LivLive Ep. 0000024 - Eric Schlickman

In Episode 24 of LivLive, Dave sits down with Eric Schlickman — an architect-turned-hospitality operator who’s helped reshape downtown Wheaton, IL through a growing family of restaurants and concepts.Dave and Eric go back to their early architecture years together (including the 2008-era international work through Goettsch), before digging into Eric’s pivot: from architecture school at Kansas and the accountability of Studio 804, to realizing he wasn’t drawn to “architecture as drawings,” but to creating places where people connect — and where the experience actually has to work day after day.Eric tells the origin story of buying Shane’s Deli in 2018 (knowing “nothing about restaurants”), learning business fundamentals behind the register, and then taking the bigger leap: raising roughly $1M to buy and renovate a former gas station into 302 Wheaton, pitched first as a community hub (craft beer and burgers came after).From there, the episode becomes a tour of Eric’s Wheaton ecosystem and the intentionality behind each concept:302 Wheaton (and 302 South) built around young familiesSubourban, a semi-private cocktail bar / speakeasyDough and the Backyard, a pizza sports bar + event spaceThe Guild, a bookstore + café + bar + bistro (layered into the same building as Subourban)They close with what Eric wants next: a small hotel concept layered above the existing building — and why hospitality, at its best, is architecture that never stops being tested.