Joliet gets its Olive Garden

Nathan Ditton and his bicycle tell a story of how badly some people wanted an Olive Garden Restaurant in Joliet.

Olive Garden opened at 11 a.m. Monday to a line of more than 50 people waiting to get in less than a day after some likely had a big Easter dinner.

But this was a day many had been waiting for.

Among those was Ditton who rode his bicycle there for a shorter trip than usual.

The Joliet resident had been making 30-mile round trips by bicycle to Bolingbrook for Olive Garden soup, salad and breadsticks.

“It’s awesome,” Ditton said as he waited in line for Olive Garden to open. “That’s all I can say. Soup and salad – minestrone with the breadsticks.”

At age 20, Ditton wasn’t born yet when Joliet residents first began saying they wanted an Olive Garden as the city and developers conducted surveys on what businesses people would like to see come to town.

Jon Linneman, general manager of what Olive Garden calls its Joliet-Plainfield location, has been hearing it for years.

He grew up in Plainfield, lives in Joliet, has been general manager at the Olive Garden in Bolingbrook for the past nine years, and has worked with the restaurant chain the past 20 years.

“For about 15 years I’ve been hearing about it,” Linneman said Monday morning as he chatted with the restaurant’s first guests waiting for it to open. “They’ve been talking about an Olive Garden every time a new building was going up. People would say, ‘Is that going to be an Olive Garden?’”

Finally, it has arrived.

The restaurant is located at 16337 S. Boulevard Place, and its address is actually listed as Plainfield based on the postal address although it is in Joliet city limits. It is the second business to open in The Boulevard, a development that is part in Joliet and part in Plainfield. the Plainfield section has the Costco store that opened in November 2020.

Rene Villaneuva of Crest Hill said he was surprised more people were not in line for the opening.

He arrived before 7 a.m. and was first in line.

“Just the Alfredo,” Villaneueva said when asked why he craves Olive Garden food. “That’s the selling point.”

The first people in line included residents from Plainfield, Shorewood, Lockport and Braidwood, suggesting it wasn’t only Joliet waiting for an Olive Garden closer to home.

“I like the ambience, and the staff is always friendly,” said Andre Clement of Plainfield as we waited for the restaurant to open.

The ambience at the Joliet-Plainfield restaurant is unique compared to other regional Olive Garden restaurants that people may know. The restaurant is built on a model that has been out for only about a year, Linneman said.

People noticed the difference during friends-and-family business conducted last week to break in the new staff.

“They say this doesn’t look like any Olive Garden they’ve ever been in,” Linneman said. “It looks more modern. They love the wine walls. They love the wine displays in the bar area.”

The restaurant also features a solarium with a high ceiling that accounts for the height of the building. Linneman said many people ask if there is a second floor to the restaurant, which there is not.

The solarium features a high wall of glass windows that contribute to the natural light admitted inside. It also creates a picturesque effect at nighttime, Linneman said.

Other features of the restaurant include enclosed booths that provide privacy and a separate carry-out area with its won entrance.

But the restaurant’s most appealing feature is likely its location.

“I’ve been waiting for one to come here forever,” Denice Hlavcik of Shorewood said as she waited for Olive Garden to open. “It’s nice and close.”