Niko's Overcomes Oven Woes: 1,010 Greek Chickens Sold

JOLIET, IL — Niko's Pizzeria at 20 Ohio St. set its one-day record Wednesday, selling 1,010 Greek chicken dinners, but around 2 p.m. a disaster happened in the kitchen. Niko's usually reliable oven broke. An entire hour passed before it was fixed.

For the rest of the afternoon and evening, Joliet restaurant owner Nikos Lippas had to scramble. By late afternoon, his staff began calling dozens of customers, explaining the oven failure and asking if they could delay their Greek chicken pickup for at least an hour, if not longer.

Most customers were understanding of the situation, but some were not. About 10 people told Niko's Pizzeria they were canceling their Greek chicken dinners altogether and left.

Joliet resident Rick Ruiz originally scheduled his carryout order of four Greek chicken dinners for a 3 p.m. pickup. He returned a few hours later and walked out with his food at 6:20 p.m.

"I believe most of the customers of Niko's that are faithful will understand," Ruiz told Joliet Patch. "I was willing to sacrifice my order for the cause. I'm just proud to be part of this record-breaking event.

"I know that Niko is a very proud person as far as his food, so I know that most of his customers will understand," Ruiz continued. "My opinion, I think it's still worth the wait."

"We're still running behind," Lippas told Joliet Patch around 4:30 p.m."Once you fall behind, it's hard to catch up because it's a heavy amount of orders. We had a little problem with the oven, it kept breaking down. The problem is fixed, and we're going full blast, but we're an hour behind."

Despite the oven failure setback, Niko's staff continued to prepare hundreds of remaining Greek chicken dinners, and the employees remained even-keeled.

One of Niko's most trusted employees, a man named Papouli, was in charge of keeping the Greek chickens marinated in giant buckets of Niko's extra virgin olive oil that comes from his family's olive trees in Kalamata, Greece.

"Papouli is my main guy here," Lippas told Patch.

With the ovens working, Lippas and his staff could cook 80 half-chickens at a time.

There were some big orders throughout the day. The Salem Village nursing home on Rowell Avenue ordered 19 dinners. ABC Supplies ordered 10 Greek chicken meals.

On Tuesday night, Lippas posted on Facebook that he had to stop accepting orders for his Greek chicken dinners because he had already achieved his milestone, topping 1,000 orders.

"So many people were still calling (Wednesday) to get their orders and so many walk-ins came in to get the Greek chicken," Lippas said.

Lippas had about 10 employees working with him in his kitchen Wednesday.

"The whole crew, they are doing an amazing job," he said.

During the dinner rush, Joliet Patch counted 15 customers inside the lobby and another 30 customers standing on the sidewalk waiting to get inside the small lobby.

"The key is the heart that I have for my customers," Lippas said. "What I tried to do was something crazy and not a lot of people could do it. I'm still glad I did it."

Lippas said he wanted everyone to know that he intends to do another daylong Greek chicken dinner meal in early December.

For that one, he will make at least 1,500 Greek chicken dinners, he proclaimed Wednesday night.

And, next time, Lippas said, he will have a service repairman inspect his oven a day or two before he begins his enormous Greek chicken cook off.

For $8.99, Niko's customers got a half-chicken, rice and his Greek potatoes.

"I'm going to go for more, and next time it's running smooth," he vowed. "It was a challenge, and we didn't execute because the oven broke down on the busiest day."

Still, there was a lot of satisfaction.

One of his lunchtime customers drove two hours just to get his Greek chicken.

"The chicken's going to be delicious," Lippas promised. "It is like a diamond."