Home-style cooking, slower pace highlight Elgin restaurant

Kendall's Kountry Kitchen on Elgin's near west side is a restaurant that would probably fit better in the fictional town of Mayberry than in a bustling city the size of Elgin.

Home-style cooking, a slower pace, and an owner who is almost always in and chatting with the customers are just a few of the reasons this business has survived for nearly a quarter of a century.

"I've been in the restaurant business almost all of my life," said owner Judy Kendall, who previously worked at East Dundee's Cock-a Doodle, Floyds in Carpentersville, and Win Miller's, now Alexander's Restaurant in Elgin.

"When the previous owners of the building, located just a few blocks from the Grand Victoria Casino, abandoned their operation in the mid-1980s, I decided it was time to be my own boss."

The building had been the site of a short-lived venture called the Southern Belle. Before that, it was Kramer Brothers Restaurant and Britton's Dairy.

Some of Kendall's patrons say they even remember buying ice cream while standing on cement slab that is now the dining area, says Kendall.

"We opened in June 1986," says Kendall. "I brought two fellow employees, Lois Harvey and Nick Carbaros with me from previous businesses." Harvey still works for Kendall while Nick passed away a few years after the business opened. Also part of the operation for a number of years are her two cooks Willie Guadalajara, and Tony Ortega; and waitresses Roxanne Trnka and Janet Wolf.

Carbaros, who was a veteran cook, helped Kendall develop many of her menu items.

"He would also tell me I spent too much time talking to my customers," said Kendall. "But, that's just the way I've always been," she smiled.

"I was also told by the owners of several established restaurants that I probably wouldn't make it - in part because I was a woman - but I was glad to show them otherwise."

Kendall says she worked hard, not taking a day off for the first five years.

Open every day but Christmas, Kendall's Kountry Kitchen specializes in breakfast and lunch.

"Many customers say our breakfast is one of the best in town," she says.

A longtime favorite has been the biscuits and gravy which was an old family recipe of her mother-in-law, she explains.

Indicative of how the times have changed, Kendall says her coffee was only 25 cents when the business started. Today it's $1.40 a cup.

"But, I've only raised my prices two times in all the years I've been open," she adds.

It's the neighborhood people who have sustained her business over time, notes Kendall. Employees from nearby Lowrie School and the Elgin Mental Health Center have been some of her longtime regulars.

To accommodate those on a busy schedule, Kendall regularly takes orders over the phone and then has the table set and the food piping hot when the customers arrive. "Many of my customers are people who came in with their parents and are now adults," she said.

Just how much customers feel at home at Kendall's is probably illustrated no better than by two events of recent months. On one occasion when her cash register stopped working during the noon rush time, one customer volunteered to stay and add up checks. On another day when her busboy was ill, one of the patrons spent several hours volunteering at the job.

But, perhaps the best example of the Kendall's small town feel is a group of men called "Farmer and the Boys" who unlock the door for her every morning at 4 a.m.

"We don't open until 5:30 a.m., but these guys who go to work early, come in, start up the coffee, put the cream on tables, and have everything ready to go when we arrive," said Kendall.

Kendall says that she thinks more of retiring these days, but says nothing is certain.

"My husband tells me that I work just because I enjoy meeting with the people. He's right.

"When I do retire, I'm really going to miss everybody."