It was 1978 when Vasilios Konstantopoulos and his brother immigrated from Greece to the United States, where they began working together in restaurants. Six years later, Konstantopoulos – now better known to customers as Bill – opened his own restaurant, Bill’s Place, in Brookfield.
Bill’s Place, now in LaGrange Park, celebrated its 40th anniversary on Monday. The fast-food restaurant serves classic Chicago fare such as burgers, hot dogs, gyros, Italian beef, hot and cold sandwiches and a long list of sides. There are also pizza, pasta and salads. To celebrate the day, the restaurant had decorative balloons, face painting from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. and plain hot dogs for 40 cents until closing time.
Konstantopoulos, 70, said he didn’t originally plan to open Bill’s Place at its first location in Brookfield, but did so after his friend, who owned the property, encouraged him to start the business.
“I was new to the United States. I didn’t know much about Brookfield or LaGrange Park,” he said in an interview Monday. “He brought me here. He said, ‘Stay and work.’ So I did and tried to do my best.”
He said his previous work in the restaurant industry inspired him to open his own restaurant.
“I had no choice and had to make a living,” he said, adding that he felt it was the right time for him to go into business for himself. “I never left the community, so it turned out to be a good choice. (Better) than dying.”
Konstantopoulos said that during the first few years of the restaurant’s existence, he made very little money. He worked seven days a week and had no other employees in the shop except for a local woman who acted as a translator for customers, as his English was still poor at the time.
“Little by little it got better,” he said.
After 12 years in Brookfield, however, things took a turn for the worse. Konstantopoulos said the restaurant’s landlord, the same friend who first showed him the location, raised the rent to force Bill’s Place out of the building. As a result, the restaurant owner had to find a new location. He said he wanted to stay as close to the original location as possible.
In 1995, Konstantopoulos used a loan from the local bank to purchase vacant office space at 1146 N. Maple Ave. in LaGrange Park and renovated the building into the Bill’s Place many know today, complete with blue ceiling fans, blue checkered tile and blue seating inside to match the blue awning and window sill outside. After he started the restaurant at its second location, he said, loyal customers followed him north of 31st Street and continued to support the business.
“I couldn’t have done it without the support of the community,” said Konstantopoulos. “Where I am today, after 40 years, I owe everything to the bank and the community.”
He said the other secret to keeping Bill’s Place going is the hospitality he and his staff try to foster at the restaurant. He said some of the establishment’s employees have been there for up to 20 years, which customers have also noticed and contributed to the hospitality.
“It takes a combination to be successful,” he said. “Me, the staff and the customers. If one of those three things isn’t working, (the restaurant) isn’t working.”
Konstantopoulos, who has run Bill’s Place for 40 years, said he plans to remain loyal to the restaurant and the community for the rest of his life and is confident his son, who works at the restaurant, will continue to run it as he has done so far.
But just because the restaurant celebrates the past doesn’t mean Konstantopoulos isn’t looking to the future. In late July, he said, Bill’s Place installed a new chicken frying machine that makes the chicken “much, much, much, much better” than before.
Overall, he said, Bill’s Place owes its continued success to the same community that helped the restaurant survive the move two decades ago.
“No question, it hasn’t been easy. Lots of problems, difficulties, but the support of the community makes my life a lot easier,” Konstantopoulos said of the four decades he’s run the restaurant. “I think customers today have the choice to go somewhere else, but they choose me. That makes me feel good. It makes me feel responsible. It makes me feel obligated to serve them. And I thank them. Without them, nothing would be possible.”
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