Louis' Restaurant Makes Rigo, Zeus Social Media Stars

JOLIET, IL —If you had asked someone last month to name a cook at one of the many West Jefferson Street restaurants, chances are, you might draw a blank stare. But a lot has changed in the past week. A Joliet video star has been launched, and he works at Louis' Family Restaurant.

Rigo makes the breakfast and lunch specials from scratch inside the kitchen of Louis' Family Restaurant, 1001 W. Jefferson St. No long-time, sit-down restaurant has done more to reinvent itself in Joliet since the new coronavirus rocked Illinois in March. The owner's two grown sons overhauled their family restaurant by making the entire business a speedy drive-thru operation, promising they are a faster drive-thru service than any Joliet McDonald's.

At no point during the past six months has Louis' Family Restaurant reopened its dining room. Not once. And business remains strong. Now, in its latest creation, Louis' Family Restaurant has released a professional commercial that highlights Rigo, the cook; Zeus, the golden retriever, as the restaurant mascot; and Louis' new marketing slogan Rigo came up with: "Oh nice, that's nice."

The commercial —which is meant to be both informative and funny —appears at the bottom of this Joliet Patch article.

One of the restaurant owner's sons, Michael Polimenakos, told Patch he tracked down one of his former Wheaton College classmates to produce the slick, well-edited, restaurant commercial. He said it's important for people to realize that a small, family-run restaurant in Joliet can produce a high-quality advertising commercial on the same level of the major national restaurant chains - with one big exception.

National restaurant commercials, for the most part, lack humor, Michael Polimenakos told Joliet Patch.

"With Zeus, we make him our mascot," he said. "In this commercial, you've got the perfect family dog, a golden retriever.

"He gets super excited whenever he sees anybody, so he would be used to all the customers."

But the rock star of the commercial is Rigo, the steady hand in the kitchen during the week.

According to Michael Polimenakos, as they were marketing their new $6.95 lunch specials, Rigo would remark, "Oh nice, that's nice."

A few weeks ago, Michael Polimenakos said he was laying in his bed thinking about ways to keep his father's long-time, successful Joliet business profitable during the pandemic. That's when the idea of having Rigo star in the restaurant commercial entered his head.

"One day, I woke up and realized we could use that for our restaurant slogan," Michael Polimenakos told Joliet Patch.

During the past week, Louis' released its first-ever video commercial on its Facebook page. The goal: create more awareness of the family restaurant's new $6.95 lunch specials and their recent menu addition of chicken and waffles for $9.95.

"And we introduce Zeus as part of the restaurant," the owner's son explained. "He's a crazy athletic dog."

On occasion this summer, Michael Polimenakos has had Zeus outside the restaurant as he and his brother run the food orders out to their customers who are pulling in line for their order.

"Our goal with the commercial is to make it funny," Michael Polimenakos said. "People like the 'Oh nice, it's nice.' It's catchy.

"We added humor and the lunch deals. Rigo and Zeus, they are the main two stars in the commercial."

Actually, Joliet Patch interviewed Michael Polimenakos just a few days before Gov. JB Pritzker announced that all Will and Kankakee bars and restaurants would be prohibited from having any indoor guests as a result of spiking levels of coronavirus cases in the Joliet and Kankakee areas during the month of August.

The governor's new mandate won't impact Louis' Family Restaurant at all.

That's because the owners have no immediate plans to reopen their dining room.

Louis' has been a West Jefferson Street mainstay since opening December 18, 1992, as a wooden hand-carved sign inside the restaurant proclaims.

"Our goal is keeping my dad in good health," Michael Polimenakos told Joliet Patch. "I want to stay in business and keep it going."

Louis' Family Restaurant just returned to its traditional hours of operation. It's now back open from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. seven days a week.

To order carryout, call 815-722-6660. To check out their menu, go here.