By Helen Karakoudas
Special to the Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — Another new business is transforming the North End Commons strip by the Main and Auburn streets roundabout.
By the fall, Tom McDonald, a Byron resident who owns two taverns in the Rockford area, plans to open The GOAT Pub and Grill at 1428 N. Main St. in the row of businesses that includes The Norwegian, Rooted and Wonderland Sweets, the West Side Show Room, Engine Studio, Stella & Notte, and Rockford Billiard Cafe, among others.
The space has been empty since early 2022 when North Main Bar, which had operated there for seven years, closed after code violations and loss of its liquor license.
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McDonald’s goal is to create a safe and welcoming gathering place for residents of the surrounding Signal Hill, North End Square, Edgewater and Churchill’s Grove neighborhoods.
“I want people to come in and meet with their neighbors, hang out for a few beers and have a cheeseburger or a salad — and just watch some sports and relax from the chaos of the world that we live in nowadays,” McDonald said Wednesday afternoon as he pointed to structural changes he’s making to update and enhance the interior.
From the city’s perspective, it’s the nonstructural changes McDonald brings that are most significant.
“Tom coming in is a good peace of mind for the city,” said Third Ward Alderman Chad Tuneberg, referring to what he called the space’s checkered past.
The Barn, the tavern that operated in the space until 2015, was the site of three undercover cocaine-related arrests in seven months, according to Rockford Register Star archives. Public safety issues remained a concern at North Main Bar, Tuneberg said.
“Enough so that word on the street in the surrounding neighborhoods was that this was not a place you wanted to go into,” Tuneberg said. “Tom has assured us The GOAT will be a whole different kind of establishment.”
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According to Tuneberg, McDonald has offered to have security there at certain times of night should people who had frequented the location for criminal reasons return.
McDonald is a full-time firefighter in Schaumburg. His schedule rotates from working a 24-hour shift to having 48 hours off. He and his wife, Michele, who have two children ages 10 and 8, own and manage The Post Sports Bar and Grill, at 119 S. Benton in downtown Winnebago, and Grant Park Tavern, at 3015 Kishwaukee St, on the south side of Rockford. At this location, McDonald has a five-year lease with two five-year options.
McDonald has done a lot of demo, including taking out the cooler at the center of the space and the bar counter that wrapped toward the cooler. Contractors coming in next will build replacement bar seating configured around the kitchen being added to the back right corner.
McDonald is keeping and restoring the mirrored and ornate back bar, a nostalgic touch he says helped make his decision to take on the makeover of a 1935 building. Throughout, he’ll be adding a dozen TV screens and says he will find a place for slot machines, which he is planning on bringing back.
The farm-themed wallpaper on the left wall? McDonald says he’s doing his best to save this bit of atmosphere that dates to the building’s decades as The Barn.
For those not familiar with the acronym in the pub’s name, GOAT stands for Greatest Of All Time. McDonald hopes to open The GOAT by late September, in time for Tour de North End, the business district’s annual bicycle festival and block party. But he acknowledges that with possible buildout delays related to the addition of a kitchen, the opening may be later in the fall.
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As the work progresses, McDonald is posting photos to The GOAT’s Facebook page, where he also will be announcing when he will be hiring to staff the pub. He plans to be open every day from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. and says the kitchen may be open as late as 10 p.m.
The GOAT is two doors down from Rockford Billiard Café and next to the former Altamore Ristorante, which closed in 2016 and remains empty.
McDonald’s makeover of 1428 N. Main is the fourth transformation in the last half decade of a building along the strip of businesses on the southwest quadrant of the roundabout.
In 2018, Emily Hurd and her husband, Mark Christensen, opened The Norwegian brunchpub after a three-year renovation of the two-story space at 1402 N. Main.
The floor above The Norwegian includes suites for Kufrin Ceramics, Moon Lab Rockford, Carrie Johnson Art Gallery, Owl’s Roost Farm, James Hogan Photography, and artists Amelia Simpson, Michele Underwood, Arlene Coffeen and Dawn DiVenti.
In 2019, Epic Jones opened West Side Show Room at 1414 N. Main. In 2021, Rooted opened at 1408 N. Main, a home goods and vintage furniture shop that includes Wonderland Sweets, a pastry and chocolate shop.
“I’m so excited to have a new business on our strip,” Emily Hurd said about The GOAT. “The more life we can bring to The North End, the better it will be for all of us. We’ve needed more restaurants in our neighborhood for a long time. Get set for block parties in our joined back alley.”
This article is by freelance journalist Helen Karakoudas. Email feedback to news@rockrivercurrent.com.