When it comes to liquor in Oak Park, the times they are a-changing. The village has had BYO (bring your own) licenses since 2018. But recently, the law was amended to allow establishments to charge a corkage fee, something that they couldn’t do before.
Chicago’s Home of Chicken & Waffles was the first to secure this new license.
“The fact that Oak Park cares enough about its restaurants, small business owners, to say, hey, we want you guys to be able to generate some income off of BYOB, we really appreciate that thoughtfulness,” said Tonya Johnson, co-owner of Chicago’s Home of Chicken & Waffles.
The change is part of the village’s pro-business plans.
“We are looking at the liquor code and modernizing it from the lens of economic vitality and nightlife,” said Emily Egan, the village’s development services director. “We want to make sure that our restaurants can be competitive with restaurants in other villages.”
Tonya Johnson and her husband Darnell opened their restaurant at 543 Madison St. in Oak Park in 2010. It was their second location, with the first in Chicago’s Bronzeville.
The license allows customers to bring in beer or wine only. That’s fine with Chicago’s Home of Chicken & Waffles.
“Our slogan is ‘welcome to our home.’ When people come in, we want them to have that homey feeling,” Tonya Johnson said. “We get so many customers saying I can’t believe my grandma’s not in the kitchen.”
The menu is full of authentic soul food without a lot of frills, according to Johnson. A five-egg omelet is the star of breakfast. For dinner there are specials, like the Ma Betty which comes with salmon, catfish or chicken, three sides and cornbread. Choosing sides is harder than you’d think: candied yams, collard greens, mac and cheese, Cajun rice and beans, rice and gravy, potato salad, are all among the options.
They serve a full menu all day long.
“If you want to have breakfast at 10 p.m. you can. Or if you want to have a full-blown dinner at eight o’clock in the morning, you can have that too.”
In fact, it’s that all-day vibe that was the genesis of the magic combination of fried chicken and waffles.
“Chicken and waffles became popular back in the day, like in the ‘20s,” Johnson said. People would leave jazz clubs in the early morning hours unsure of whether they wanted breakfast or dinner, “so they started combining chicken and waffles and it just took off like crazy and spread through the South.”
Dessert can’t be missed. They serve the Southern triumvirate of peach cobbler, banana pudding and sweet potato pie.
The village said it hopes that the new license provisions are a sweetener for other restaurants as well. Ciro on Pleasant Street in Oak Park has already gotten one.
“We are going to provide information to restaurants that would be eligible,” Egan said. “That’s a routine process whenever we change the code just to make sure that they know they’re eligible and it could be an option for them.”
“It’s going to help our fellow restaurant owners,” Johnson said. “We’re a small group and we have to all band together. I’m hoping more people will come out and enjoy some BYOB in the community.”
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What to know before you go:
Website: chicagoschickenandwaffles.com
Address: 543 Madison St., Oak Park
Hours: Sunday 8 a.m. – 8:45 p.m.
Monday – Thursday 9 a.m. – 8:45 p.m.
Friday – Saturday 9 a.m. – 9:45 p.m.