(Photo by Matt Dayhoff/Peoria Journal Star)
The Peoria, Ill. club, which came under new ownership two years ago, has opened the new dining venue after surveying residents of the surrounding subdivision. “Two of the major things they [asked for] were pizza and a more upbeat, fun atmosphere, to bring the community back and give them somewhere to hang out,” says General Manager Matt Rogers. The club also hopes it will help to lure new golfers. “We’re trying to create experiences that aren’t available at other clubs in the area,” Rogers says.
There’s going to be a whole lot more slicing going on at WeaverRidge Golf Club in Peoria, Ill., the Peoria Journal Star reported. And not just on its golf course.
A restaurant that offers pizza, pasta, chicken wings and a sports-bar atmosphere is opening in the WeaverRidge clubhouse and will be called “Slice,” the Journal Star reported. But it won’t be restricted to, or just have meaning, for golfers, according to Matt Rogers, the club’s General Manager.
Located in a former Sunday-brunch area of the clubhouse, Slice is a response to requests from residents in the WeaverRidge subdivision, Rogers told the Journal Star, where houses and condominiums coexist with the course that opened almost 25 years ago and is relatively isolated from the rest of the city.
In 2019, after current owners Jim and Carol Ring purchased the golf course (https://clubandresortbusiness.com/weaverridge-gc-sees-immediate-changes-following-sale/),Rogers invited WeaverRidge subdivision residents to a meeting, the Journal Star reported, and surveyed them about the facility.
“Two of the major things they were asking for were pizza and a more upbeat, fun atmosphere for them to gather, to bring the community back to WeaverRidge and give them somewhere to hang out,” Rogers said.
And Rogers didn’t have to look far for a blueprint to deliver what was being asked for, the Journal Star reported. He had planned a “Slice”-like eatery about five years ago for Metamora Fields Golf Club in Metamora, Ill., which is also owned by the Rings. But the opportunity to implement that venue never presented itself, he said.
“Slice” is based on Lil’ Mak’s, a restaurant that Rogers’ parents opened in 2008 in Manito, Ill, the Journal Star reported. Rich and Danita King then expanded Lil’ Mak’s to the nearby towns of Havana and Metamora before they closed them when they semi-retired to Alabama.
The Slice concept might yet still be brought to Metamora Fields, said Rogers, who is also that club’s General Manager.
The WeaverRidge version is intended in part to lure golfers from private clubs, he added. “[Those clubs] have swimming pools and tennis courts, but they don’t have anything like this,” Rogers said. “We’re trying to create experiences at our club that are not available at other clubs in the area.”
At WeaverRidge, Slice includes video gambling, a billiards table, electronic dartboards and golf simulators, and is designed to complement the dining area that surrounds the existing clubhouse bar, according to Rogers.
Rechristened The Ridge, that section features more formal dining and a premium menu, the Journal Star reported, and is open Wednesdays through Saturdays.
Slice is to be closed Mondays but open until midnight on weekends, the Journal Star reported.
While working on Slice for the better part of a year, Rogers said, improvements to the WeaverRidge golf course have also been made, even as a flood, drought and the coronavirus pandemic have impeded progress.
“We haven’t had the most favorable play so far since we purchased the place,” he acknowledge. But still, after an absence, Golfweek has restored WeaverRidge to its list of top public courses in Illinois (it’s ninth). And the course’s full return from noticeable shabbiness is to be completed sometime next summer, according to Rogers.
“When the owners purchased WeaverRidge, it was to save it for the city of Peoria, central Illinois, and specifically the homeowners who invested in WeaverRidge,” Rogers said. “We’re doing it as fast as we possibly can.”
Tell Us What You Think!
You must be logged in to post a comment.