Burr Ridge Mayor Defends Handling Of Fire Lanes

Burr Ridge IL

30 August, 2021

1:37 PM

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BURR RIDGE, IL — Burr Ridge Mayor Gary Grasso over the weekend defended Burr Ridge's handling of fire lanes for the village's restaurants and denounced Patch's coverage of the issue. Grasso was responding to a story last week about the village's different approaches to fire lanes for Capri Ristorante and Capri Express, which have different owners. They are in County Line Square. In Capri Ristorante's case, the village arranged in 2015 for the eatery to have its valets use what officials referred to as its fire lane, according to emails at the time. In recent weeks, however, Trustee Guy Franzese has made an issue of delivery drivers using the fire lane at the nearby Capri Express. In a Facebook post on Saturday, Grasso said Capri Ristorante has had no fire lane for years. It's a green lane, with the approval of the fire department, to allow valet staging and pull-ups for the dinner hour, he said. Grasso said no other restaurant has valet staging at County Line Square, though such areas exist at restaurants elsewhere, such as Topaz Cafe, Eddie Merlot's and Cooper's Hawk. So he said comparing Capri Express to others is unfair. At the same time, Grasso said the village has approached the owners of County Line Square to convert it to a planned unit development. That way, he said, the village could comprehensively deal with much-needed improvements to parking lot areas. In so doing, the village would likely eliminate the yellow fire lane altogether, he said. Franzese, who has twice raised the fire lane issue, has not returned repeated messages for comment on the issue. In his Facebook post, Grasso criticized Patch reporter David Giuliani as "Patch-etic." "Instead of getting the facts and the overall picture right, Giuliani would rather disparage than be fair," he said. Grasso has been the lawyer for Filippo "Gigi" Rovito, who owns Capri Ristorante. Grasso's son, Michael Grasso, owns Blu Valet, which provides valet services for Capri Ristorante and other restaurants.