Taste Of Joliet: 'The Heart Attack' Or Sicilian Italian Sausage?

JOLIET, IL — After being canceled in 2020 and 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic, Taste of Joliet returns to Memorial Stadium Friday, Saturday and Sunday. On Thursday morning, Joliet Patch found several food vendors getting their booths ready for Friday's 3 p.m. opening.

Romeoville resident Don Marino runs the Marino's Kitchen food stand. His banner proclaims he's a "One Of A Kind Caterer." Marino sells pork chop on a stick, Italian beef meatball subs and his favorite, Sicilian Italian Sausage.

The inside of the sausage is stuffed with green peppers, onions and cheese. He expects his homemade Sicilian Sausage and his pork chop on a stick to be his most popular food items at Taste of Joliet.

Marino's Kitchen Food has been at the Taste of Joliet for many years, he said.

"Good crowd, good people, they treat me real well here," he told Joliet Patch.

He hopes to sell 500 lbs of Italian sausage during the three-day-long Taste of Joliet.

"Being how they were closed the last two years, I think it's going to be slammed," he said of this weekend's crowds at Memorial Stadium. "I hope so, we all hope."

At the same time that Marino will be focused on his food stand at Taste of Joliet, he said he's also catering for a pig roast that will have "250 people" on Saturday.

"I throw myself into a fire," he laughed.

About 10 yards away from Marino's Kitchen, Oswego resident Anthony Pizzo — not Anthony Pizza he joked — was getting his food stand ready for Friday's opening.

He runs Genoa's Italian Concession. His food options include: nachos, Italian sausage, Italian beef, brats, eggplant sandwich, chicken sandwich, homemade chips and hamburgers.

Pizzo said he's been in the food vendor business since he was a teenager.

"The crowd, the people ... Joliet is just a down to earth type of crowd," he remarked. "Just normal folks that like to relax and enjoy themselves."

The Genoa's Italian Concession stand has quite a large menu, as you can see by looking at the photo above.

One of his signs proclaims, "Home of the Heart Attack."

Pizzo said the "Heart Attack" consists of homemade chips with cheese and bacon. Other favorites include the foot-long Maxwell Street Polish; a 10-inch-long grilled Italian sausage; and the waffle fry plate, which is "covered with pulled pork and cheese," he said.

"It's always about the weather," the owner of Genoa's Italian Concessions told Patch. "If it's too hot, they will not come until it's late in the evening, but they look forward to the Taste of Joliet."

Taste of Joliet is general admission and tickets cost $18 if you buy them online. Otherwise, it's $20 at the gates.

The admission gives you access to all the concerts. Friday night's main music performers are Sugar Ray at 8 p.m. followed by Collective Soul at 9:30 p.m.

To see the entire music line up for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, check out the Joliet Park District's Taste of Joliet site.

Taste of Joliet's hours are: 3 p.m. to midnight Friday, noon to midnight Saturday and noon to 8 p.m. Sunday.

In case you missed it: Joliet Patch previously published an article listing the 22 different food vendors for this weekend's Taste of Joliet.