During one night last October, a car crashed into Parky’s Hot Dogs. The restaurant closed for three-and-a-half months before reopening in February while the building was undergoing construction.
After nearly five months, construction is expected to wrap up in June.
The car crashed into the side of the building that faces Harlem Avenue and impacted the inside wall of the building where the ordering window is. The interior wall was completed before the building reopened in February. At the end of April, construction started on the exterior wall.
By early June, Flores said countertops will be installed around the inside’s interior, though they won’t have barstools like they once did. And Parky’s will get new benches out front, along with patched-up pavement around the building and hanging lights outside.
While Flores said construction since February hasn’t affected business much, closing for more than three months did, especially because it was right before the busy holiday season. Flores estimated Parky’s lost a “couple hundred thousand dollars” in sales while closed before February.
“My employees got paid, the bills all got paid,” Flores said, leading to Parky’s spending more than it was getting in. Flores had to pay $7,000 for the construction of the interior wall, which has since been reimbursed by its insurance company. She’s paying out-of-pocket for the construction of the exterior wall too, while insurance is in process of covering it.
Flores said there are no plans on recouping those costs.
“There’s not much you can do,” Flores said. “It has just been a major headache,” she added. “I’m happy this is the end.”
Reopening a Forest Park institution
The end of construction marks a new era for Parky’s, which is one of the oldest eateries in Forest Park. The hot dog spot opened in 1946 in Berwyn before its current, and now only, location followed a year later.
Flores’ mother has worked at Parky’s since the ‘80s and bought the restaurant in 1995 from its founder, Eugene Arist. In 2009, Flores bought out her mother, who died about three years ago.
Although Flores said she wanted to install an aluminum overhang over the patio during construction, she said the construction company and Historical Society of Forest Park advised her against it, in case she wanted to aim for landmark status when Parky’s turns 100 in about two decades.
“They advised [us] to keep it as original as possible,” Flores said.
As Parky’s construction wraps, Flores said local clients have played a large role in getting the restaurant open again.
“I got very scared. We were gone for three-and-a-half months. What if people found something else, better prices, better food? And none of that happened,” Flores said. “We opened up, and everybody was craving a Parky’s madly. I’ve never seen business like that in a very long time, since the ‘90s.”
And though business cooled down in the following month or so, Flores said she anticipates another rush once construction is completed.
“I expect it to pick back up once we get everything going again,” she said.
She plans to have a get-together to celebrate construction’s completion in another month, with music and balloons.
“I like to be considered everybody’s family,” Flores said, so there will be “a party on the patio, just to welcome everybody back and welcome them in.”