Renga-Tei Closed Indefinitely--Hopefully Not Long

My friend just EMailed me to say he had previously booked a party of 7 last night at Renga-Tei, and upon arrival saw a sign on the door posted by the village of Lincolnwood. It read, "The building is not structurally sound. No one is allowed to enter until repairs are made."

They drove around back and saw damage to the kitchen area wall. It looked as though someone had backed into it.

Other than a couple one-week vacations & once for remodeling/expansion, Renga-Tei (formerly Koto) has been open in this location for 30 years.

Let's hope repairs are started & completed soon!

Man, they've sure taken a beating from all the construction! I wonder what happened?

Thanks for posting this. We were calling last night for an early dinner and there was no answer so now I know why. Hope they are able to reopen soon.

there was a car accident in the parking lot Friday night, one of the cars fled the scene (not sure which one), and one of the cars ran into the back of the building (not sure which one). We were asked to leave the restaurant about 3/4 of the way thru at 8ish. The waiter said that they had to evacuate based on the fire department's recommendations, something about all the wiring being in the back of the building and possible building collapse if it did catch on fire.

I hope that wasn't my last meal at Renga Tai....

Wow.

That is one cramped parking lot back there, the alley just north of Touhy. If someone's trying to escape, there's just nowhere to go, especially going south. What an idiot.

I cannot imagine that this would be grounds for closing Renga-Tei indefinitely. But once the village gets involved, everything's gotta be brought back to code, so yeah, it could be a few weeks.

What a P.I.T.A. for the great owners!

That parking lot was difficult to navigate even before construction.

glennpan wrote:That parking lot was difficult to navigate even before construction.

Amen to that! Very poorly designed which is made even worse when the Karate students are leaving their Dojo. I've been trapped more than once by conversing Brown and Black Belts double parking their Camaro's in the front and Wholly Frijoles customers searching for parking in the rear.

Best wishes for a speedy re-opening.

pie wrote:there was a car accident in the parking lot Friday night, one of the cars fled the scene (not sure which one), and one of the cars ran into the back of the building (not sure which one). We were asked to leave the restaurant about 3/4 of the way thru at 8ish. The waiter said that they had to evacuate based on the fire department's recommendations, something about all the wiring being in the back of the building and possible building collapse if it did catch on fire.

I hope that wasn't my last meal at Renga Tai....

Did they comp your meal?

Dave148 wrote:

pie wrote:there was a car accident in the parking lot Friday night, one of the cars fled the scene (not sure which one), and one of the cars ran into the back of the building (not sure which one). We were asked to leave the restaurant about 3/4 of the way thru at 8ish. The waiter said that they had to evacuate based on the fire department's recommendations, something about all the wiring being in the back of the building and possible building collapse if it did catch on fire.

I hope that wasn't my last meal at Renga Tai....

Did they comp your meal?

They comped everyone's meal, the restaurant was packed at the time with a party of 12 waiting.

Wow again.

Although comping everyone was to be expected, it's still a decent gesture for a situation that was completely out of their control. We've seen too many restaurant-borne incidents on this board where the owners won't take responsibility.

Can't wait 'til Renga opens again!

pie wrote:there was a car accident in the parking lot Friday night, one of the cars fled the scene (not sure which one), and one of the cars ran into the back of the building (not sure which one). We were asked to leave the restaurant about 3/4 of the way thru at 8ish. The waiter said that they had to evacuate based on the fire department's recommendations, something about all the wiring being in the back of the building and possible building collapse if it did catch on fire.

I hope that wasn't my last meal at Renga Tai....

Maybe it was the same driver that drove through the front of NY Bagel a couple of weeks ago...

My intrepid correspondent Rick reports:

"There's news on the Renga-Tei front, and it's good. We drove up Crawford today to take my mom out to China Chef. On the way, we saw cars in the parking lot and activity inside the restaurant, even though the place was still officially closed. As we drove past, we saw construction workers coming out the back of the building.

Driving back home, we pulled into the lot and saw the most optimistic sign, a note posted on the door saying, in typical Renga fashion: "Sorry for the inconvenience. We will be opening soon."

Hallelujah!

Rick"

************

Hallelujah indeed!

Well that just brightened my day. I was craving Renga Tei on Sunday night. I hope "soon" means in the next week or two.

Anyone have any updates? I drove by there on November 13 and it was still closed.

Still closed. According to the answering machine, they hope to open "in a week or two"

I called yesterday when I was in the area... and hungry... and got a live person on the phone. They will be officially opened starting tomorrow night (Wednesday) for dinner. And they are taking reservations!!!