Tasty Bite Gyros Beef Hotdogs Burgers Is So Good It's Expanding From Minooka To Channahon: Details Revealed

CHANNAHON, IL — The village of Channahon is growing and that means more mouths to feed in the community. To satisfy those lunch and dinnertime food cravings, Emre Kok, the popular owner of the Tasty Bite restaurant on Mondamin Street in Minooka, is adding a second location. He's coming to Channahon and his new restaurant will contain a drive-thru.

According to village officials, the Channahon village board approved a rezoning and special use permit for Tasty Bite Restaurant at Monday's meeting. The proposed Tasty Bite drive-thru restaurant will go at 24710 West Eames Street — it's the land across the street from the new Great American Bagel restaurant along Route 6.

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In a related matter, the village board also approved rezoning and a special use permit for Carroll Speed Development. The approval was granted for a proposed 12,000-square-foot retail building and ancillary detailing operation at 24770 West Eames Street — the same mailing address as where the new Channahon Tasty Bite will be built in the coming months.

Tasty Bite opened in Minooka back in 2004.

Although there had been a similar sounding restaurant in Joliet on West Jefferson Street called Tastee Bites, the Minooka restaurant was never affiliated with it.

In a 2024 feature story, Joliet Patch reported that the Tasty Bite in Minooka does not have a drive-thru window. Customers order inside the restaurant, where there is plenty of seating. On the other hand, many of the customers prefer takeout. During the 2024 interview, Kok, the owner, said he was proud that Tasty Bite had made it for 20 years as a standalone, locally owned and operated restaurant. Originally from Turkey, Kok moved to Minooka as a teenager and graduated from Minooka Community High School.

When he arrived in the U.S., he didn't speak the English language. Determined to achieve the American dream, Kok found work as a dishwasher at the Tasty Bite.

"I started here in 2011," Kok pointed out.

He worked hard and became fluent in English. He rose through the ranks, becoming the restaurant store manager and, finally, owner of Tasty Bite restaurant in 2016.

He has been the Tasty Bite owner for 10 years and counting. Today, Kok speaks fluent English and owns a house in nearby Channahon. He said his friends who own the Minooka Collision business have been a great source of inspiration for him to reach the American dream as a small business owner.

"You can be a small business to survive. You don't have to be a multi-million dollar company," Kok said. "We've been through the recession in the 2000s and then Covid. With everything that has happened in the last two decades, Tasty Bite was able to survive."