Another Highland Park Restaurant Closes

First it was Moderno. Then it was Royce. Now, it's gone. The John des Rosiers' restaurant in Renaissance Place has closed.

Only a few months after opening, Royce Restaurant in Highland Park has closed, according to an email from chef John des Rosiers sent on Monday. Get local news in a daily email from Patch. It's like getting a free newspaper. Learn more.  Rosiers helmed the restaurant, which began as a chef-driven Italian restaurant called Moderno last year. The space closed at the end of 2012 and reopened in January of this year as a classic American restaurant that focused on locally grown organic and sustainable ingredients. "We built a really good restaurant with Moderno, and we were really proud of it," des Rosiers said, "but it wasn't the right thing for Highland Park." It seems like Royce wasn't right, either. The restaurant got solid praise during…

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North Shore Foodie Finds

Inovasi Owner Talks New Highland Park Restaurant

John des Rosiers took a break from overseeing the transformation of Highland Park's Moderno into the American-styled Royce to explain what he envisions for the restaurant.

Over the sounds of drilling, moving wood and shuffling feet, John des Rosiers is explaining what's next for his Highland Park restaurant. The owner of Inovasi in Lake Bluff and Moderno in Renaissance Place in downtown Highland Park decided recently to close Moderno, an upscale Italian restaurant, and reopen it as a more approachable, family-friendly spot serving American cuisine. "We built a really good restaurant with Moderno, and we were really proud of it," Rosiers said, "but it wasn't the right thing for Highland Park." Moderno, the modern Italian restaurant that opened in Renaissance Place in April, closed on Dec. 22. It will reopen Jan. 10 as Royce, a chef-driven casual restaurant, with a reasonably priced menu that will include …

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Inovasi Changes Dinner Menu, Opens for Lunch

The Lake Bluff restaurant offers extremely creative dishes made with local ingredients.

Inovasi means Innovation in Indonesian, and adapting and changing the menu has been important to owner and executive chef John des Rosiers since the restaurant opened three years ago. “We're always changing to make ourselves better,” des Rosiers said. Those changes came rapid fire last month, with Inovasi beginning lunch service July 23. The restaurant had offered lunch when it first opened, but stopped in August, 2011, because it was too costly and didn’t allow enough time to train their staff. But when Noodle Bar closed, des Rosiers saw demand build. “There's no place in town to get lunch anymore,” he said. The menu is totally different from the dinner selections, offering sandwiches, salads, soups and small entrees meant to get diners …

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