Joliet's Alzada's Opens Window For Carryout Amid Coronavirus

JOLIET, IL — One of the east side of Joliet's small business success stories, Alzada's, has opened a window on its building to serve carryout food during the new coronavirus outbreak. March marked Alzada's two-year anniversary at the corner of Draper Avenue and Woodruff Road in Joliet's Forest Park Neighborhood.

After Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced restaurants and bars would no longer be allowed to seat guests starting March 16 because of the health crisis, Alzada's closed for about a week. The owners then reopened by using one of their windows to handle takeout orders for customers.

Alzada's also has partnered with DoorDash and Uber Eats for local deliveries. Started by Annette Mathis, who formerly operated Aisha's Southern Cuisine restaurant, Alzada's motto is printed on its menu: "Food that Tastes Good."

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Mathis told Patch she is glad she has reopened Alzada's. Most of her business comes from carryout orders, anyway.

"Everything on the menu is the same," Mathis said Tuesday. "It's starting to pick back up again, and we always have the Soul Food Sunday specials."

Those specials keep Alzada's busy on Sundays, Mathis said. Catfish is her big seller. All of the Soul Food specials range in price from $10.99 to $12.99.

There's chicken and dumplings, rib tips, pot roast, smothered pork chops, fried pork chops, catfish and baked chicken. The Sunday meals come with two sides and a corn muffin.

During the week, Alzada's menu features several $5 items, such as fish and fries, shrimp and fries, Polish sausage and fries, chicken wings, chicken tenders and hamburger and fries.

Daily sides range in price from $3 to $4.50 and include: fries, spaghetti, mozzarella cheese sticks, okra, greens, yams and walking tacos.

You can order six chicken wings for $6.99 or nine chicken wings for $9.99.

Alzada's also has desserts, including pound cake, peach cobbler and sweet potato cheesecake.

Amid the coronavirus outbreak, Alzada's is open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday. Employees said Alzada's may begin staying open until 8 p.m. starting next week.

Customers can call in their food orders at 815-630-3544.

Alzada's is one of Joliet's many local businesses that filled out Joliet Patch's simple online survey to let everyone know they are open and their current hours of operation. More than 130 Joliet businesses have been added to Patch's list so far. If you want to add your business to Joliet Patch's list of open and closed businesses, you can do so here.

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