Pop's Italian Beef Hiring For New Jefferson Street Restaurant

JOLIET, IL — Six months after Joliet Patch reported that Joliet's West Jefferson Street would be welcoming a Pop's Italian Beef restaurant business owners are ready to start hiring their staff. On Friday, a large banner was displayed across the top of the old Boston Market store at 1888 West Jefferson Street, near Larkin Avenue.

Starting wages for management and head cooks will be at least $16 per hour, the emplyment sign reads.

Back in January, the new Pop's restaurant owner Joe Haberkorn told Joliet Patch that he owns six Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen fast-food restaurants in the Chicago suburbs, but none is in Joliet.

Joliet will mark the opening of his first Pop's franchise, he said at the time.

"We're going to be open by the early part of the summer," Haberkorn told Joliet Patch's editor in January. "First, we're going to do quite a bit of work inside the building."

On Friday, several building contractors were working on the property. converting the old Boston Market into a new Pop's Italian Beef.

Several of the workers were installing new electrical, heating, cooling and plumbing systems. They hoped to be done with their work before the end of July, they said.

In addition, they said, a new roof is also expected to be installed on the restaurant building in the coming weeks.

So far, Pop's has not announced a targeted date for its grand opening, but the fact that Pop's is now advertising for workers indicates the restaurant's opening could happen this fall.

Joliet does have one Pop's, but it's at an out-of-the-way location for most residents. It's inside the Route 66 Food N Fuel along Route 53 out toward Elwood.