DELL RHEA CHICKEN BASKET: A TASTE OF NOSTALGIA

We were kids again, the four of us, making the night ours on a Saturday when we walked into the Dell Rhea Chicken Basket on the old U.S. Route 66.

The night was young, much younger than our collective 271 years.  Yowza!

We're actually walking out in this picture, but you get the idea.

Dell Rhea’s had been part of their story back in the day when Alan and Diane and Jimmy had grown up in these parts.  These parts had once been zoned Hinsdale, Illinois for the three locals; fifty years later, progress had rendered this staple of thousands traveling the now defunct Mother Road a Route 66 icon, today part of the Willowbrook community in the western suburbs of Chicago.

In 2006, Dell Rhea’s Chicken Basket became part of the National Register of Historic Places.

As an east coast transplant new to the Midwest with only the last twenty-seven years to my credit I had nothing to contribute by way of childhood memories and Dell Rhea Chicken Basket, much less America’s Route 66.  That famed highway had meandered west (no detours by way of the east coast) from Chicago through eight states and three time zones until the Pacific Ocean brought the 2448 mile Main Street of America to an end in Santa Monica.  
 
I nibbled on a hot biscuit slathered in butter as

These arrived hot out of the oven.

I listened to Jim and Alan and Diane sift through the memories that fit in with the fifties décor this time capsule had perfected for the last half century; beer for a quarter, the same price for a gallon of gas; a root beer float for five cents; and a thirty-minute wait for “The best fried chicken in the Chicagoland area,” according to my three relics as well as Pat Bruno of the Chicago Sun Times, circa 1993, and the back of the Chicken Basket menu.

I kept waiting for the Fonz to show up with his signature, "Heeeey!"

According to the history provided, the Chicken Basket hatched along U.S. Route 66 sometime in the late ‘20’s or early ‘30’s in an old gas station with a small lunch counter. As the story goes, two local farm women overheard Irv Kolarik, the original owner, talking about selling more food and changing less tires; they offered to teach Irv how to cook fried chicken using their special recipe as long as Irv bought his chicken from their farm.  You go girls!

That’s right; Guy Fiery from Diners, Drive-ins and Dives is a fan of Dell Rhea's.

Fast forward a few years and business was generating much more than chicken feed. The two car repair bays had morphed into a dining room to accommodate the hungry motorists headed to and from nearby Chicago on America’s new Route 66.  In 1946, Irv purchased more land adjacent to his original gas station and built the restaurant that still stands today.

I might just have to return for some souvenirs next time.

Fueled by American’s big cars and big dreams and the biggest population boom in American history, it was inevitable America would need big highways to accommodate our big appetites and our increasing need for speed.  Ironically, the very vehicle (literally) that had generated this new prosperity up and down Route 66 ultimately led to its demise; and with it most of the mom and pop establishments looking for a slice of American pie.  I love pies!
 
By the ‘50’s and ‘60’s Americans needed big highways to support the big cars and big dreams of the post-war economy.   Enter President Dwight Eisenhower’s Interstate Highway System.  Damn progress as well as the torpedoes!  Route 66 literally fell by the Interstate wayside. 
 
Thankfully Grace and Dell Rhea rescued the Chicken Basket from going the route of most of the mom and pop establishments along the now defunct Route 66.  Think chicken running  around with its head cut off.  I know, a bit graphic, but sadly true up until 1963 when this prominent Chicago businessman, once executive director of the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau, purchased the relic and added his name to the sign out front to encourage his many friends to stop in and say hello over a basket of “the best fried chicken in the Chicagoland area.” 

I can't say for sure, but I think these two get the credit for our enjoyable blast-from-the-past evening.

And speaking of chicken! This is what I’m talking about!

No buckets, just baskets; no fast food either.

The chicken dinner came with a plate and vegetables.

Would it live up to all the hype? Induction into the Route 66 Hall of Fame in Pontiac, Illinois in 1992; a cover story in 1994 in the Route 66 magazine; a Discovery Channel Europe piece in “Dine with Max and Greg” the same year.  There was a lot riding on the past and this hot number filling the present with all manner of savory smells and salivary anticipation.  

Suffice it to say, there was nothing fast food about this chicken, especially given the 30-minute prep time.  No way was a heat lamp  responsible for the internal temperature of that crispy, juicy, golden concoction making immediate consumption too hot to handle.  If it was any fresher I’d be picking feathers off my plate; all the more reason to throw caution and my cholesterol to the wind.   

Was this “the best fried chicken in the Chicagoland area?”    

Let’s just say, we all cleaned our plates/baskets.  The three repeat customers keeping me company came up with differing opinions. We all know you can never really return home.  Memory usually exceeds any homecoming expectations.  
    
I’ll leave you with that food for thought!  
 
We did agree at the end of the night that we all felt a bit more like spring chickens after getting our kicks (and "the best fried chicken in all of Chicagoland") on Route 66.

Here's what spring chickens look like.

A peck on the cheek from these spring chickens.

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Bottom Line on Dell Rhea Chicken Basket:

Verdict:  Lots to crow about when it comes to the fried chicken at Dell Rhea Chicken Basket. 

How To Get There:  From Chicago, take Lake Shore Drive south to I55 exchange.  Head south on I55 towards St. Louis.  Take exit 274 and merge onto IL-83 N/Kingery Road S.  Turn right onto Midway Drive, right on S Quincy St and right onto N. Frontage Rd/Joliet Rd.  Destination will be on the left.     

Insider Information:  If fried chicken is your weakness, you’ll want to stop in on Tuesday for the all-you-can-eat special.