Dell Rhea's Chicken Basket
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Dell Rhea's Chicken Basket is a
restaurant A restaurant is an establishment that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and Delivery (commerce), food delivery services. Restaurants ...
in Willowbrook,
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,
Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...
. It is located along historical
U.S. Route 66 U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66 (US 66 or Route 66) is 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 high ...
, near present-day
Interstate 55 Interstate 55 (I-55) is a major Interstate Highway in the central United States. As with most primary Interstates that end in a five, it is a major cross-country, north–south route, connecting the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes. The ...
.


History

The Chicken Basket began as a simple lunch counter selling sandwiches in a gas station along Route 66, operated by Ervin 'Irv' Kolarik, that was opened some time during the late 1920s. In 1938, two local farm women entered Irv Kolarik's gas station for a cup of coffee; they overheard him complaining about how he hated running a gas station and preferred running the lunch counter instead, and offered to share their secret recipe for
fried chicken Fried chicken, also called Southern fried chicken, is a dish consisting of chicken pieces that have been coated with seasoned flour or batter and pan-fried, deep fried, pressure fried, or air fried. The breading adds a crisp coating or ...
with him if he agreed to buy his chickens from them. In fact, they even agreed to go to work for him and make the chicken. Kolarik consented, and the chicken was an instant success. The lunch counter was no longer sufficient for serving customers. Kolarik initially converted the station's by then disused automobile repair garage bays into dining rooms, which eventually became known as the National Chicken Basket; but by the mid-1940s, further demand made it clear that a new building was needed to serve patrons. This prompted Kolarik to buy the adjacent property and build a full-service restaurant. Kolarik hired Chicago architect Eugene F. Stoyke to construct the one-story brick restaurant and cocktail lounge. The present-day Chicken Basket was opened next door from the gas station in 1946 in what was then Hinsdale, Illinois, now Willowbrook. The roadhouse's proximity to
Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
fostered its continued success, and it became a bus stop on Joliet Road for the west suburban Bluebird Coach Lines in 1936, the year that Bluebird acquired the bus route from the Chicago & Joliet Transportation Co., which had introduced service on Route 66 in 1928 (this bus route was later acquired by West Suburban Transit Lines, which went out of business in 1976). Becoming an official Bluebird bus stop helped increase business for the Chicken Basket, as did the fact that patrons of the restaurant could sit by the front windows and watch airplanes taking off and landing at what was then Hinsdale Airport across the street on Joliet Road. Kolarik was also a minor genius at getting publicity for the restaurant. For example, during the winters, Kolarik would flood the roof of the restaurant and hire local youths to
ice skate Ice skates are metal blades attached underfoot and used to propel the bearer across a sheet of ice while ice skating. The first ice skates were made from leg bones of horse, ox or deer, and were attached to feet with leather straps. These skates ...
on top of it. A
cocktail lounge Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar ** Chocolate bar *Protein bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of ...
wing was added in 1956; that was the building's last major alteration. However, in the end, Kolarik's creative marketing ideas weren't enough to overcome other obstacles. The
Interstate Highway System The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, or the Eisenhower Interstate System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Hi ...
in the 1950s forced roads such as Route 66 to reroute onto superhighways, and the restaurant was eventually bypassed by the construction and opening of I-55 during the late 1950s to early 1960s, which cut off its access to major traffic on this important highway.


Change of ownership

Kolarik kept the restaurant open for many years; then when he discovered that construction of I-55 would cut the restaurant off from major highway traffic, he briefly sold it to another operator before buying it back. However, as more traffic moved to the interstate, business dwindled and the restaurant was taken over by a local bank, which kept it in operation until another buyer could be found. Delbert 'Dell' Rhea, a prominent Chicago businessman who had managed the then
Stevens Hotel Hilton Chicago (previously known as Chicago Hilton and Towers from 1985 to 1998) is a centrally-located luxury hotel in Chicago, Illinois, United States. The hotel is a Chicago landmark that overlooks Grant Park, Lake Michigan, and the Museum C ...
and had been the executive director of the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau, at the time owned the Woodbine Inn down the street from the Chicken Basket. Rhea sold the Woodbine Inn and purchased the historic roadhouse in 1963, taking over Kolarik's former business and keeping the Chicken Basket's menu and name but adding his own name as well. Rhea's son Patrick, who grew up working in the restaurant along with his mother, Grace Rhea, assumed control of Dell Rhea's Chicken Basket following Dell's death in 1992. The Lombardi family bought the restaurant in 2019 with the promise to continue the tradition by keeping intact the original recipe, service, and homestyle environment that makes the Chicken Basket. The building and its classic freestanding neon sign were added to the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
on May 5, 2006, along with fellow Illinois Route 66 restaurants Lou Mitchell's and Ariston Cafe. In 2009, the restaurant was featured on a Route 66 edition of ''
Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives ''Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives'' (often nicknamed ''Triple D'' and stylized as ''Diners, Drive-Ins, Dives'') is an American food reality television series that has aired on the Food Network since April 23, 2007. It is hosted by Guy Fieri, and in ...
''.


See also

*
List of chicken restaurants This is a list of notable chicken restaurants. This list includes casual dining, fast casual and fast food restaurants which typically specialize in chicken dishes such as fried chicken, chicken and waffles, chicken sandwiches or chicken a ...


References


External links


Dell Rhea's Chicken Basket
{{National Register of Historic Places Commercial buildings completed in 1946 National Register of Historic Places in DuPage County, Illinois Restaurants in Illinois Willowbrook, DuPage County, Illinois Restaurants established in 1938 U.S. Route 66 in Illinois 1938 establishments in Illinois Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois Diners on the National Register of Historic Places Diners in Illinois Poultry restaurants