Got gift certificates to Syl’s Restaurant in Rockdale? Owner of Joliet bakery and deli wants to help out.

Shortly after Maura Williams, owner of Syl’s Restaurant in Rockdale, announced the restaurant’s closing on Jan. 3, Tom Grotovsky started reading social media posts from people wondering about the status of their gift certificates.

Grotovsky, owner of The Great American Bagel in Joliet, said he empathized with all parties.

Don “Duke” Williams, co-owner of Syl’s Restaurant in Rockdale and the catering business that operates the Renaissance Center in Joliet, was just 52 when he died suddenly on Oct. 5, 2022.

[ Don Williams, influential Joliet-area restauranteur and owner of Syl’s, dies ]

Grotovsky’s own mother was 46 when she suddenly died from a heart attack mere weeks before Grotovsky graduated from high school in 1980, Grotovsky said.

So to alleviate some concern for everyone, Grotovsky announced on Facebook on Monday that If anyone has a gift certificate for Syl’s Restaurant in Rockdale, contact him at The Great American Bagel, 1101 Essington Road in Joliet, and he will swap bagels and cream cheese in exchange for the gift certificate.

Grotovsky’s number at the restaurant is 815-744-9630.

“I know I can’t offer a prime rib dinner or hundreds of dollars of food at one sitting,” Grotovsky said. “I’m just doing it because it’s the right thing to do. It’s the right thing to help out a fellow business owner.”

Grotovsky said he’s not getting paid for the certificates or receiving anything in return for them.

“We live in a great city. Here in Joliet, people have a strong commitment to each other; everyone knows everyone,” Grotovsky said. “I just wanted her to feel like someone truly cares and try to take some of the burden off her shoulders.”

Grotovsky clearly recalled March 9, 1980. Grotovsky was a senior at Providence Catholic High School in New Lenox.

“My dad came running up the stairs in just total distress saying that my mom had died. And she had died in bed,” Grotovsky said. “I’ll never forget that morning my whole life. I ran down with him and saw her lying there.”

Grotovsky said his mother Mary Ann was 46 and had just received “a clean bill of health” the previous week.

“It was the start of a brand-new life for me,” Grotovsky said. “It took me a long time to really feel comfortable as an adult. I didn’t have a mother to give me maternal input for my decision-making and everything. Here was this teenage boy in his prime of growing and maturing and try to figure life out. My dad was working all the time and I had two younger sisters. Although they probably didn’t know it, I was so worried about that.”

Grotovsky said it’s “hard enough in this day and age to be a parent” without also losing one’s spouse, business partner and father of two teen girls.

Maura Williams, co-owner in the family business, which includes Premier Catering, is also raising two daughters: Abby, 18, and Maggie, 16.

“It just hit home so much for me,” Grotovsky said. “That’s why I decided to show some kindness.”

Grotovsky said he’s certain closing Syl’s was not an easy decision to make.

“Restaurant life is hard,” Grotovsky said. “It’s so hard. Going through the pandemic. Going through wage increases. Inflation. Eggs are $9 a dozen. How do you still make money to pay the bills?”

Grotovsky said, “we live in a really rough world right now.”

“And I need to make it a little better for one person,” Grotovsky said. “To me, that’s what it’s all about: changing life for one person at a time.”