Chadwick restaurant gets a Second chance

CHADWICK — When Chadwick found itself without a restaurant at the end of 2023, residents in this village about 500 were pretty clear about one thing: they didn’t want their community to be without one for long.

Erica Tanner was one of the people who heard those village voices — the talk about the empty tables where there used to be full plates, at The Barn — and they weren’t the only ones who missed the place. When the restaurant closed, it hit close to home for her, too: She had worked there as a cook for a couple years.

But like they say: When one Barn door closes, another opens.

Tanner, of Milledgeville, was the first person many people approached after The Barn closed: “When it closed, I had a lot of people ask me, ‘Why don’t you open it?‘” Tanner said. “So I did.”

In March 2024, Tanner went from restaurant cook to restaurant owner, reopening her former workplace as Cafe on 2nd, named for the street it’s on.

But it wasn’t a decision she took lightly.

“At first I was like, ‘I don’t want to, I can’t do it,‘” she said. “But our community is pretty persistent. They kind of changed my mind, and I’m glad they did.”

Since opening, Tanner has been happy to see a lot of familiar faces at her diner — the customers she had once cooked for who were now stopping by Cafe on 2nd for some food and fellowship, whether it was Mom and Dad trying the daily special or kids riding their bikes there to get some ice cream.

The cafe is open dinner hours Wednesday through Saturday, and breakfast and lunch hours on Sunday. Tanner still does the cooking, and the menu features some holdovers from The Barn, as well as a few items that Tanner introduced from utilizing three decades in the food service, working at restaurants and bars in Florida and Arizona.

The menu features a variety of appetizers, burgers and sandwiches, soups and salads, desserts and drinks (no alcohol, though). A variety of different pizzas is also offered. If you’re trying to be gluten-free, options are available, including a six-inch pizza, white bread, hamburger buns, brownies and chicken breading for tenders and sandwiches. Daily specials are also offered, including meatball subs, horseshoe burgers, a tater tot casserole, and Italian beef and Philly cheesesteak sandwiches.

Friday’s menu has a little more to offer, including seafood — fried and baked cod, grilled and fried shrimp, and fried catfish. Sunday’s breakfast menu includes omelets, eggs, pancakes, and biscuits and gravy.

The menu goes in a different direction on Wednesday: south of the border. Tacos are the special that day, including a double-stuffed taco plate with a soft shell and beans surrounding a hard shell taco, and an order of three tacos that come with a flour tortilla with beans laid out across the plate. “It’s a big burrito shell with beans, and the hard shell tacos sit up in it,” Tanner said. “When you bite the taco, with whatever falls out, you can roll it up and have a burrito.”

Wraps are big sellers, Tanner said, and diners have a few different choices, including a BLT, chicken, barbecue, and a “mac and cheese” variety with thousand island dressing. The idea for chicken wrap came from one of her junior customers, who stopped in for a bite to eat with friends.

“In the summertime, this becomes a hangout place for all of the kids, and they come in and get ice cream and soda,” Tanner said. “They’ll ride their bikes around, stop in, and then ride around and come back and cool off. One of the kids who came in one day wanted me to make him a chicken wrap, so I made him one and that kind of stuck.”

Tanner knows the importance of having a gathering place in a close-knit community like Chadwick, and she hasn’t forgotten the role a restaurant can play in the community.

She offers the cafe’s dining area for private parties and community gatherings on the days when it is closed, and helps out with local events. This past June, she organized her second Park Day at Handel Park, where people gathered for food, games and a water balloon fight between members of the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office and the local fire department. When Halloween came around, the cafe was a favorite haunt for trick-or-treaters who lined up for the cookies she made.

“We like to get the community involved,” Tanner said. “It’s very, very important. We have the bank and the driver’s license bureau, and that’s it. It’s very important. I think the community needs us as much as we need them.”

Delivery is offered from 5 to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, within a 10-mile radius from town, which includes Lanark, Hazelhurst, Milledgeville and Mount Carroll. Those dining in can pull up a chair at the tables or grab a seat at the counter.

The menu isn’t the only place where Tanner has put her own touches. She decorates the dining room for each season, and the walls are peppered with inspirational quotes and phrases — “Live well, love much, laugh often,” and “Bloom where you are planted” are a few.

“Those are all my happy quotes, just stuff I picked up along the way,” she said. “We plan to keep it going around the whole place once we get more.”

Tanner grew up in Illinois and relocated to the area eight years ago. She’s assisted by a staff of four, which includes her niece Angel Crow. They keep the cafe a welcoming and friendly gathering place for people of all ages, something important to people in communities like Chadwick, where residents have been happy to have a place they can call their own.

“The community is awesome,” Tanner said. “I couldn’t do it without the community. Everybody supports everybody, and they support me very well.”

Cafe on 2nd is located at 20 E. Second St. in Chadwick. Find it on Facebook or call 815-441-7194 for orders, up-to-date business hours or for more information.