Joey's Red Hots To Open On Plainfield Road

CREST HILL, IL — Less than two months after the Sindibad Mediterranean Grill restaurant closed at 2228 Plainfield Road, a Joey's Red Hots will be filling the vacancy in the coming months.

"I love the location," Joey's restaurant owner Anthony Nardo told Joliet Patch's editor. "It's a free-standing building, not a commercial strip mall. We're pursuing a drive-thru. I love the traffic over there, especially on Plainfield Road."

Crest Hill will mark the fifth restaurant for Joey's. All are in the Chicago area.

Joey's anticipates its Crest Hill restaurant will open in April. The building needs renovations and new signage.

Besides Orland Park, there's a Joey's in Chicago's Morgan Park area. Joey's has a restaurant in Riverdale and in July, Joey's expanded to New Lenox.

The Joey's Orland Park Facebook page has more than 44,000 followers alone. Combined, the four existing Joey's Facebook pages have more than 100,000 followers, Nardo told Patch.

The Orland Park Joey's has 1,247 Google Reviews and 4.6 stars out of 5 stars. A man named Harold posted a 5-star review last month, offering the following comments: "I was told about Joey's by a customer, so I looked them up when I was nearby and I was not disappointed. I ordered an Italian Beef with fries. It was very good! The fries were great even without ketchup. Can't wait to go back and try other items."

The restaurants in New Lenox and Orland Park offer Italian cuisine and pizza, but the building in Crest Hill is more conducive to a traditional Joey's Red Hots, its owner said.

The Crest Hill restaurant menu will focus on Chicago style hotdogs, Maxwell Street Polish as well as Chicago sandwiches. Joey's offers a Philly sandwich and gyros plates.

Joey's uses Vienna Beef.

Nardo stressed that Joey's focuses on affordable family pricing, and the prices at all of its restaurants are the same.

"We will still carry our homemade Italian ice," he said of the Plainfield Road location.

These days, Joey's also operates its own catering department as well as five mobile food trucks, Nardo told Joliet Patch. The catering trucks have become popular with residents around Joliet, Plainfield and Shorewood, he said.

Joey's has been looking to expand into the Joliet area, and the recent closure of the Sindibad Mediterranean Grill provided a great opportunity, Nardo said.

"It's dead, and we're basically going to bring it back to life," Nardo said of 2228 Plainfield Road. "It needs to be revived. That's good for us, for Crest Hill and for the community."

To learn more about Joey's Red Hots including the menu, visit its website here.

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