Business & Tech

New Restaurant/Pub Planned for Defunct Samy's Party Bar

The original owners have taken back the building and plan an extensive remodel before reopening as a more family-friendly business.

Problem-plagued Samy's Party Bar, which closed earlier this summer, is being remodeled and will reopen as a new restaurant/pub in the spring.

Maria Hohlastos said she and husband Sam were the original owners of Samy's Lounge at 3151 Voyager Lane, near the Louis Joliet Mall, and have reclaimed control from the people to whom they'd leased it.


Their plan, she said, is to completely gut the building and create a more family-friendly business that will cater to diners at lunch and dinner and a drinking crowd later at night.

The couple had leased the business to Aspasia Andrew Tinsman and Jimmy Tsavros, who renamed it Samy's Party Bar, added a dance floor and obtained permits from the city to stay open until 2 a.m. on weekends and to offer live and DJ-generated music.

In the years they ran it, Tinsman and Tsavros were fined five times and forced to close for five days before losing their late hour and music privileges in October 2012 for a variety of liquor license violations. Among them were not notifying the police of fights, padlocking one of the two exits and allowing 472 people into a building with a 200-person capacity.

In March, Tinsman said she had bought out Tsavros and she and her daughter were going to run the bar under the name Xander. An effort to regain their entertainment and extra-hour permits failed, however, and they closed a few months later.

Hohlastos said she and her husband are completely remodeling the business and will reopen next year with a full kitchen offering an American food menu. They have not yet chosen a new name, she said.

Because the liquor license went back to the city after Samy's closed, the couple will have to apply for a new one before they open, Joliet Deputy Liquor Commissioner Jim Murphy said.


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