Bernie's Jerk Kitchen Expands To Joliet's Black Road

JOLIET, IL — Bernie's Jerk Kitchen opened on the far east side of Joliet just up the road from Nowell Park in February 2018. One of the Joliet area's only jerk chicken restaurants now has more than 1,000 Facebook followers and 1,000 Facebook likes. And later this month, Bernie's will open its second location, at 2777 Black Road, the same business plaza as Barolo Ristorante.

The second Joliet restaurant site, though, will be drastically different from the one at 312 Manhattan Road. The Black Road restaurant will feature sit-down dining. It will also offer breakfast; hence the name Bernie's Jerk Kitchen & Waffles.

Bernie's is replacing D.A.'s Deli & Dining, an Orland Park-based restaurant that tried expanding into the Joliet market in July 2018. D.A.'s Deli specialized in the corned-beef sandwich, but only lasted at the Black Road site for a year.

Joliet Patch is more familiar with Bernie's Jerk chicken. It's a unique Jamaican cooking style that involves dry-rubbed chicken with a hot spice mix known as the Jamaican jerk spice.

The carryout-only restaurant on the east side was the subject of an October 2018 food column, headlined "Outstanding Jerk Chicken In Joliet: Ferak Food Column."

On Wednesday afternoon, Joliet Patch interviewed Bernie's owner, Joshua Betts. He is excited about opening the second site in Joliet.

The Black Road sit-down restaurant will give Bernie's Jerk Kitchen much greater visibility in the Joliet area, he stressed.

"A lot of people still don't know about us," he said.

For the record, when Joliet Patch visited the east side location to order lunch Wednesday, there were already six other customers waiting to get their carryout orders.

The Bernie's Jerk Kitchen on Manhattan Road, however, only handles carryout and catering orders. The Black Road restaurant will offer dine-in seating for customers who want to stay and eat their meals, rather than munch on their food inside their vehicle.

Betts also hopes the breakfast option is a hit with customers. He plans to offer seven or eight varieties of waffles for breakfast.

His goal is to be open for the week of Nov. 17 or the week of Nov. 24, he said Wednesday.

He also wants to keep the Manhattan Road location open even after the new Black Road restaurant opens. The east-side restaurant handles a lot of catering orders, he said. "We'll keep it and see how it goes," Betts said.

On Black Road, Bernie's Jerk Kitchen & Waffles plans to be open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 7 a.m. to midnight on Friday and Saturday, 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sunday. It will be closed Monday.