Closed: Old Barn Restaurant, Burbank

After 90 years an old fixture is closing its doors in southwest suburban Burbank.

Hard economic times caused the restaurant's customer base to drop by 60 percent in the last year, co-owner Roy Zoppa said. At the same time, the cost of food, taxes, gasoline and utilities jumped. In the end, the owners just couldn't afford to keep going, Zoppa said

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/loca ... 9988.story

http://cbs2chicago.com/topstories/old.b ... 35009.html

The Old Barn was a few blocks from Chuck's. I only ate there once. A friend from work had her daughter's wedding reception there. They were obligated to guarantee a certain number of guests and the week before the wedding she found they would be paying for about 20 dinners that would go uneaten, so she asked me and my husband if we would like to join them for the reception. The menu they chose was pretty standard wedding fare, family style, but I remember thinking that the quality of the food was much better than you usually find at these types of venues.

When I mentioned to my mother where we had gone the night before, she said when we were very young, they used to drive out to The Old Barn from our home on the south side of Chicago with some other couples for dinner on a regular basis, leaving us kids behind with a babysitter. I always intended to go back and dine from their non-wedding menu but never quite got around to it -- Chuck's always seemed like the better option in the area for me.

Suzy

Your experience was much better than the last time I ate at the Old Barn. When I was there (not for a banquet, just off the menu), the food portions were meager and the quality was just so. I remember thinking then that the place probably wouldn't be around for too much longer.