Chicken-N-Spice Closing Next Week: Ken And Pat Reimer Retiring

JOLIET, IL — Joliet's Chicken-N-Spice restaurant is closing for good next week after 42 years of business. On Sept. 14, the restaurant will have a celebration from 2 to 4 p.m. that will include "cake and camaraderie."

"Chicken will be flowing," promised owner Pat Reimer. "Anybody that wants to come, we'll welcome. We may run out of cake, but that's OK."

Reimer, who turns 78 next week, and her husband, Ken, 81, are retiring. They lease the restaurant property from Joliet Junior College. The restaurant will be torn down for additional parking spaces, a plan that's been in the works for several years.

"All of our employees have agreed to stay on until we close," Pat Reimer told Joliet Patch during a Labor Day interview at her restaurant.

On Monday, Chicken-N-Spice was packed over the lunch hour, including several Joliet police officers. The Joliet Police Department has always done an outstanding job of patronizing Chicken-N-Spice, Reimer said.

The restaurant will remain open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. for the next eight days.

Come Sept. 15, it will close forever.

Reimer said that downtown Joliet is very safe nowadays, compared to what it was like several decades ago.

"Don't let the rumors rule you," Reimer said.

"My deepest thank you to Joliet," Reimer said. "We have been so blessed. Joliet has been very good to us, and we loved our journey here. It is absolutely time for our retirement.

"We really enjoyed our stay in downtown Joliet, and we tried to make it a little bit better."

Reimer said she and her husband have been contemplating their retirement for some time. She said the restaurant building was built in the 1960s as a Jack in the Box, and it's in need of major plumbing, electrical and other repairs.

"The timing is right," she said Monday.

She fully expects Joliet Junior College will bulldoze the Chicken-N-Spice. She said the college continues to grow, so it makes sense for it to demolish the restaurant for more parking.

Joliet Junior College just built a new parking lot this summer near the corner of Webster and Ottawa Street, closer to the Joliet Renaissance Center.

"They will not use it for any other purpose than a parking lot, and their college is growing fast, so fast," she said.

With the pending closure taking place in downtown Joliet, Reimer said that the businessmen who opened the Chicken-N-Spice in Shorewood and Orland Hills in recent years are expecting to open a third Chicken-N-Spice in the near future in New Lenox.

That would leave the city of Joliet without a Chicken-N-Spice for the foreseeable future.

On Monday afternoon, New Lenox Mayor Tim Baldermann told Joliet Patch's editor that he was aware of discussions between Chicken-N-Spice and village economic development officials. The New Lenox mayor said it was his understanding that the site selection has not been finalized.

Still, Baldermann said that Chicken-N-Spice would be a welcome addition for New Lenox, if the franchise expands to his growing community in 2022.

"Chicken-N-Spice is very known in the area and people really like it," Baldermann told Patch. "We are certainly (wanting) to continue the conversations to see where they would be a good fit."

News of the downtown Joliet Chicken-N-Spice closing was first reported by Bob Hernandez, who made the announcement on Labor Day to his Facebook followers.

According to its website, the downtown Joliet Chicken-N-Spice was established in 1979. "Chicken-N-Spice has been serving fried chicken, Jo-Jos, spicy race and rich buttermilk biscuits for over 30 years."

The closure only affects the Joliet location. The Shorewood and Orland Hills locations will remain open.