Angie's Pancake House Makes Breakfast Until 10 At Night: Owner

JOLIET, IL — Mario De La Torre said he is officially passing the torch in 2024. He is retiring as the owner of Angie's Pancake House and his second restaurant, Angie's Mexican Restaurant, that shares the same building at 1119 Essington Road. But before the Joliet restaurant owner leaves for good, he is putting the final touches on his Angie's Pancake House menu, and he's adding a new sign, so everyone knows that Angie's is two distinct restaurants inside the same location.

And one of the biggest selling points, according to De La Torre, is spreading the word that customers can still enjoy the Angie's Pancake breakfast menu even late at night.

While Essington Road is one of the busiest corridors in Joliet, there are only three locally owned sit-down restaurants that focus on breakfast cuisine. One is the Great American Bagel at 1101 Essington, another is the Rosemary Cafe at 1730 Essington, and the third is Angie's Pancake House.

"Nobody serves breakfast after 3 o'clock," De La Torre explained. "I get a lot of customers for breakfast at night. All you've got to do is ask for the breakfast menu."

For several years, De La Torre owned and operated Loco's Mexican Restaurant at the same spot. Over the past two years, he has transitioned toward offering more American food, and that's when he unveiled Angie's Pancake House.

According to De La Torre: Angie's Pancake House stays open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day.

"And serving breakfast until 10 o'clock at night," De La Torre emphasized. "So they can get breakfast at 9 or 10 at night."

For customers in the mood for Mexican cuisine or the half-price margaritas, Angie's Mexican Restaurant has that taken care of.

The Angie's Mexican Restaurant is open from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and until 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.

De La Torre said he wants to spread the word that Angie's Mexican Restaurant features half-price margaritas on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.

"And $2 mimosas on Saturday and Sunday," De La Torre pointed out.

Meanwhile, one of America's favorite breakfast items, the hash browns, has undergone a dramatic transformation at Angie's Pancake House, its owner revealed.

About four months ago, Angie's began serving homemade hash browns, and they have become a tremendous hit with the breakfast crowd, De La Torre said proudly.

"People like it better," he said. "Years ago, the Greek restaurants would boil them, peel them and shred them, then they stopped doing that, so we went back to the old way. Homemade hash browns."

So, with Angie's Pancake House offering to serve breakfast until 10 p.m. daily, and the Angie's Mexican Restaurant offering half-priced margaritas four days a week, can someone, for example, order a half-price margarita and order a big breakfast at the same time?

"Yes," De La Torre responded.

So there you go, a margarita on the rocks with your scrambled eggs and bacon. How does that sound?

According to the sign below, Angie's Pancake House offers a $12 big breakfast: two eggs any style, bacon, sausage links and ham with hash browns, toast or pancakes.

As for 2024, De La Torre is looking forward to handing off the management of his Joliet west-side restaurant to his daughter, Mariana, and his son, Mario. His son will operate the Mexican restaurant, while his daughter will run Angie's Pancake House.

Angie's is named after Mario's wife.

"So one of them will run the breakfast place and the other will run the Mexican restaurant," he said.

De La Torre, who is in his 60s, said he has worked in the restaurant industry for 47 years. For new customers, he recommends they consider ordering the biscuits and gravy.

"And our skillets are pretty good," he remarked. "We sell a lot of skillets and omelets. And we only use skirt steak for our tacos and burritos. We only use the charbroiled skirt steak for all the plates. We've got the best skillets in town because we use the homemade hash browns, and it makes a difference when you eat them."

Two more things: De La Torre said he is installing a new business sign for Angie's Mexican Restaurant, and it should arrive in the coming weeks.

A temporary sign banner is in place for now.

Also, like most area restaurants, Angie's will be closed on Thanksgiving, and it's back open for business on Friday morning.