Luke's Cruise In is no more

http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/elgin-courier-news/news/ct-ecn-lukes-car-shows-carpentersville-st-0512-20150512-story.html


A Carpentersville restaurant has pulled the plug on its Thursday night car shows, village officials said.

For the past few years, Luke's has been hosting the popular classic car shows during the warmer months at its 2 L W Besinger Drive location.

But what started out small has "overgrown what it was intended to be," said Police Chief Michael Kilbourne.

"We haven't had to pay attention until last year when it started to grow," Kilbourne said during a recent Village Board meeting. "I liken it to one of those cute little potbelly pigs. By the time they get to be three, four, five years old it's a 600-pound pig walking around your house. That's what we've got today. A 600-pound pig walking around at Meadowdale Mall on Thursday nights."

Kilbourne said the owners of Luke's, who sponsor the car shows along with The Chicago Garage, have been great at managing the events "when they could."

However, recently, police officials were notified that Luke's and The Chicago Garage became aware that a flash mob planned to assemble to coincide with the release of the movie "Furious Seven," during one of the car shows.

"Luke's came to us and said, 'We want some help, we want to shut this down,'" Kilbourne said.

In the meantime, Kilbourne said The Chicago Garage reached out through its website asking if the car shows should continue to be held at Luke's.

"The vote was 9-1 to leave Luke's," Kilbourne said.

Luke's representatives declined to comment.

Police officials have been out helping Luke's by patrolling the area to let people know the car show isn't happening anymore.

Trustees agreed it was time to put a stop to the Thursday night events.

"It isn't that I want to rain on anybody's parade," Trustee Pat Schultz said. "A lot of places have cruise nights and they're fun. There's no reason they shouldn't be."

But Schultz said there were so many cars during one of the recent Thursday night shows it was hard to get through that area.

"It just didn't look like it was a cruise night," she said. "I certainly don't want to see Luke's losing any revenue. However, I'm not even sure everybody was in there buying hot dogs."

Trustee Kevin Rehberg agreed a special permit is needed for such large events.

"They were getting around that ordinance and those stipulations such as insurance that needs to be carried because it did grow from a small gathering that didn't qualify for it into something that did," he said. "I don't want to classify it as something good or bad. It just transitioned into something that needed a permit."

Kilbourne said the restaurant owners acknowledged it was time to put a stop to the events.

"They've made a business decision," he said. "They realized it's gotten past the tipping point."

it was kind of out of control.

I told you guys this a month ago. Sometimes I know what I'm talking about

It was definitely not my type of scene but i knew a few guys who loved to go. Had to see it for myself and it was a crazy Time.

Was a lot better before the idiots starting taking over 2 years ago. When it was just the TCG guys it was real laid back

They were right to be concerned over the "Furious Seven flash mob". There's a scene in that movie where they drive a semi truck into a hot dog stand and it explodes but only after Vin Diesel jumps to safety while shooting two handguns.

Thanks, havent seen the movie yet, lol

If you are shooting with your feet, are they still called handguns?

funkpolice wrote:

If you are shooting with your feet, are they still called handguns?

He wasn't shooting with his feet. Those fast and furious movies are dead-on realistic and would never have something so preposterous.

Damn. I have only seen a few scenes from an Australian fan re-enactment video, and there was definitely foot shooting in that. Now that I think about it, there were only one or two cars. It was pretty much just foot shooting. weird.

bill

HiPwr wrote:

Those fast and furious movies are dead-on realistic and would never have something so preposterous.

You mean all I need is a couple of SRT's and I can drag a huge safe through the streets at high speeds? Imagine what you could drag around with a couple of Hellcats.