Baci: Former Plainfield Restaurant 'Still Alive' In Joliet
JOLIET, IL — From 1990 until 2010, an old church building in downtown Plainfield had a great run as Baci Italian restaurant. For most of that time, a man known by others as "Dio" was a reliable force in the kitchen.
Dio made thousands of pizzas, pastas, seafood entrees and appetizers. He became the top chef at the popular Plainfield restaurant that was originally built in 1868 as a Unitarian church before serving as the first church for St. Mary Immaculate Parish.
Although Baci closed in 2010, a sign proclaiming "Baci Ristorante & Pizzeria" suddenly appeared last summer 7 miles away, here in Joliet, at 1019 Plainfield Road.
"We got the blessing from the original Baci owners. My dad was the head chef over there so all the best dishes came from my dad," said Freddy Lorenzo, who runs the Joliet Baci along with his father, Dio.
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The resurgence of Baci has the potential to be a great small, family restaurant success story for Joliet. The father and son ownership team are now trying to attract a new generation of loyal Baci customers from Joliet.
After Baci closed in Plainfield, the father and son opened their own restaurant in Joliet called Cabanas. As time went on, one of their regular customers asked why they did not name their restaurant Baci, they said.
The original Baci owner, Franko Greco, moved to Arizona, where he opened Baci Italian Bistro in 2002. His fine-dining restaurant in Mesa shows 1,083 Google Reviews with an average rating of 4.6 out of 5.
Last July, the Cabanas restaurant sign came down and a sign for Baci Ristorante went up. In recent weeks, some people have posted questions in local Facebook community forums asking whether the Joliet restaurant has a connection to the downtown Plainfield restaurant that operated for 20 years inside the 19th century church.
The answer is a resounding yes.
"We get a lot of calls from people asking if we're related to them," Lorenzo told Joliet Patch on Thursday. "Everything is the same. My dad just didn't want all that great food to disappear."
Because of the coronavirus outbreak, Baci cannot open its dining room for customers, but its carryout business and delivery service are continuing.
The father and son told Patch "they will deliver to Plainfield if the price is right."
A minimum order of $25 is needed to deliver to Plainfield, they said.
If people in the Joliet area have never had Baci's pizza, Lorenzo insists they're bound to like his father's Italian cooking.
"I feel nothing compares to our pizza and even our pasta dishes," Lorenzo said. "We're definitely trying to leave our mark in the Joliet area. And we also want to see the old customers from Plainfield and let them know it's still alive."
"We like to make people happy," Dio said. "And this week we have a new menu. It's the same prices but new appetizers."
Some of those new appetizers include oysters Rockefeller, baked clams, fried calamari and a soup of the day.
Baci pizza is available in several varieties, including thin crust, pan crust and stuffed.
The menu features ribs, chicken, calzones, seafood alfredo, lasagna and linguini. You can get sandwiches, stuffed bread, homemade pastas, fried mushrooms, garlic bread with cheese, fried zucchini and bruschetta.
And there's cheese ravioli, baked manicotti, spaghetti, mostaccioli and sausage boscaiola.
And how's this for Baci nostalgia?
The original oven from the Plainfield Baci is now used daily in Joliet.
"I have the same oven. I have the same equipment," Dio said, taking Patch's editor on a brief tour of his restaurant kitchen.
"No one does it better than us," Lorenzo said proudly.
During the ongoing health crisis, Baci is open 11 a.m.to 9 p.m. Monday to Thursday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday, 2 to 11 p.m. Saturday and 2 to 8 p.m. Sunday.
"There is a 10-percent discount on all orders until the pandemic is over," Lorenzo said.
Baci is also offering a Tuesday special: buy one family-size pizza at full price and get a second pizza at half price.
The Joliet restaurant actually has two phone lines. Customers can call in their orders at 815-280-5191 or 815-280-5556. To check out the Baci menu go here.
Joliet Patch continues to reach out to small local restaurants with a simple online survey to let everyone know they are open and their current hours of operations during the coronavirus outbreak.
Nearly 130 Joliet businesses have been added to Patch's list so far. If you want to add your business to Joliet Patch's list of open and closed businesses, you can do so here.
Related:
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This article originally appeared on the Joliet Patch
