Restaurants & Bars
Area's Biggest Restaurant Stories In 2018
There were a lot of big restaurant stories this past year and not all were in Joliet.
JOLIET, IL - Some of the most memorable news stories of the year in the Joliet area concerned news about local restaurants. For the most part, restaurant articles that appeared in Patch during 2018 were overwhelmingly positive, but there were a couple of negative stories as well.
Here's a rundown of some of the noteworthy restaurant and dining articles that appeared in the Patch in 2018: (At the bottom of this article are many of the original Patch articles.)
January: On Joliet's far east side, Bernie's Jerk Kitchen opened on Manhattan Road near the former Certified Foods grocery store. There's a lot on this menu, not only does Bernie's boast a Caribbean flair, but the food is also influenced by Southern, Mexican and Italian cuisines. Side dishes include plaintains, sweet potatoes and lasagna. There's a special taco Tuesdays. Dinner specials also include ribs and catfish. The jerk chicken is outstanding.
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February:
Owner-operator Kevin Roberts, who is better known around Joliet as "The Rib Doctor" opened Chicago Style BBQ at 1215 North Broadway Street, just down the street from the Haunted Trails Family Amusement Park. Chicago Style BBQ has a large menu ranging from fried chicken, BBQ chicken, fried wings, pork, beef, turkey, ribs and rib tips. "Rib tips are the most popular item on the menu. Rib tips is probably 75 percent of the business," Roberts told Joliet Patch. The photo at the top of this article features several slabs of ribs from Chicago Style BBQ.
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March:
A great sign of economic revitalization happened in Joliet's Forest Park area. In late March, Alzada's opened at a previously shuttered building, 1023 Woodruff Road. Alzada's doubles as a convenient store and a carryout restaurant. There's cheese burgers, catfish steaks, chicken, small rib tips, large rib tips and chicken tenders."Everything is done fresh daily," Alzada's manager Annette Mathis told me. "Everything is good, but the ribs is the top seller."
June: The Applebee's at 2400 West Jefferson Street, near the Walmart, is no more. Applebee's representatives at the restaurant confirmed that the place closed. The national chain has closed a number of its restaurants around the country. The site on Plainfield Road still remains open. The Jefferson Street building is still sitting vacant as 2018 ends.
July: For the past 10 years, Traditions Restaurant Pub was a mainstay at Joliet's Inwood Park. But that tradition came to an abrupt end on Sunday, July 22. The restaurant and bar's lease with the Joliet Park District was up and "we mutually decided" to go in "separate directions," the park district told Patch. In August, it was revealed that the operators of the Dock Rotz Tavern in Minooka were chosen to occupy the restaurant space.
August: Probably the biggest failure on the Joliet restaurant scene happened in downtown Joliet. The Tin Roof Restaurant on North Chicago Street was abruptly renamed as the Kalypso. It was basically the same people from the Tin Roof running it."It's not a name change. It is a new restaurant," the restaurant managers told Patch. Kalypso was supposed to be nice, casual fine-dining and service at an affordable price. It was a complete disaster. By November, it was out of business. People downtown who ate at The Tin Roof told Joliet Patch the food was generally good but the time it took to get served was incredibly slow, particularly during lunch, and the place was notorious for screwing up orders when people came in a large group.
September: A legendary Joliet restaurant institution branched out and opened a second location, in Shorewood. The new Chicken-N-Spice is at Route 52 and Route 59 and it features a drive-thru window. The breast chunks and the delicious chicken will be the main draws for the Shorewood Chicken-N-Spice, the owners said, but the new restaurant will also feature a chicken salad croissant and several tasty desserts including strawberry shortcake, Patch reported.
On September 17, Catrinas Mex - Real Mexican Food - opened for business at the site of the once legendary Olde Keg pizza restaurant at the downtown corner of Jackson and Ottawa Streets. This important restaurant building had sat empty for nine long years."We are excited to step into this building that was very famous when it was a pizzeria ... we think that all the good energy and vibrations in this project, it's going to give us this good luck. My sister and me expect to have success," explained Amy Montiel.
October: After months of building renovations, K Ribs BBQ opened on North Chicago Street in downtown Joliet. "Korean-American Fusion Barbeque," the restaurant's website proclaims. This new Joliet restaurant was the brainchild of Dillon Kim, who operates an insurance agency at the building next door. "We have really high-quality ingredients," Kim said. "Our meat supplier, it's a top quality of meats."
Also in October, New Lenox celebrated the highly anticipated grand opening of the Cooper's Hawk Winery & Restaurant. The new Cooper's Hawk is located along Route 30 directly across the road from the Portillo's restaurant. From my October article: "Cooper's has created a modern, casual dining experience with warm hospitality in an inviting upscale setting ... Each dish is made fresh in our scratch kitchen, incorporating peak-of-season ingredients, and listed with a bin number to guide you to your selection's perfect wine match."
November: In January, Patch reported that the rundown and unsightly vacant Taco Bell building on West Jefferson Street was going to spring back to life and become a Beef Shack. The city of Joliet reviewed redevelopment plans at the start of 2018. In the summer, renovations were underway and in November, Beef Shack opened to much fanfare. What makes Beef Shack special? The answer is simple. Beef Shack is Home of the Cheezy Beef.
December: The Station One Smokehouse opened in Plainfield on Dec. 18. The central Texas-style barbeque restaurant is at the old firehouse in downtown Plainfield. Station One Smokehouse features a 4,200-pound wood-burning smoker, custom-built in Mesquite, Texas. Service will be fast-casual and customers can visit a carving station to have their meats sliced and served. The menu will feature sandwiches, homemade sides and sauces, and a variety of desserts.
It's an end of an era in Bolingbrook. Papa's Pizza Place has operated at the same location for almost 45 years but it will be closing its doors at 8 p.m. on Dec. 31, restaurant representatives told Patch earlier this month. It's at 253 North Schmidt Road.
Related Joliet Patch restaurant stories about the restaurants mentioned above:
Station One Smokehouse Opens In Plainfield
Images via John Ferak/Joliet Patch
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