Chicken-N-Spice has built its business in downtown Joliet

JOLIET – Chicken-N-Spice opened in downtown Joliet in 1979, a time when businesses were leaving and buildings were boarded up, and it’s been a mainstay as other restaurants have come and gone.

The restaurant attracts people beyond Joliet. Its staff is loaded with Joliet Central High School students, giving young people job opportunities. And it has become what one city official described as “kind of an iconic business downtown.”

Yet, its long-term future is at risk as Joliet Junior College eyes the site for future parking for its new downtown campus.

Chicken-N-Spice has a lease that guarantees it can stay to 2022. But JJC would like to buy the property and is making no promises that Chicken-N-Spice can stay past then.

“We need it past 2022,” said Brandon Dorris of Park Forest, a longtime customer at Chicken-N-Spice who was at the restaurant last week during its Customer Appreciation Day.

At another table sat what is called the Gumbo Group, which has been meeting at Chicken-N-Spice every Thursday for years.

“Some people have retired and moved away,” said Tom Maher, a former Will County Sheriff’s Office deputy who started the group. “But they always ask about the gumbo. In fact, I’ve taken gumbo down to Florida.”

Chicken-N-Spice owner Pat Riemer was giving away free slices of bundt cake she had bought from the nearby Vilaseca Day Care Center, which was selling the cake for a fundraiser.

“It’s one downtown business supporting another,” Riemer said.

For Riemer, downtown Joliet is the right “niche” for her business, although business was tough in the early years. Riemer moved into a former Jack in the Box restaurant at a time when stores were moving out of downtown.

“People don’t realize when we first came here, we took a chance on Joliet. So much was boarded up,” Riemer said.

It wasn’t until the 1990s, she said, when business really got going, thanks in large part to an errant delivery of 40 pounds of large boneless chicken breasts. The pieces were much bigger than what Chicken-N-Spice normally served as chicken nuggets.

Riemer and her cook decided to serve them as nuggets.

“It was like someone had us on speed dial,” Riemer said, recounting how many customers showed up the first day for the extra-large nuggets.

“One of our customers actually said, ‘You’ve got to stop calling these things nuggets. They’re not nuggets. They’re big chunks of chicken,’ ” Riemer said. “The rest is history. They’re chunks.”

Chicken Chunks is the signature menu item at the restaurant, located at 251 N. Chicago St.

Dorris said he became familiar with Chicken-N-Spice growing up in Joliet and stops there whenever his lawn care business brings him back to town.

“Since I can remember, we’ve been coming here,” he said. “My wife grew up in Park Forest. She knew about this. When I have customers in Joliet and I’m working late, I know what I’m bringing home for dinner.”

Chicken Chunks panic

The popularity of the restaurant can be measured to the reaction to news that JJC wanted to buy the property.

The story appeared on The Herald-News website on a Saturday, and demand for Chicken Chunks was so high that the restaurant ran out by Sunday evening.

Store Manager Lety Torres described what could be called a Chicken Chunks panic.

She tried to reassure a rush of customers that Chicken-N-Spice was in no immediate danger.

“It’s a little hard to explain and elaborate while people are lined out the door because they thought we were closing,” Torres said.

The mayors of Crest Hill and Lockport called offering to find Chicken-N-Spice alternative locations. People from Wilmington and even Rockford called saying they should move there.

“We get a lot of out-of-towners,” Torres said, explaining why calls were coming from so far. “They were all just being very supportive.”

Torres even got a job offer.

But she is making a career for herself at Chicken-N-Spice, working at a place where she started when she was 15. Torres, now there 14 years, said she, like many students at Joliet Central, got her first job at Chicken-N-Spice.

“Lots of them walk from school,” she said.

Often, they make enough money to buy their first cars, like Torres did while working at Chicken-N-Spice.

“It really is rewarding to contribute to that time in their lives,” she said.

The Chicken Chunks panic has since settled down.

‘An iconic business downtown’

And it’s not a sure thing that JJC will buy the property.

Riemer said her lease gives Chicken-N-Spice first refusal to buy the site if JJC makes an offer. Her impression is that the Roberts family, which owns the property, is not necessarily united on whether to sell to JJC.

Ken Roberts of the family could not be reached for comment.

JJC spokeswoman Kelly Rohder said in an emailed response to questions that JJC “is committed to the current lease with the Chicken-N-Spice owners.”

Rohder, however, said 2022 “is so far in the future” that the college cannot address what it would do when the Chicken-N-Spice lease expires.

She said JJC and the city will support the restaurant owners “as they look for possible relocation within the downtown Joliet area.”

Joliet Economic Development Director Steve Jones said both the city and JJC “recognize that Chicken-N-Spice is kind of an iconic business downtown.”

Jones has suggested at least one alternative site downtown. But Riemer said it is smaller and does not have its own parking – a must for a fast-food restaurant.

“If we move, it’s going to be a big deal,” Riemer said. “We don’t want to downgrade.”