Squire on the Square restaurant in Woodstock: Opening in weeks after decades in the making

Woodstock recently welcomed Squire on the Square to the Old Courthouse building. But the eatery has been a dream of the proprietors for a long time.

Squire on the Square, which is scheduled to open within weeks, is a joint venture between Bob Karas of Karas Restaurant Group and the Linardos family. And though the Woodstock eatery is a brand-new venture, the two families have deep roots in the hospitality business and also have been friends for decades.

Bill and Tammy Linardos met while working at the Crystal Lake Village Squire. Karas was the best man at their wedding and while the two families are not blood relatives, they consider each other family.

Bill Linardos wrote in bio submitted to the Northwest Herald that he started working for the Karas Restaurant Group at Alexander’s in Elgin in the early 1990s before being transferred to the Crystal Lake Village Squire location as the general manager. Years later, the two families are coming together to own and operate the Squire on the Square, but it’s not the first time the families have explored going into the restaurant industry together.

According to a bio Karas wrote, he and Bill Linardos have always wanted to open a restaurant together. They came close to doing so in Algonquin many years ago, but the plans never came to fruition.

Bill Linardos said Karas and his uncle, George Karas, bought property that’s now the Algonquin Buona Beef, and were going to make it into a Village Squire. Linardos would have been the general manager at an Algonquin Village Squire. But a fire at the Crystal Lake location in the late 1990s derailed the plans.

Karas Restaurant Group also owns Rookies, a sports bar chain with locations in Crystal Lake and Huntley, among others, and Village Squire, which besides Crystal Lake has a McHenry County location in McHenry. The Linardos family owns Billy’s Beef Hot Dogs and More and The Grove, both of which are in Spring Grove.

Bill and Tammy Linardos have three children together, Sophia, Billy and Maria. Bill Linardos also has two children from a previous marriage, Alex Linardos and Krista Winn, the latter of whom was baptized by Karas, according to his bio.

Their ties run deep in the county. Billy and Sophia Linardos, both Crystal Lake Central High School graduates, will be managing partners at Squire on the Square. Their mother attended Crystal Lake South High.

In addition to their Spring Grove eateries, the Linardos family previously owned another restaurant, Sunset Grill, in the Antioch area. Tammy Linardos said the family bought the restaurant during the COVID-19 pandemic and sold it earlier this year, with the summer being a good time for them to sell.

Not long after the Linardos family sold Sunset Grill, Karas reached out about the opportunity in Woodstock. Bill and Tammy toured the place and “we just fell in love with it,” Linardos said.

Karas wrote in his bio that his father, Paul, and uncle George Karas, who were both immigrants from Greece, started the Village Squire in 1974. The Village Squire had a 50th anniversary celebration earlier this year.

As the Village Squire enters its 51st year, the proprietors are looking forward to Squire on the Square, but it’s not the only Village Squire offshoot in the works. Karas Restaurant Group is also launching another Village Squire offshoot, Squire Ale House, in Campton Hills.

Squire on the Square, which is the 17th restaurant in the Karas Restaurant Group, will offer many of the same dishes as its similarly named sister restaurants.

The menu will incorporate dishes from the Linardos family’s restaurants as well, including Asian nachos and ahi tuna wontons, which are on the menu at Sunset Grill. Some of the familiar dishes to Village Square clientele include saganaki, gyros, mai tais and free popcorn will be making an appearance on the menu as well.

Linardos said the Squire on the Square’s ownership is calling it “Squire with a twist.”

The Woodstock City Council voted to approve the Squire on the Square in August, several months after the abrupt closure of the Public House in the basement of the Old Courthouse. The City Council expressed their enthusiasm at the time and Mayor Mike Turner said: “They cannot be more excited to get going in the Courthouse. I mean it’s palpable when you are in the room with them.”

The proprietors share in the enthusiasm: “We are excited and feel honored as we begin this new chapter and look forward to serving the Woodstock community,” Bill Linardos wrote.

The restaurant is beginning to take shape, with swords, suits or armor and other items that fit the medieval motif and that might be familiar to customers at other Village Squire locations gracing the walls. Karas collects the armor that decorates the Squire walls.

“I really just acquire things as I go,” Karas said. He added sometimes people want to get rid of stuff and give it to him, while other times he’ll buy it or go to flea markers or ebay or give people a dinner in exchange for the items.

The lease for the space stipulates the restaurant has to open by Nov. 1, and Linardos said the eatery is planning to open by the end of October or early November.

“We can’t wait to get the doors open,” Linardos said.

In perhaps another full-circle moment, Linardos said he and George Karas had looked at the Old Courthouse in the early ’90s, and decades later, they’re opening a Squire offshoot in the space.

“Everything happens for a reason,” Linardos said.

Wrote Karas in his bio: “I’m happy to reunite with my longtime friend, Bill Linardos and his wonderful family to start this modern off shoot of the Village Squire.”