After running bars and restaurants in Champaign-Urbana for two decades, George Dries was ready for a change.

He still wanted to be in the food business, but he didn't want to manage a restaurant seven days a week anymore.

Dries is the man behind the new barbecue stand on South Neil Street in Champaign.

"I saw a need for good barbecue in this town," he said.

In January, Dries sold Chief's bar in Champaign and Geo's Chill and Grill in Urbana in order to launch BoBo's Barbecue, at the old IRE motorcycle shop building, 1414 S. Neil St., C.

He cooks up ribs, briskets, pulled pork, Polish dogs and other meats at the stand and for fundraising and catering events. Sides include Texas-style baked beans, corn, red beans and rice and potato salad.

Dries smokes the meat using hickory and applewood, and he describes his barbecue sauce as more sweet than spicy.

He's there 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday, and you can expect him to be cooking on football game days. He'll operate the stand through December, then reopen in April.

And he has no plans to open a barbecue restaurant in the future.

"This is all I want to do," he said.

More fast-food news

After moving out of his leased space at 1806 W. Bradley Ave., C, the owner of Windy City Express, a fast-food restaurant that sold Chicago-style dogs and other sandwiches, has purchased the former Wendy's building in Urbana.

Joseph Adi is planning to completely renovate what used to be a Wendy's restaurant at 410 N. Race St.

He purchased the building for $200,000 from Louisville Realty Corp. of St. Louis late last month.

The building has been vacant since Wendy's closed in September 2006.

Adi has been busy cleaning the building, and he plans to add a new kitchen, new paint – new everything, he said.

"We're starting from scratch. Everything will be brand new," he said.

Adi said he wants to keep the drive-through on the north side of the building and hopes to work with the city of Urbana on addressing some of the challenges of the building site at the southeast corner of Race Street and University Avenue. When the building was a Wendy's, it was not uncommon for backups to occur in the drive-through lane because of its location, its short length and the traffic flow in and out of the parking lot south and east of the building.

Hotel updates

The Comfort Suites at 2001 N. Lincoln Ave., U, is now open.

The Champaign-Urbana area has had a Comfort Inn at 305 W. Marketview Drive, C, but this is the first Comfort Suites for the area, said the hotel's general manager, Amanda Faust.

The difference is all the rooms in the Comfort Suites are suites, meaning they come with microwaves, minifridges and pullout couches, she said.

The hotel has 86 rooms, including two hot-tub suites, an indoor pool, fitness center and business center. Internet access is free, and so is breakfast.

Speaking of hotels, the Courtyard by Marriott, at 1811 Moreland Blvd., C, recently remodeled all its rooms. The hotel, about 15 years old, basically gutted all 78 rooms, said sales coordinator Serge Docherty. Among the new features are minifridges in the rooms, granite countertops and new bedding. The hotel's lobby is also scheduled to be remodeled early next year.

Attention: Freshmen

Target is planning to bus members of the University of Illinois Class of 2013 to the Champaign store, 2102 N. Prospect Ave., for a nighttime shopping event later this month.

A special Target express bus will pick up UI freshmen from locations around campus on Saturday, Aug. 29, and take them to the store, where they can shop from 10:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m.

The store will have a DJ, hold games and offer prizes, snacks, drinks and gift bags.

In coming weeks, the store's "brand ambassadors" will be handing out fliers and "teasing" out news of the event to freshmen as they move to campus, said a Target media spokeswoman.

The event is open only to UI freshmen. All other bargain hunters will have to shop at the store during its regular hours.

New Web site

Craig Spencer of Mahomet recently reworked his reference page for central Illinois, www.illinicountry.com.

"We have so many great local Web sites in the area, but sometimes it's hard to find them," Spencer said.

He built the site about a year ago and decided to expand it to include central Illinois links.

"I'm a big Illini fan, and I wanted to try and get everything together" that has to do with the Illini and central Illinois, said Spencer, who manages a college apparel store in Forsyth.

Are you opening a new business or changing an existing business? Christine des Garennes can be reached by phone at 351-5388 or 800-252-3346; by e-mail at cgarenne@news-gazette.com; or by regular mail at The News-Gazette, c/o It's Your Business column, P.O. Box 677, Champaign, IL 61824-0677