The Italian restaurant Buttitta's Famiglia Ristorante is gearing up to open this week.

Located in the former Jillian's restaurant and entertainment center, 1201 S. Neil St., C, Buttitta's will feature southern Italian cuisine, said Buttitta's chef Jake Sanders.

The restaurant's owners are John and Vicky Buttitta, formerly of Dom's Patio Villa in Champaign, which closed at the end of 2007 after more than 40 years in the restaurant business.

John Buttitta's father, Dom Buttitta, founded Dom's. A sign from Dom's hangs near the entrance to the patio of the new restaurant.

Buttitta's restaurant is much larger than the old Dom's, with seating for about 250 people. Murals of Italian villages and the Tuscan countryside have been painted on some walls. Sofas, high-back chairs and coffee tables decorate the lounge area. A piano will also be featured.

The kitchen itself is new and much larger than the one previously in Jillian's, Sanders said. Diners will be able to see the pizza kitchen.

The menu will include items from the previous restaurant, such as Chicken a la Dom, a breaded chicken dish, but also new entrees, including "gourmet pizzas, steaks, seafood and new twists on pastas," Sanders said.

A brand-new bar with a glass top has been installed, and they're planning to serve plenty of specialty beers.

The restaurant will be open for lunch from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday and for dinner from 5 to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday. On Friday and Saturday, it will be open from 5 to 11 p.m.

Disaster preparedness

Matthew Brown of Urbana has launched a new business called Family Shield in which he will work with families to prepare disaster plans and survival kits.

Whether it's a tornado or the power going out for several days, Brown will help families plan for natural or man-made disasters, he said.

"My services are intended to be tailored to each individual family," said Brown, who has worked in the emergency response industry, including as a shelter manager following Hurricane Katrina.

"I've been to several other large-scale disasters and have seen the effects on communities and individual families," Brown said. He said he saw a need for families to be more prepared.

Brown will make disaster-preparedness kits for families or teach families how to build one themselves. He will work with families in Champaign-Urbana, east to Danville, west to Springfield, northwest to Bloomington and south to the Charleston-Mattoon area. Brown can be reached at familyshield@comcast.com.

Prom dresses for sale

The High School of St. Thomas More will host a dress sale at Urbana's Lincoln Square Village.

The sale will be 6 to 9 p.m. on Friday and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday in the former cosmetology school space on the west side of the indoor mall.

More than 200 lightly used prom and semiformal dresses will be for sale. The money raised from the sale will benefit St. Thomas More's music and drama boosters club and Mahomet-Seymour High School, which will also be selling dresses at the event.

A range of sizes are available, and a few shoes and purses also will be for sale.

New location

American Eagle Auto Glass has moved from Urbana to Champaign. The new address is 706 W. Bloomington Road, Suite 102.

Prior to the move, the business rented space in Arrow Glass' former location on North Cunningham Avenue.

"We felt we needed our own place in town," said Wade Adams, the company's vice president.

The location affords the business two areas to work on cars, plus office space.

The company works on auto glass replacements, repairs of chips in windshields, door glass regulators, farm and construction equipment, motor homes and more.

The shop is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and can be reached at 351-0900. Staff members also are able to work on site, weather permitting.

Truck shop

Industrial Fleet Service is a new mechanic's shop catering to medium- to heavy-duty trucks.

The business works on gas and diesel trucks, freightliners, semis and more. The shop is in north Urbana at 1306 E. Triumph Drive, north of Farm & Fleet. It's open 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to noon Saturdays. The business can be reached at 344-6080.

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.