Naperville was the first city in the U.S. to have a Guzman y Gomez Mexican Kitchen when the Australia-based chain opened in 2020 along Naper Boulevard near Ogden Avenue.
Now, the company is taking steps toward its second restaurant in Naperville, with the unanimous endorsement of the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission for its request to build along Route 59.
Guzman y Gomez won a positive recommendation for its plans to demolish a former Juicy O restaurant in the Fox River Commons shopping center and replace it with a 2,600-square-foot dine-in and drive-thru restaurant.
Jason Trombley, head of U.S. development for Guzman y Gomez, said the new site at 844 S. Route 59 would help the company promote “our food and our people” while growing its U.S. presence. The company’s seventh store in the country opened this week in Des Plaines; all are in the Chicago area.
“We think brand awareness is a big part of this puzzle, and a second store (in Naperville) will provide sales to the southern part of Naperville and also boost the store on the northern side of the city,” Trombley said, referencing its first location at 1519 N. Naper Blvd.
The site where Guzman y Gomez hopes to open its second Naperville shop is near recent redevelopments, including The Matrix Club and Mall of India. In documents submitted to the city, the company said its store — designed in brown and gray with white and yellow accents — will be a “new-look building” that will “brighten a center that needs new growth and revitalization.”
“I am excited about that location with everything that’s going on there,” said Whitney Robbins, planning and zoning commission chairwoman.
Guzman y Gomez’s plans for the site require Naperville City Council approval for a major change to the planned unit development for Fox River Square and a final plat for the land. Adam Beaver, with the city’s planning services team, said a restaurant is permitted within the property’s B2 zoning, and city staff found no concerns with designs for the site.
Plans call for an outdoor dining patio with seating for 25 people, a parking lot with 31 spaces, new sidewalks and a bike path connection along Route 59. The drive-thru would have two lanes for ordering that merge into one for pickup, and the entrance to the restaurant would be on the north end of the site to avoid traffic backups near the entrance to the shopping center.
The fast-casual Mexican food chain, which is said to have something of a cult following in Australia, is the brainchild of America cofounders Steven Marks and Robert Hazan. At the time the first Guzman & Gomez store opened in Naperville, Marks told the Naperville Sun the goal was put down roots in the U.S. the same way they have in Australia, Japan and Singapore.
“We chose Naperville because of the community,” Marks said in 2020. “We kept hearing about this city, which is ranked as one of the best places to live in the U.S., and the moment we arrived here and saw the site, we knew this was where our first U.S. restaurant had to be.”
Marie Wilson is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.