SAVANNA – As a teenager washing dishes at the former Barrister’s Restaurant in Mount Carroll in the late 1980s, Scott Miller would sometimes think about owning a restaurant of his own someday.

It took him about four decades, but Miller now has his own place on Savanna’s Main Street — and a new nickname to go with it.

Miller owns Papa Chubby’s, having opened in May 2025 after spending a couple of years as kitchen manager at The Riverview Lodge in Thomson. When customers meet him as they’re eating a hearty portion of what’s on the menu, they get to see “Papa Chubby” himself, a name inspired by what his grandchildren call him.

Miller owns the restaurant and bar with a silent partner and employs about a dozen people. He purchased the building in April 2025 and moved quickly to open the doors the following month.

“This building became available and we took a chance,” Miller said. “It’s worked out pretty good. The community has supported us a lot, and we appreciate it.”

No stranger to the restaurant business — aside from some time spent as an engineer on the Union Pacific Railroad and Canadian National Railway — it’s not unusual for Miller to see some familiar faces at Papa Chubby’s, like the waitress who worked alongside him years ago at Barrister’s who’s now a regular at his restaurant.

The restaurant’s name itself is both personal and lighthearted for Miller, getting encouragement from both his grandchildren and his wife, Michelle.

“They said, ‘Call it Papa Chubby’s,’” Miller said. “My wife said, ‘Papa Chubby’s just has a ring to it.’ I thought, ‘Well, we have a place in town called Poopy’s,’ and it stuck – and I’m ‘Papa Chubby’ now. I have customers come in and go, ‘There’s Papa.’ The name’s crazy, but it works.”

Almost a year into the operation, Miller said he’s still refining what the menu, though several items have already established themselves as staples. Some dishes carried over from his Riverview Lodge days, while others were developed specifically for the new place.

A consistent theme across the menu is that most items are prepared in-house. Breakfast offerings include homemade biscuits and gravy, which Miller said sets the tone. “It’s not out of a can,” he said. “Ours starts with the sausage, the butter and so on; people know when it’s homemade.” The cinnamon rolls also are popular — and more than handful, too. They’re made in an 8-inch pie tin and come in several varieties such as cream cheese, apple pie, blueberry, caramel pecan and maple bacon.

Pork chops are butterfly cut, steaks are hand cut, and fish and chicken are breaded in-house. Steaks weigh in at a pound, and dinners include a soup and salad bar featuring a rotation of homemade soups such as lasagna soup, chicken pot pie soup and cheesy potato. Miller said one customer even orders the lasagna soup “by the bucket.”

Among the restaurant’s top sellers are the Chubby Sticks, a mozzarella-based appetizer that has quickly become a signature. “They are logs of mozzarella and different blends of cheese,” Miller said. “They’re cut into sticks and we bread them and serve them with raspberry sauce.”

An order of Chubby Sticks weighs in at about a half-pound, a reflection of the generous portions Miller serves up. That extends to breakfast skillets — including one called the Chubby Skillet — sandwiches like the Chubby Sub, and rotating weekly specials such as Mexican Mondays and fish on Friday. Featured items and specials can be found at the Facebook group, “Papa Chubby’s Specials.”

“Most people won’t go away from here hungry,” Miller said. “We’ll go through a lot of to-go containers. I want people to get what they pay for. You don’t want to go somewhere and pay money for a meal and then have to stop somewhere on the way home because you need a snack, or you get home and need a snack. I want people to be full, I want people to be satisfied and say, ‘This is the place to go.’”

Servings aren’t the only thing Miller is big on. Atmosphere matters just as much, he said, and he wants everyone to feel welcome.

“I want people to feel welcome and warm,” Miller said. “They won’t feel like an outcast. Everybody here can feel like family when they walk in. I try to make it a point to go up to every one of the tables and talk to them. I want them to be comfortable when they come here.”

The brand was cemented visually when friend and tattoo artist Bill Parks designed the business’s logo, depicting Miller in chef attire carrying a large tray — with some words of advice for customers: “Never trust a skinny chef.”

Inside, Michelle helped shape the decor, which Scott said was done to “make it feel more homey.”

Several of Miller’s children work alongside him, including sons Travis Buchholz and Keston Diestelmeier, and daughter Alleigh McGinnis, who provides a connection to the building’s past. The structure was originally a Hardee’s built in the 1970s, and later housed the River Ratz bar and general store. The original brown tile floor from Hardee’s remains, as does a distinctive bar counter covered in pennies under glass, built when it was still River Ratz.

“There was one time where me and a guy went through and looked at all of the pennies, and he was told that there were three tails in it, but didn’t know where they were at,” McGinnis said. “So we thought, ‘Let’s find them.’ We took about an hour-and-a-half just to look at them, and once you get halfway through, they all seem to look the same.” It’s no wonder that it took them that long: The bar contains about $30 in pennies — or about 3,000 coins — including several Canadian coins and wheat-back pennies.

McGinnis, who once tended bar at River Ratz, said having all those pennies there makes a lot of sense for the business.

“It’s something for them to do when it’s a little slower,” McGinnis said. “That makes them want to come back and bring their friends and family to come check this out.”

Since opening, Miller has added a patio on the south side of the building and has hosted community fundraisers and events. A drive-thru is available for carry-outs, and the place also feature six gambling machines— and he’s not done yet.

Looking ahead, he plans to expand with a full-service laundromat inside a small new building on property called Chubby Bubbles, offering drop-off and pickup service with an attendant on duty.

“We were thinking about what the community really needs, and we need a laundromat,” Miller said. “There’s nothing in Sabula, nothing in Hanover, nothing in Mt. Carroll. It’s supply and demand. Not everyone can afford a washer or dryer, or has an apartment with washer or dryer hookups.”

Reflecting on the restaurant’s first months, Miller said the response has exceeded expectations.

“It’s been awesome,” Miller said. “It’s been better than we can imagine. When we opened up, it went way beyond what we thought it would be. The support of the community has really been awesome.”

Papa Chubby’s, 44 Main Street in Savanna, is open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday through Monday. Breakfast is served until 11 a.m. and until noon on Sunday. Find “Papa Chubby’s Specials” on Facebook or call 815-902-1065 to place carryout orders or for more information.