Part restaurant expansion. Part reality show. Almost all drama.
When a restaurant opens, patrons see a brand spanking new sparkling facility and usually everyone is happy and having fun. But the buildup to that opening day is a different story completely, and Jonathan and Brianna Cowan remember some hard times when preparing to launch the Wooden Paddle restaurant in Lemont in 2017. “We looked back at when we built our Lemont location and that had extreme drama,” Jonathan said.
“We’re talking about a work stoppage for three months after firing a contractor. “We fired him on just a horrible weather day, and on top of that, we were standing there and we could see some water from the roof coming through into the main level. It was coming out like a water fountain in the middle of the hallway and I remember tearing up and saying ‘what do we do here? This is so stupid!’” Despite all of that, the Cowans are at it again.
They are planning on opening up a new restaurant and event venue in La Grange in 2025 at 23 Calendar Ave. Was there drama putting this new restaurant together? You bet. The original plan was to open in 2023.
For the past six months, some of that drama was caught on video as the Cowans have made public a series of videos chronicling the ups and downs that go into opening a new place. Through mid-December, they’ve posted 20 videos. Some of the titles include, “A Mood Killer? When the HVAC Killed the Vibe,” “Wells Go Up Oven Size Goes Down?,” �.