Hunter's co-owners shut down Rock Island icon

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By Doug Schorpp | Monday, March 10, 2008 |

Hopefully, for co-owner Ray McDevitt, Hunter’s Club has another life in it.

The Rock Island bar/restaurant, which opened in 1931 as a speakeasy, has closed, just a couple of months after McDevitt and co-owner Mark Polaschek shut down the restaurant and added package liquor and a tobacco outlet.

Hunter’s, at 2107 4th Ave., was famous for its big hamburgers. But Polaschek said in late December that the restaurant has not been profitable.

That move came after the co-owners said they spent $500,000 remodeling the premises last year, including a new kitchen and mechanical equipment, a brighter interior with more seating and a refurbished mahogany bar, oak tables, artwork and other original fixtures.

Polaschek said the project updated the tavern while preserving its atmosphere. Hunter’s closed in August 2006 when the previous operator, who had been buying it on contract from Polaschek, shut down the business after its liquor license was suspended. It reopened under Polaschek’s management on Dec. 29, 2006.

McDevitt, a real estate agent for Ruhl & Ruhl, said the business closed about two weeks ago and has been on the market for about a week. He is the selling agent along with John Ruhl, McDevitt said.

“My partner tried to do something with a little grocery or cigarette thing, and it didn’t take off,” McDevitt said of Polaschek. “So, she’s for sale. I just don’t have the time to go over here and run a bar/restaurant.”

He said it was a mistake for the restaurant portion of the business to close, but with the rising costs of food, “we weren’t making any money.”

“You can get it for a bargain price: the business and building for $349,000 and that’s after we probably put in a half-million into it,” McDevitt said Tuesday. “Hopefully, somebody will take it. It is a nice building. A lot has been done for it.

“I have a couple of (potential buyers) working on their numbers. I don’t think it is going to be around long. Somebody could make a go of it. Hopefully, we can find somebody to get it back to where it should be, an icon in Rock Island.”

The building had been a grocery store until the Hunter family began operating a tavern in it around the time of World War I, Polaschek said.

The establishment received its Illinois state liquor license in 1933.

Over the years, Hunter’s became a jazz mecca. In the 1970s, the original owner’s son, Bill Hunter, helped his mother run the business and frequently played the piano.

Doug Schorpp can be contacted at (563) 383-2292 or dschorpp@qctimes.com.