Chicago Style BBQ: Joliet's Rib Doctor Keeps Busy

JOLIET, IL — It's 11:05 a.m. Wednesday. The front door is now unlocked, and Kevin Roberts has opened for business at Joliet's Chicago Style BBQ, at 1215 N. Broadway St. A couple of people waiting in the parking lot walk inside to place their lunch order.

It's going to be another hectic 10-hour work day for Roberts, a restaurant personality who is known as "The Rib Doctor."

As usual, Roberts wears his trademark hospital scrubs to work every day.

Roberts works seven days a week and is one of the hardest-working restaurant operators in the Joliet area.

Just five minutes after opening for business Wednesday, The Rib Doctor is running out of the kitchen. It's time to restock the toilet paper in the public restrooms, he realized.

Besides preparing all his food, Roberts was training a new employee Wednesday. The young woman was put in charge of running of the front register and taking the carryout orders.

"Hire! Train! Quit! Replace!" Roberts hollered in the kitchen as Joliet Patch's editor stands a few feet away interviewing him.

It's been two years since Patch last interviewed The Rib Doctor.

Patch talked with Roberts to find out how business is doing amid the year-old pandemic.

A number of Joliet area restaurants did not make it last year. Chicago Style BBQ, however, has always focused on takeout orders.

"Hire! Train! Quit! Replace!" Roberts yelled again.

Chicago Style BBQ is open seven days a week, from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

The restaurant is at the corner of Broadway Street and Smith Avenue, a couple of blocks south of Haunted Trails Family Entertainment Center.

"November 1989 — Joliet since 1992," Roberts replied, when asked how long he's been in the restaurant business.

Before opening in January 2018 at 1215 N. Broadway St., Chicago Style BBQ was located in downtown Joliet on North Chicago Street.

Despite the year-long pandemic, Roberts said business remains good for him.

"I'm here all the time, and (takeout) that was the majority of our business anyway," he remarked. "The phone is always ringing. People come in at all times."

The biggest obstacle facing Chicago Style BBQ is the one Roberts said he has faced for many years — finding dependable restaurant help.

"No one wants to make a career of this anymore," he complained.

Roberts' core customers know he is not the fastest restaurant in Joliet. He does not pretend to be. He finds it amusing when people walk into Chicago Style BBQ and they are not accustomed to having to wait perhaps 20 to 25 minutes, if he has a line of customers already waiting ahead of them.

"People are willing to go out for breakfast and get pancakes, and they'll wait 45 minutes or an hour, and they won't complain, yet pancakes take two minutes to cook," Roberts said. "It's crazy the way people think as far as how much time they allow for breakfast."

If Roberts is not overwhelmed in the kitchen, he aims to get orders ready in 10 to 15 minutes.

But walk-in customers need to realize that Chicago Style BBQ is along a major highway, Route 53, he explained.

"When you're on a main route, it's always like a McDonald's drive-thru," he said. "If you get a crush of people who come in here, well, you got to do the math."

Roberts said he discontinued offering Polish sausages, fish and burgers.

"I actually took things off the menu because people are in a hurry," he said.

Reducing the menu selections has not hurt business at all, he added.

"If 10 people come in the door right now," Roberts said, "seven or more will order the rib tips. Rib tips is seven out of 10 orders. The rest are ribs, hot links sausages and the wings."

During Wednesday's kitchen interview, Roberts scampered to the back of his restaurant around 11:25 a.m. to retrieve several more slabs of meat to slow-roast.

His smoker is stoked with several logs of hickory wood.

"That raw meat is going to take three to four hours," he said.

Roberts said the reason why Chicago Style BBQ remains a success in Joliet is because the customers know there's consistency in the kitchen.

He's the one making the ribs and rib tips every day.

According to Google Reviews, Chicago Style BBQ has 327 reviews, averaging 4.2 stars out of 5.

"No one makes a career out of restaurants now," Roberts said. "I can't afford to hire five to 10 employees.

"If you had 10 different people cooking, it wouldn't taste the same. These people are here because I'm here."

By 11:30 a.m., the lunch business was picking up.

Three employees who work on Broadway Street for Holsten Management Group, which runs Joliet's former Evergreen Terrace apartment complex, stopped by to order lunch.

One of the Holsten workers, Vernon, told Patch that Chicago Style BBQ has quickly become one of his favorite restaurants in Joliet since he started commuting to work from Chicago.

"It's worth the wait," he said.

Another Holsten worker, Paris, said he tries to eat at Chicago Style BBQ several times a month.

"This is like the best food," he said.