Searching For Joy In Joliet Gave Me A Most Delightful Tummy Ache

JOLIET — After so many Jolietans responded to a playful Patch survey by mocking their hometown as a pothole-infested "hell hole" where you'll have "friendly" encounters with crackheads, I promised myself that I'd check it out.

So on a recent sunny day, I white-knuckled it over the infamously crumbling Interstate 80 bridge that locals believe could fall into the Des Plaines River at any moment, hoping to find evidence of underreported joy in Joliet.

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I survived the "structurally intolerable" river crossing — that reader Jaclyn Salazar likened to a death-defying leap over the Grand Canyon — on my way to the one spot in Joliet that an abundance of locals expressed a fondness for: Joe's Hot Dogs, a third-generation, family-owned purveyor of encased meats and "tamale on a bun" since 1953.

"What can I get you?" the counterman asked.

I said I'd take a hot dog, a Polish and a carb-loading tamale on a bun — a sampling of Joliet's finest — "however you guys make it." For that, I got politely scolded.

"There's no such thing as, 'How we do it.' Those are the condiments," the counterman said, pointing to a sign that read: "It's not a Chicago-Style Hot dog, It's an original Joliet Joe's!"

"So, you want everything?" he said. I agreed. I'm no food critic. So, I'll spare you an alliteration of adjectives to describe Joe's brand of workingman's sandwich beloved by locals.

Most of all, I enjoyed the steamed Polish on a soft bun, and chatting on the hot dog stand's patio with Joliet Patch editor John Ferak, who impressively gobbled a chili dog without getting any on his shirt.

"Where do I find more joy, John?" I asked.

Ferak, much like a majority Patch survey commenters and strangers I talked to on the street, equated happiness in Joliet with the city's mom-and-pop joints serving casual culinary delights.

He pointed in the direction of the newest example of a proliferation of Dunkin' Donuts franchises popping up everywhere in Stone City, much to his annoyance.

"Next door to the Dunkin' is Thayer Bros," Ferak said. "Start there."

Before I could get out of the parking lot, I bumped into lifelong Jolietan Debbie Bordeaux, who was cradling two boxes of Joe's hot dogs under her arm. I asked her if a trip to Joe's was a reason to rejoice.

"Well, I might not be the right person to ask. I'm not a hot dog person," she said. "These hot dogs are getting frozen and going to Texas. My sister, if it was her last meal, she'd want a Joe's hot dog. We grew up here. She moved out. And every time I go to visit, I have to get her hot dogs. I bring her the joy."

'It's The People ...'

Over at Thayer Bros Deli & Grill, the comfort-food dining room and adjoining shot-and-a-beer bar just off Six Corners, I found the owner enjoying the daily special, fettuccine Alfredo, with friends visiting from Arizona.

Rick Thayer — whose brother, Tom Thayer, won a Super Bowl with the '85 Bears — told me to take reader complaints about the "gunshots" and "bad smells" with a grain of salt.

"I know Joliet gets a lot of grief. I don't understand it. For me, this is home. My entire family is here. My brother [Tom] is back here in Joliet … in the house we grew up in. People here are down to earth here," Rick Thayer said. "It's the people that give me joy."

MORE ON PATCH: Got Nothing Nice To Say About Your Town? You Might Be A Jolietan

After all, it was faithful Jolietans who kept his place going during the worst of the pandemic.

When the dining room and bar got shut down, Thayer Bros regulars ordered plenty of carryout homemade meals reminiscent of his mother's Russian-Slovak heritage — like the cabbage rolls and meatloaf, and other Thayer-family inspired twists on tasty dishes.

It's having folks back in the dining room ordering tortilla soup "Tom's Way" — with a scoop of taco meat in the bowl the way Rick's famous brother likes it — that warms his heart the most.

"For me, the joy in Joliet is family and friends and great customers who support us no matter what," Rick Thayer said.

On the street, I asked strangers for local spots that make them glad to be from Joliet.

Go to Rich & Creamy on Broadway, one fellow said. When you see the Blues Brothers dancing on the roof, you're there.

That's where I found manager Bill Gulas, who's manned the Route 66 ice cream stand's window for the last 15 years.

When he's not serving up turtle sundaes and banana splits to gleeful locals and Mother Road tourists, Gulas says you can find him seeking joy while "hacking" up Woodruff Golf Course.

While I was chomping on one of Gulas' crunch-covered ice cream cones, Joliet officials wrote what seemed like a serendipitous Facebook post urging locals to frequent beloved mom-and-pop eateries.

Go to Hey! Hot Dog, they said.

It was like they were reading my mind.

When I pulled into Hey! Hot Dog on Ruby Street, owner B.J. Uedelhofen — who prefers to be known by his initials — greeted me in the parking lot of the restaurant his family started in 1959.

He served up a handcrafted root beer — a family recipe that's been on the menu since the joint opened — to wash down the hot dog stand's tasty barbecue sandwich.

Each flavorful bit and slurp was a delight. For me and, it seemed, Hey! Hot Dog's owner.

"It's fun to do business with the people in Joliet. My bread is locally baked down at Milano Bakery," he said. "And it's always fun to get to meet a lot of great people."

The most loyal Jolietans helped keep his roadside stand from suffering too much during the coronavirus crisis.

"To be honest, pandemic or no pandemic, our summertime business was the same as the previous year. COVID didn't affect us like it did a lot of others, thank goodness," Uedelhofen said. "We really catered to our customers, with carhop service or drive up- And they came back. So, it really worked out."

But if I really wanted to find joy in Joliet, ol' B.J. said, I had to stop at Dan's Homemade Candies.

I ignored the early signs of acid reflux and took his advice.

Since 1919, Dan's has served the finest confectioneries a working-class city could muster.

Owner Karen Nolan greeted me at the counter. She smirked when I asked her to share something delightful about her rough-and-tumble hometown.

"You're not going to like what you hear from me," she said, letting out a laugh that filled the candy store. "Because there ain't nothing joyful about Joliet."

Having heard similar refrains from straight-talking Jolietans before, I almost believed her.

Then, I popped one of her shop's famous "plain caramels" in my mouth.

On the drive home, another. And a few more.

As I reached the Chicago city limits, my gut told me that Nolan was fibbing.

There's an abundance of joy to be found in Joliet, no matter what people say.

I had the tummy ache to prove it.

Mark Konkol, recipient of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting, wrote and produced the Peabody Award-winning series, "Time: The Kalief Browder Story." He was a producer, writer and narrator for the "Chicagoland" docu-series on CNN, and a consulting producer on the Showtime documentary, "16 Shots."

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