Tropical Smoothie Cafe opening its first Kendall County location

Plans to locate a Tropical Smoothie Cafe at the southwest corner of Route 30 and Orchard Road in Montgomery are moving forward.

In a unanimous vote Monday evening, Oct. 10, the Village Board voted to accept the village Planning and Zoning Commission’s favorable recommendation in support of a special use amendment that would allow the cafe developers to install a customer drive-thru lane on the north end of the building at 2001 Orchard Road.

The Village Board also agreed to place a final ballot on the amendment on the consent agenda for their next meeting set for Oct. 24.

Sonya Abt, the village’s community development director, told board members that another existing tenant in the building, AT&T, is downsizing its space, which has freed up room for the cafe at the north end of the building.

Abt said the developers requested the amendment since the original development agreement for the retail building did not allow any drive-thru windows on the building’s facades that face either Orchard Road or Route 30.

The amendment, if passed by the Village Board, will allow the developers to install a drive-thru window on the building’s north wall facing Route 30 with enough room in the drive-thru lane for two vehicle stacking spaces.

Abt said that village ordinance requires restaurant drive thrus to have six vehicle stacking spaces, but the developers do not expect the proposed drive thru with its reduced number of stacking spaces will pose a problem.

Abt said that cafe staff will instruct customers with larger orders to park their vehicles in the adjoining parking lot and their orders will be brought to their vehicles.

The Tropical Smoothie Cafe would be the first to locate in Kendall County. The franchise restaurant already operates cafes throughout the Chicago suburbs, including in Aurora and Geneva.

In addition to smoothies, the cafe offers flatbreads, wraps, quesadillas, salads and sandwiches.