Chick-fil-A Coming To Former Joliet Steak 'n Shake Location

JOLIET, IL — The Joliet City Council is slated to vote on a drive-thru permit for a new Chick-fil-A location slated to replace the shuttered Steak 'n Shake restaurant at 201 N. Larkin Ave. It would become the city's second Chick-fil-A restaurant.

The drive-thru request is on the agenda for Tuesday night's city council meeting. Chick-fil-A is proposing to demolish the existing Steak 'n Shake building and parking lot and redevelop the site with a new, 5,000-square-foot freestanding restaurant and dual drive-thru lanes, plus an outdoor seating area and parking lot.

The chain, known for its chicken sandwiches, would replace the Larkin Avenue Steak 'n Shake restaurant, which closed for the third time after last reopening in 2022. That location had closed in 2019 before reopening in early 2021, only to close again. It reopened again in August 2022 as a drive-thru and curbside pickup only location, but that also didn't last.

There is still a Steak 'n Shake restaurant in Joliet near the Louis Joliet Mall on Plainfield Road that remains open — coincidentally, in the same Joliet Commons shopping center that houses the city's first Chick-fil-A restaurant.

That Joliet Chick-fil-A opened in January 2021 after the former Lone Star restaurant at the site was bulldozed. It also has a restaurant and a double drive-thru.

Chick-fil-A also has plans to bulldoze another Steak 'n Shake restaurant — this one in nearby Frankfort — and build a new location here. That proposal was approved by Frankfort trustees in July.

Work on the new Joliet restaurant is expected to start next spring, with an opening date in late summer 2025, WJOL reported.