Then & Now: Brun’s Tavern Restaurant

NEW LENOX – Chicken in the Rough, a brand invented by the late Oklahoma City restaurateur Beverly Osborne and his wife, Rubye, in 1936, once had a reach that rivaled KFC.

In a 1950, the Osbornes were featured in Time magazine and Chicken in the Rough was grossing nearly $2 million a year. Beverly and Rudye Osborne created a unique fast food operation that served fried chicken, shoestring potatoes, hot biscuits and honey during the Depression.

By the 1950s, this delectable meal was known to many as Chicken in the Rough and sold in nearly 250 franchised outlets around the country, including Johannesburg, South Africa. To restaurant historians, Beverly Osborne was a marketing genius. When you ordered Chicken in the Rough to go, everything from the to-go boxes to napkins had the company logo on it.

One outlet along the Lincoln Highway serving Chicken in the Rough was Brun’s Tavern and Restaurant in New Lenox. The restaurant was open in 1941 by Herbert and Alma Brun, eventually was taken over by their daughter, Dolores Paulsen, in 1958. Dolores and her husband, Bob, expanded the business into a large supper club that included banquet facilities. The restaurant was a favorite of many locals until it was sold in 1993, when the Paulsen’s retired.

The then photograph, circa 1950, shows a view of the popular tavern and restaurant looking east from the Lincoln Highway. The now image shows a front view of the old restaurant from Church Street.

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OLD POSTCARD IMAGES SOUGHT FOR PUBLICATION

David Belden is a history teacher at Minooka Community High School and currently is publishing local postcard books with Arcadia Publishing in his Local History classes.

He and his students are looking for old Joliet photos and postcards, and images from Joliet’s parks, for a new publication.

Photographer Christine O’Brien is an English teacher at Minooka Community High School and currently edits and authors books with Arcadia.

If you are interested in contributing a postcard image, email  dbelden@mchs.net or localhistory@mchs.net; or call 815-467-2140, ext. 260.