New Algonquin restaurant The Chick and the Pig aims to feed night shift with homestyle meals

Algonquin restaurateur Greg Geigel opened his third restaurant in October with a goal to feed the masses and graveyard shift workers with hearty home-cooked-style meals.

“Those people that work at night, there’s nothing to eat,” he said.

The Chick and the Pig, at at 1000 N. Main St., recently expanded its weekend hours to be open until 3 a.m. The restaurant, offering only takeout, delivery and catering options, specializes in fried chicken and barbecue. Geigel also owns Bold American Fare and Whiskey and Wine in Algonquin, less than a mile away on Main Street.

Geigel describes the menu as sustainable and filling compared with fast food, which often is the only option for people on the go who work overnight. The family-style menu features a different meal each day such as spaghetti, ribs and chicken wings.

“It’s designed to be sustainable food for people,” he said. “You’re going to eat it and your body is going to like you.”

Chef and co-owner Mathew Lucas, who also cooks and creates the menus for Bold and for Whiskey and Wine, said he is excited to create food that he cannot at Bold because of its limited space.

“We just couldn’t do it here at Bold,” he said. “Bold is just too small of a footprint to do anything barbecue related.”

The kitchen at The Chick and the Pig is about 3,000 square feet, which makes it perfect for Lucas to play around with smoking and slow-cooking multiple meats at the same time, he said. Lucas said he always had a passion for barbecuing ever since he worked at the Crystal Lake Rib House almost 20 years ago.

Lucas also heavily drew inspiration from his childhood by using recipes for baked beans, coleslaw and meatloaf from his mom to create a menu of true home-cooked food.

“I never was trained at a culinary school or anything like that,” he said.

The restaurant also features “deescalating prices” where the price per serving drops the more that is ordered, Geigel said. As the restaurant grows, the team aims to start doing catering for large events such as weddings and pig roasts.

Geigel hopes word will spread since the building can be missed and has been vacant for over 10 years. The Chick and the Pig is near the roundabout that was installed last year as part of Algonquin’s $7.1 million project to repair and replace streets and sidewalks in and around the downtown area.

The Chick and the Pig is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday and Monday, 10 a.m. to 1:30 a.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 10 a.m. to 3 a.m. Friday through Saturday. For more information on The Chick and the Pig, visit thechickandthepig.com.

“We hope to be at all the barbecue events and things around the area this summer so people can come and check us out,” Lucas said.