During the COVID lockdown, diner Paul Clark was doing his part, ordering out to support local restaurants. One day he landed on what sounded like a mash-up of a dish at Penny’s Noodle Shop at 1130 Chicago Ave. in Oak Park.
“I was amused by the name,” Clark said. “It was an unusual dish. I just love the combination of things in it.”
The dish is officially called Thai Ravioli Bowl. There is nothing Italian about it other than a sly reference to the house-made dumplings stuffed with shrimp, ground pork and Thai spices. Those are served in steaming broth, topped with bean sprouts, green onions, peanuts and a garlic sauce. It might sound heavy.
“There’s a lot of lightness to it,” Penny’s owner Jon Donnelly said. “All the broths are homemade here: veggie broth, chicken broth. Pork is roasted in-house. Thai ravioli is homemade. Everything here is, on a daily basis. We get six to eight supply deliveries a week. Everything is fresh.”
Thai ravioli has been on the menu perhaps since the location opened in 2003.
“If not the entire 22 years, I would probably say at least 10 to 15,” Donnelly said.
Donnelly bought this outpost of the beloved Penny’s Noodle Shop brand in 2021. Previously he owned several bars in the Wrigleyville neighborhood. Then he moved to Oak Park, was expecting a child and was ready to come home earlier than 2 a.m. every night. He was looking for a local opportunity.
He had eaten at Penny’s Sheffield Avenue location in Chicago frequently. As had diner Paul Clark, who used to live in Wrigleyville. (As did I. It was a favorite meal for my husband and me when we were first dating.)
“I’ve known the old owners for 20 years,” he said. First he rented the restaurant from them. Then he purchased it. “My game was not to make stupid changes. I did some aesthetical changes, mainly. And added few more things to the menu.”
There is a lot of consistency from the old owners’ time.
“There were five Penny’s at one point, but a lot of the cooks who worked at the other Penny’s are here now,” Donnelly said. “Some of these people worked for the previous owners for 20 years.”
Paul Clark first ordered Thai ravioli during the stay-at-home times.
“Every time I would look at their menu I’d be like, ‘Yeah, I can get Pad Thai. I can get curries at a lot of other places,’ and I had not seen this on other Thai menus,” Clark said. “Within a couple of weeks of getting it, I would be thinking about ordering it again.”
It became his default dish. Delivery was consistently fast. Thai ravioli has remained on his mind’s top menu choices in the area ever since.
“You have the ravioli, you have the broth, you have the slivers of pork. And it’s just really tasty,” Clark said.
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Get in on the Flavor:
Website: pennysoakpark.com
Address: 1130 Chicago Ave, Oak Park
Hours: Everyday noon – 8 p.m.