Mini-Cafe, Neighborhood Grocery Store Reopens In Joliet

JOLIET, IL — A small neighborhood grocery store on Joliet's near west side reopened Tuesday under new ownership, two years after shutting down amid the global pandemic. La Catrina Bistro Cafe & Grocery is at 625 N. Hickory St. It's at the corner of Hickory and Lime Streets.

"It's a grocery store that has a little café, a mini-restaurant," remarked Ana Martinez-Velasco, who runs La Catrina Bistro along with her daughter, Jasmine Velasco.

Martinez-Velasco told Joliet Patch that "I know more of the grocery store, and she knows more of the restaurant."

Jasmine Velasco recently worked in the Side Bar Café, located on the fifth floor of the new Will County Courthouse, and previously worked at Catrina's Mex and the Route 66 Diner, both in downtown Joliet.

La Catrina Bistro plans to offer soups, salads and sandwiches. There will be tacos and burritos as well.

La Catrina Bistro has two aisles of goods ranging from pop, canned vegetables, baking soda, health food items, laundry detergents and more. There's also milk, eggs and cheese as well as bananas.

As for the café, "we're going to have a mini-bakery," Velasco-Martinez said.

She said they just bought two cappuccino machines and there will be lattes available.

The bakery will feature pastries, muffins, bagels, donuts and rolls.

On Saturdays and Sundays, a counter of food will offer a variety of Mexican dishes such as Garnitas, Pozole, Menudo and Barbacoa.

"My daughter's a really good cook, but we need to hire a backup person," Velsasco-Martinez told Patch. "We're hiring a cook because we want to do breakfast, lunch and dinner."

She said prospective cooks can apply in person by visiting the new store.

The plan for La Catrina's Bistro is to stay open "from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day."

The previous owner ran the grocery store for more than 20 years, Velasco-Martinez said.

"He's just up in age and felt his health condition was not stable enough to open," she said.

Now, 22 months later, La Catrina Bistro is back open.

Velasco-Martinez wanted people to know she's planning to display a new business sign along Hickory Street. Right now, there's a banner draped across the building.

They're also getting a Facebook page up and running later this week.

Velasco-Martinez told Patch she is originally from Chicago, graduating from Tilden High School. She later attended Lewis University obtaining a bachelor's in criminal justice. At one point during the 1990s, she lived in Kentucky, working as a sheriff's deputy in Covington, she said.

Velasco-Martinez said she has lived in Joliet since 2012 and before that, she lived in Plainfield for several years.

Velasco-Martinez expects to draw most of her customer base from the immediate Joliet area.

As for the food, customers can "call in their orders and I think we might be doing delivery too with this," she said.

The phone number for La Catrina Bistro Cafe & Grocery is 331-220-5759.