4,000 Golden Corral Meals For Joliet Man Since 2013
JOLIET, IL — If it wasn't for fiercely loyal customers, many of Joliet's indoor dining restaurants could not stay afloat during the pandemic. One of Joliet's most faithful diners is 73-year-old John Paul "JP" Bruzek. Everyone at Joliet's Golden Corral on West Jefferson Street knows JP. He eats there twice a day, six days a week.
Since reopening in July, Golden Corral opted to close on Monday. During the previous seven years, JP typically ate inside Golden Corral all seven days a week, and about a half of those days he came back for dinner.
In recent weeks, JP has become acclimated to eating outside under the big tent that Golden Corral erected after Gov. JB Pritzker shutdown indoor dining for Will County in August as coronavirus cases spiked to dangerous levels.
JP brings lots of business to Golden Corral's next door neighbor, too — Old Fashioned Pancake House, 2022 W. Jefferson St. He walks there daily for breakfast. "Scrambled eggs, sausage links and cottage cheese," he said.
On Thursday afternoon, Joliet Patch's editor caught up with JP as he was eating his lunch at Golden Corral. This summer, JP was at Golden Corral practically every time Joliet Patch went there to do a news story. On recent afternoons, when Patch's editor was at the traffic light for Jefferson and Hammes, JP could be seen in the distance eating his lunch under the Golden Corral tent.
Day after day, he sticks to his favorites. He orders the same food all the time.
"I like the fried chicken," JP told Joliet Patch. "Their fried chicken is excellent.
"But today, I'm having the barbecue chicken," he smiled. "For dinner, I'll have the steak."
Bruzek has an interesting life story. He grew up in Lemont. His grandfather came to the United States in 1922 from Prague.
"They knew the Germans were going to start something," he laughed. "I'm a good Bohemian."
Following high school, Bruzek, who stands 6-foot-4, said he went to Oglethorpe University in Atlanta.
"I went to high school in Lemont and had a scholarship to play basketball in Atlanta, Georgia," he said.
After college, he ended up in Las Vegas, where he stayed for 18 years, working as a casino security guard at the Golden Gate Hotel & Casino and at Arizona Charlies.
"I tried to figure out the mystery of a craps table, and it can't be done," JP laughed. "I gave that life up, or it would have killed me."
Bruzek said he has one regret in life about being on a full ride scholarship to play college basketball.
"Because you're a prisoner of the athletic department," he explained. "I wanted to study English literature, but they made me study business administration. I graduated with honors, cum laude."
Eight years ago, JP relocated to Joliet. He said he lives in the Mary Crest Village, a subsidized housing complex run by the Joliet Housing Authority.
In 2013, he started eating at Golden Corral. He's never stopped.
Since he collects Social Security and his housing is subsidized, JP said he has plenty of money to pay for his meals at his two staple restaurants on West Jefferson Street: breakfast at Old-Fashioned Pancake House, then lunch and dinner at Golden Corral.
"People say, 'How can I afford dining here all the time?' Well, I don't waste my money foolishly," he said. "I live in a subsidized building.
"Since I'm retired, I can budget my money," he said.
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Why Golden Corral day after day?
"The price for the product is outstanding, and the service is great," he said. "The food is great and the service is outstanding."
Factoring in sales taxes, JP said his daily lunch, plus his beverages cost him about $12. He said he also orders a cup of coffee and a glass of Sprite.
"And at 3:30 p.m., I get by for $10," he said.
Golden Corral offers a senior citizen discount from 2 to 4 p.m. for $8.99. The lunch special for seniors is $9.49, but does not include a drink.
Fried chicken for lunch, steak for dinner. Fried chicken for lunch, steak for dinner. Except for an occasional dalliance with the barbecue chicken, JP repeats the ritual day after day.
"I like not working," he smiled. "This life don't bother me at all.
"I let my hair grow long because I get a lot of compliments on it."
JP told Patch that he has remained a bachelor his whole life.
"I never had a family," he said. "Occasionally, I'll have a girlfriend."
While Golden Corral was shut down from mid-March to July, how did JP get by?
"I stayed home. I got a Link Card, so I get my groceries practically for free," he told Patch.
About the only time JP does not make it to Golden Corral is during the winter. "If it's really snowy or icy, but those are rare times," he stressed.
A rainy day won't stop him from walking to Golden Corral from the nearby Mary Crest Village, just a few blocks away.
"I'm not sugar. I'm not going to melt," he chuckled. "I might be old, but I'm not half dead."
On occasion, JP has ventured outside his West Jefferson Street comfort zone.
A couple years ago, he said he tried dining at the Wild Horse Bar & Grill, which closed in November 2019 after less than three years in business. The empty restaurant property is now for sale.
"I tried the Wild Horse and I didn't like it. And the Big Apple (on Larkin Avenue) is just too far for me to walk. Al's Steakhouse is too expensive," he remarked.
Besides Al's, which has been on Jefferson Street since 1959, a number of long-time Joliet restaurants anchor West Jefferson Street.
But in the past year or so, a few have closed, including Wild Horse, Arby's and Boston Market. Patch asked JP what it takes to be a successful restaurant on Joliet's busiest street.
"You can't be too expensive, not here on Jefferson Street, maybe out by the Louis Mall," he said. "Al's can get away with it because they have been here so long."
After devouring his barbecue chicken, corn, mashed potatoes and gravy, JP made sure to get some dessert for lunch.
"Strawberry ice cream," he told Maria his waitress. "The desserts are great."
Golden Corral temporarily closed the Joliet restaurant in mid-March when the new coronavirus rocked Illinois. While closed, the Joliet restaurant underwent an extensive remodeling that included the addition of a large fireplace and new carpeting.
When the restaurant reopened in July, JP was the first customer waiting outside the building.
On Thursday, Joliet Golden Corral General Manager Alina Bosze showed Joliet Patch a photo she took at the time, showing JP standing outside the entrance on her first day back in July.
"He's always the first to come in, so he's always here," Bosze told Patch. "And that makes us all feel good."
Patch asked JP for his reaction to Golden Corral's decision to get rid of the buffet lines in favor of the family-style meals delivered to the tables. The move was done in response to the coronavirus, restaurant officials told Patch.
"I think it's great," he remarked. "I like to be waited on."
With so many challenges facing the restaurant industry because of the pandemic, "it really means a lot for my crew and me, as a general manager, having a guest like that," Bosze said. "He's always very pleasant to our staff and very supportive toward all of them.
"I hope he's going to be with us forever, and I'm hoping for more guests like him."
Joliet's Golden Corral general manager told Patch she's confident JP has eaten at her restaurant "around 4,000 times."
When Patch told JP on Thursday he's probably eaten at Golden Corral at least 4,000 times, he responded, "I never crunched the numbers."
This article originally appeared on the Joliet Patch
