White Fence Farm is the name of a restaurant chain with locations in the

Chicago metropolitan area The Chicago metropolitan area, also colloquially referred to as Chicagoland, is a metropolitan area in the Midwestern United States. Encompassing 10,286 sq mi (28,120 km2), the metropolitan area includes the city of Chicago, its suburbs and hi ...

. The original location is in

Romeoville, Illinois Romeoville is a village in Will County, Illinois, United States. The village is located southwest of Chicago on the Des Plaines River. Per the 2020 census, the population was 39,863. It is located in the southwest suburban area of Chicago near I ...

Early history

The original White Fence Farm location is in Romeoville, where it was established in the early 1920s on

US Route 66 U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66 (US 66 or Route 66) was one of the original highways in the United States Numbered Highway System. It was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year. The h ...

. It was founded by Stuyvesant 'Jack' Peabody, son of

Peabody Coal Company Peabody Energy is a coal mining and energy company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Its primary business consists of the mining, sale, and distribution of coal, which is purchased for use in electricity generation and steelmaking. Peabody ...

founder

Francis S. Peabody Francis Stuyvesant Peabody (July 24, 1859 – August 27, 1922) was an American businessman who founded Peabody Coal, and became a wealthy coal baron. Biography Francis S. Peabody was born in Chicago, Illinois on July 24, 1859. His father was ...

and himself CEO of Peabody Coal at the time. It was opened on a 12-acre plot that Jack Peabody owned across

U.S. Route 66 U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66 (US 66 or Route 66) was one of the original highways in the United States Numbered Highway System. It was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year. The h ...

/Joliet Road from his 450-acre Lemont horse farm, where thoroughbred racehorses were bred, boarded and trained.Traska, Maria R., "White Fence Farm: An Unlikely Peabody Venture Lives On," ''Mayslake Peabody Estate Newsletter'', Spring 2012 The story was that Jack Peabody often had weekend guests at his horse farm, but there was no restaurant in the area where he could entertain them – so he started one himself. The roadside restaurant, which opened in a converted farmhouse, was known then for its hamburger sandwiches and Guernsey milk products, including ice cream. By the time

opened in November 1926, White Fence Farm had already served several thousand customers. It was reviewed several times during the Peabody years by the early restaurant critic

Duncan Hines Duncan Hines (March 26, 1880 – March 15, 1959) was an Americans, American pioneer of restaurant ratings for travelers. He is best known today for the brand of food products that bears his name. Early life Hines was born in Bowling Green, Kentu ...

, who had been a fan of the restaurant since the late 1920s. After

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...

ended, Jack Peabody promoted California wines at the restaurant and helped to revive the California wine industry, as he had earlier helped to revive thoroughbred horse racing in Illinois during the 1910s and 1920s. Peabody operated the restaurant successfully until his death in 1946. After that, the restaurant was first leased to several different renters, then eventually sold by Jack's son, Stuyvesant Peabody Jr.

Change in ownership

Since 1954, the restaurant has been owned and operated by the Hastert family. Robert Hastert Sr. was the first family owner-manager. Hastert had begun as a wholesale poultry dealer at the Aurora Poultry Market during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and later owned the Harmony House restaurant in

Aurora, Illinois Aurora is a city in the Chicago metropolitan area located partially in DuPage County, Illinois, DuPage, Kane County, Illinois, Kane, Kendall County, Illinois, Kendall, and Will County, Illinois, Will counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. Locat ...

, which he had opened four years before he bought White Fence Farm. The property had gone through several operators and/or owners after being sold by the Peabody estate. Family legend has it that Bob Hastert Sr. settled on the purchase price for the restaurant property with the previous owner, an acquaintance who had gone bankrupt, by using the flip of a coin. Hastert was uncle to and his son, Bob Hastert Jr., was the first cousin of, former Speaker of the House Rep.

J. Dennis Hastert John Dennis Hastert (; born January 2, 1942) is an American former politician and convicted felon who represented from 1987 to 2007 and served as the List of speakers of the United States House of Representatives, 51st speaker of the United Sta ...

(R-IL). Bob Jr., who had converted an industrial-sized hospital autoclave into an outsized pressure cooker for the restaurant's unique method of cooking the chicken, took over the operation of the restaurant after his father's death in 1998. Bob Sr.'s wife, Doris, also worked at the restaurant, usually as a hostess. Laura Hastert, daughter of Robert Jr., is the restaurant's current owner and manager. The restaurant's famous fried chicken recipe was added to the menu during the 1950s by Bob Hastert Sr. who, by his granddaughter's admission, told the chicken recipe origin story several different ways at different times and may have just as easily borrowed the recipe from someone else as brought it with him from Harmony House. The restaurant building was expanded several times under the Hasterts. It now has several dining rooms, with seating for more than 1,000 customers. It also features a side room and gallery that includes an antique car collection, other antiques, and Jack Peabody's collection of original

Currier & Ives Currier and Ives was a New York City printmaking business that operated between 1835 and 1907. Founded by Nathaniel Currier, the company designed and sold inexpensive, hand painted lithographic works based on news events, views of popular cultu ...

prints, among other nostalgic displays. During the summer, the restaurant has an outdoor petting zoo.

Competition

White Fence Farm bills itself as having "the world's greatest fried chicken," which is pressure cooked and refrigerated in bulk before being individually flash-fried to order. Ever since the Hasterts acquired the restaurant, it has been in near-constant competition with its nearby rival,

Dell Rhea's Chicken Basket Dell Rhea's Chicken Basket is a restaurant in Willowbrook, DuPage County, Illinois. It is located along historical U.S. Route 66, near present-day Interstate 55. History The Chicken Basket began as a simple lunch counter selling sandwiches in a ...

, for the title of best fried chicken on Route 66 in Illinois and best corn fritters. Once a matter of dueling billboards on Route 66, the competition is now limited to a contest between menu items. Whereas Dell Rhea's can claim that it began serving its famous fried chicken years before its competitor did, White Fence Farm prides itself in serving an alcoholic brandy ice dessert, made strictly for adults.

Other locations

White Fence Farm operates several satellite carry-out locations throughout southwest suburban Chicago, an enterprise that was begun by Bob Hastert Jr.

References

External links