Crusade II Opens, Crest Hill Gains Destination Restaurant: Mayor

CREST HILL ? In what likely will be remembered as one of the biggest Joliet area restaurant stories of 2022, Crusade Burger Bar II opened this week in Crest Hill, bringing a unique dining experience to Will County.

"We are very excited to have Crusade Burger Bar in the city of Crest Hill," Mayor Ray Soliman told Joliet Patch on Friday. "Their food is outstanding, and they have a great reputation and following. They will become a destination point for our city along with our other fine restaurants.

"I wish them much success," Crest Hill's mayor added.

How popular is the first Crusade Burger Bar in Yorkville that opened in 2016?

So popular that sometimes the seating wait is up to two hours, according to Jordan Blaskey, general manager for the new Crusade in the Renwick Plaza.

According to Google Reviews, the Crusade in Yorkville has 2,638 reviews, averaging 4.5 stars out of 5 stars.

After only four days of being open, Crusade Burger Bar II in Crest Hill already shows four Google Reviews, averaging 4.8 stars out of 5.

"My goal would be that people come here, experience our food and I hope that it can rival their favorite burger place, if it isn't Crusade," Blaskey told Joliet Patch during Thursday's interview. "I'm fully anticipating us being very busy this weekend."

There are some different menu options at the Crest Hill Crusade, but the menu and drinks are not dramatically different compared to Yorkville.

"The goal here is to bring that same offering to people that may not have experienced us yet," Blaskey said.

What are the main differences between Yorkville and Crest Hill?

"Our bar is a lot bigger," Blaskey said. "And we probably have 30 percent more seating at the bar."

The total seating capacity for the Crest Hill Crusade is about 100, Blaskey said.

Crest Hill's Crusade has about 10 craft beers on tap, plus another 25 different beers in bottles and cans.

There are:

Eight signature burgers plus one build your own house burger.

Six appetizers.

Three different milkshakes.

Four signature macaroni and cheese selections, plus one build your own mac and cheese.

Eleven different cocktails and six different adult shakes.

In addition:

Crest Hill's Crusade will feature a burger of the week, a shake of the week and a macaroni of the week.

"So those are different than Yorkville," Blaskey said.

Once inside, guests will notice giant posters of Iron Maiden, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Prince and more covering the walls.

"We're all fans of art in general," Blaskey said. "A lot of that includes music, literature, movies that translate into the food and cocktail program we put out."

During Thursday's interview, Blaskey printed out a copy of his food and drink sales. Crusade's cheese curds were the top seller for appetizers. The cheese curds come with ranch and hot sauce and are breaded in -house.

For cocktails, the Crusade Old-Fashioned was the top-selling bar drink - it features Four Roses Bourbon, Demerara, orange bitters and Angostura.

As far as burgers, the Get 'Em A Body Bag and The Hangover have been the top sellers this first week of business in Crest Hill.

At $18, The Hangover has American cheese, bacon, hash browns, fried egg and mayonnaise.

The Get 'Em A Body Bag is $16 and American cheese, house-made kimchi, bacon and sesame aioli.

Blaskey also highly recommends the George Likes His Chicken Spicy. That $14 burger features pickle brined spicy breaded chicken, creamy slaw and house pickles.

And for those 21 and older, Crusade offers adult slushies, one of which is a blue raspberry slushy mixed with Tequila.

What: Crusade Burger Bar II

Where: Renwick Plaza, 20631 Renwick Road, Crest Hill

Hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday.

Crusade Burger Bar does not take reservations, but does use the Yelp Waitlist feature.

Crusade Burger moved into the space previously occupied by Burger Rebellion, which only lasted a year and a half, closing this summer. Burger Rebellion did not have a liquor license for most of the time it was open.

Blaskey stressed that Crusade has no affiliation with Burger Rebellion.