Lemont's Nick's Tavern stays true to small bar identity

LEMONT – Though Nick's Tavern has seen different owners and employees since it opened in 1945, a few of the core fixtures have remained the same.

They still have the old-fashioned cash register, though they added a newer one in recent years. They still have the Bevador cooler. And they still have the grill, which may be the secret behind the restaurant’s signature Nickburger.

This old charm helped Nick’s, 221 Main St., earn the Delicious Destination Award from the Illinois Office of Tourism, honoring restaurants that are “beloved destinations for visitors and locals alike.”

Nick and Vera Pappas started the restaurant and bar, later selling it to their daughter and son-in-law, Joanne and Lou Novak, in 1963.

In 2009, the restaurant was purchased by Don Quaid Jr., his son, Don Quaid III, and Al Murawski.

The elder Quaid said he fell in love with the restaurant the first time he visited it after moving to Lemont in 1999.

“I told my wife that night that I wanted to buy this place and 10 years later, we did,” he said. “It was kind of on a drunken whim.”

Quaid Jr. said some of Nick’s regulars were concerned that he might change the restaurant when he bought it. But, he said it was important to maintain those familiar elements that locals love about it.

“That was the one thing that I told everybody – that I told my son and my other partner, Al – I want consistency here,” he said. “People come here because they know this place, and they don’t want change.”

That means that though the restaurant has expanded its menu since Quaid Jr. took over, the burgers are still made the same way as when the restaurant opened.

Though they have the recipe, Quaid Jr. said cooking the burgers on the seasoned grill makes a difference in the flavor.

He said he has tried making the patties at the restaurant and bringing them home to cook on his own indoor grill.

“They definitely don’t taste the same,” he said.

That is why keeping the original grill is important for more than its nostalgic feel.

“You ask any good chef, he’ll tell you that his seasoned pots are the pots that give you some of the flavor to the food he is cooking,” he said. “That’s the same with the grill.”

Since Quaid Jr. bought Nick’s, he has added features such as televisions and gaming machines.

He also has expanded the menu to include hot dogs and chicken sandwiches as part of the regular menu and rotating specials such as Polish sausages and reuben sandwiches.

However, he said the consistency of the food is what has kept people coming back for decades.

“When people come through that door, they know they’re going to get basically the same hamburger that they got last time … they came in here,” he said.