Hot Dog Stand In Orland Swamped By Flood

ORLAND PARK, IL -- Anthony Nardo received a phone call at 5:45 a.m. Tuesday from a friend informing him that his beloved restaurant, Joey’s Red Hots, was under water after heavy rains combined with melting snow caused flooding in low-lying areas in the south suburbs.

“When he told me that the restaurant was flooded, I thought there was water in the [parking] lot,” Nardo said between moving around hoses that pumped water out of the deluged restaurant. “It wasn’t until I got there when I saw how much water there actually was.”

Now Nardo is just trying to assess the damage at his waterlogged hot dog stand, a runaway success since Nardo opened it three years ago at 17400 S. Wolf Road in Orland Park. He already lost one of his two catering vans that was submerged in deep water.

“It sucks, because we use that van a lot for our catering business,” Nardo said. “I got the other van started and was able to get it out. Two of our food trucks were parked on the on the other side of the lot, which is a little bit higher. The other truck was flooded, but because it’s higher off the ground, I was able to save it.”

Nardo said his parking lot is prone to collect water after a heavy rain, but not like Tuesday. A retention pond at the Brook Hills subdivision behind his hot dog stand overflowed its banks. To add salt to his soggy wounds, Joey’s Red Hots just took delivery of a large food order from Vienna Beef the day before. All of the food, about $5,500 worth, needs to be pitched. He suspects that some of his cooking equipment, which was new when the hot dog stand opened in 2015, likely also sustained damage.

“We can’t tell what we’ve lost because of the water,” Nardo said. “We’re going to get in there and clear everything out to see how bad the damages really area, clean it up and get it back open as fast as we can.”

Tuesday’s flood may also set back two more planned restaurant openings: Joey’s Pizza, Pasta and Gelato next door to Nardo's hot dog stand in Orland Park, as well as a second Joey’s Red Hots in Morgan Park at 115th Street and Western Avenue.

“We were planning to open April 1, but with this bump in the road we may have to push back the openings,” Nardo said. “We don’t know what kind of a financial hit we’re going to take yet, but if running a business was easy we’d all be running one.”

Nardo said he has no plans to relocate Joey’s Red Hots.

“We’re definitely staying. This is a great location and love the community. We serve 400 to 500 customers a day,” Nardo said. “We’ve gotten great support ever since we opened. We’re going to reopen and come back stronger than ever.”

Photos and video courtesy of Anthony Nardo.