Chicago Street Pub's Megan's Lunch: Ferak Food Review

JOLIET, IL - During the past year, several new restaurants and drinking establishments have sprouted up in downtown Joliet. They're all still in business, but a couple of them stopped serving daily lunch. I think that's because it's hard to compete with success. It's hard to compete with the Chicago Street Pub.

Thursday marked the first time I stopped here for lunch.

During daytime, whenever I walk past the place on North Chicago Street, there's always people walking in and walking out. All day long, it seems.

So I needed to find out what's so special about the Chicago Street Pub's food.

The place opens at 11 a.m. I got there around 11:30 a.m. and knew what I wanted. A couple of people had told me that the "Megan's Lunch" special is the way to go.

The Megan's Lunch consists of smoke pulled pork with mozzarella cheese that comes on a pretzel roll.

"Served with a handful of fries and two jalapeño cream cheese pretzel bites. No veggies, just like Megan would eat it," the menu reads.

I now understand why it's a huge favorite.

And at $8.50, it's reasonably priced. And it's definitely a Joliet original.

In fact, Chicago Street Pub has plenty of tasty selections, daily lunch specials and their prices for lunch are not out of this world for Joliet and Will County.

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By noon on Thursday, Chicago Street Pub was packed.

Several people were sitting at the bar and nearly all the tables inside the pub were filled. The crowd consisted of several lawyers, several construction workers and a few retired people.

There was a nice selection of music playing softly in the background, songs from Neil Young, Steely Dan and eventually, Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A."

My food, including my fries, was nice and hot. My food came out of the kitchen in no more than 10 minutes.

My table service was excellent. My server, Kerry, kept stopping by asking about refills for my RC Cola.

So there you go. Now I know why so many people at the Will County Courthouse rave about the "Megan's Lunch" special.

"We have the best pub food in town," the Chicago Street Pub's website reads.

Chicago Street Pub won me over.

Next time, I think I'll go with the fish and chips.