Eric Roy, the founder of the Surf’s Up, restaurant chain, at the Mundelein location.
If you’re in the mood for seafood before or after a movie at the AMC in Randhurst Village in Mount Prospect, a new option soon will be only a short walk away.
Surf’s Up is slated to open next month at 220 Randhurst Village Drive, in what is now a vacant space.
The eatery, part of a growing chain, promises to offer a wide variety of seafood, including lobster, shrimp, alligator, crab legs and catfish. Dishes include shrimp and grits, fried green tomatoes, and Buffalo wings.
“The menu is a Southern-type of menu,” founder Eric Roy said, “A lot of people say it’s Cajun, but I wouldn’t say it’s exactly Cajun. It’s similar.”
“We make all of our sauces in house,” he added.
Other seasonings are also made in house, including the breading for the chicken, fish and shrimp.
Roy, an Oak Park resident, said the chain opened its first location in 2012 in Hillside. It now has more than a dozen locations, including Yorktown Mall, Lombard, Mundelein and Aurora, and Roy hopes to grow to about 100 locations within the next two to three years.
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The Mount Prospect location will feature a daiquiri bar. There will also be an outdoor patio.
Roy took an unlikely route to the restaurant business. His background is in accounting, and at one point he was working for the Florida Department of Revenue.
But he said he and his wife, Denise, a trained chef who attended Kendall College, had visited restaurants in the Tallahassee, Florida area and liked the food. When he launched his first location, he combined the fare they enjoyed there with his wife’s family recipes.
The restaurant will be open six days a week. Hours of operation will be 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday; 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday; and either 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. or noon to 9 p.m. on Sunday.
