Petey’s Bungalow Restaurant and Lounge will serve its final customers Oct. 15 after a 63-year run in Oak Lawn, the restaurant has announced.
The restaurant, on its Facebook page, said the decision by owner Petey Kattos to retire comes after the death last year of his wife, Mary, with whom he had worked “side by side daily achieving their aspirations.”
“Reflecting on the countless memories and friendships made in the past 63 years of serving our community, it is with mixed emotions that Petey announces his retirement and the difficult and heartfelt decision to close Petey’s Bungalow,” the post says.
The restaurant, 4401 95th St., opened in 1961. This past January, Kattos made the decision to close Petey’s II at the southwest corner of La Grange Road and 159th Street in Orland Park. That location had operated since 1969.
“From humble beginnings to becoming a cherished local, family run business, we have been privileged to serve generations of families and our community,” Petey’s said of the Oak Lawn closing. “We witnessed the growth of our community and surrounding areas and successfully navigated through changing times, challenges, a pandemic, all while staying true to our core values and supper club dining concept.”
“We have achieved a place in Oak Lawn’s history,” the restaurant said in the closing announcement.
Petey’s said the decision “was not made lightly and comes at a time when we celebrate the achievements and milestones which shaped Bungalow’s legacy.”
“Mary and I lived the American dream,” Petey Kattos said. “As time passes, you finally realize when it’s time to end a chapter.”
The restaurant said it will continue to honor gift certificates, and that “as of now” the last day of business will be Oct. 15.
On the restaurant’s Facebook page, Oak Lawn Mayor Terry Vorderer said the closing of Petey’s “is a major loss not only for Oak Lawn but for me.”
Vorderer said he has “enjoyed hundreds of fine meals” at Petey’s over the years and called Kattos the “hardest working man I know.”
Petey”s II, a longtime restaurant in Orland Park, closed earlier this year. (Mike Nolan / Daily Southtown)
Born on the Greek island of Khíos in the middle of the Aegean Sea, Petey Kattos emigrated to America in the late 1950s and worked as a cook at an Italian restaurant on Chicago’s Southwest Side, according to a 2017 profile in the Daily Southtown of the restaurant and Kattos.
He met his wife while taking the train into Chicago for English classes, and Mary Kattos took on management duties at the new Orland Park outpost while her husband continued to oversee the Petey’s Bungalow location, according to the profile.
