It does qualify it through public nuisance, and that is a difficult thing to gauge,” said Gary Madaras, an acoustician with the Building Momentum Group.  

The village board unanimously approved Beelow’s request to construct outdoor seating with a capacity of 120, and the addition will include two fireplaces, a full bar and kitchen and a waterfall.

Construction materials will include concrete and stone, and Beelow’s architect Brian Burch said those materials will help to absorb any extraneous noise.  

The business will be allowed to have live entertainment indoors, but speakers will not be allowed on the exterior of the building.

“When I knew there would be no live entertainment or speakers located outside, I felt the noise concerns would not be an issue,” said Dana Rzeznik, trustee.

Beelow said entertainment would likely consist of two to three member musical groups that would perform ‘dining style music’ and performances would not be held every night of the week, but rather on special occasions.

The business, which took over the former Bennigan’s Restaurant location, plans on building the outdoor eating area adjacent to the Regal Cinema’s parking lot.

Construction is expected to begin in mid-summer.