Dixon couple find success after quick decision to open River City Ale House

DIXON – A day care owner and a lineman walk into a bar …

Sounds like the start of a joke, right? Actually, it’s the start of a business plan – no kidding.

Jennifer Humphrey, who also runs The Early Years Academy day care in Morrison, and her husband Justin, a lineman with the electrician’s union out of Rockford, recently took a short trip from bar hoppers to bar owners after a visit to an area pub inspired them to open up a place of their own back home: River City Ale House.

How short of a trip was it? About a week. The Dixon couple, who enjoy visiting restaurants and bars throughout the Midwest, were at Pub 225, a martini bar in Milledgeville, when the idea hit.

“Honestly, this was something we never really aspired to own, it was totally an on-a-whim, impulse decision,” Jennifer said. “We went out one time and were up in Milledgeville and saw this cute little place [Pub 225]. We went out on a Saturday night, talked about it on Sunday, this place came for lease on Monday, and by Tuesday we had decided that we were going to do this. No previous thought, no previous anything.”

River City Ale House has become a busy place since opening in October 2022, owing in large part to the couple’s vision for the business: offering distinctively different, and delicious, dishes and drinks.

The drink menu includes domestic and regional craft beers, 10 different martinis, a few wine selections, Moscow mules in fruity flavors, and a handful of both signature and seasonal cocktails. Holiday-themed cocktails are also available, such as the Fourth of July, St. Patrick’s Day and Valentine’s Day. Other plentiful cocktail blends change by the season.

If it’s a bite to eat you’re looking for, River City Ale House’s food is as distinctive as its drinks. Burgers, wings, salads, chicken sandwiches and big pork tenderloin and ribeye sandwiches are staples on the lunch and dinner menu.

River City Ale House beefs up its burger menu with more than just your basics on a bun – and sometimes they’re not even on a bun. How about the Doughnut Mention It: a patty between two glazed donuts, with raspberry jam and candied bacon; a Cheesy Street Corn Burger with elote corn dip and a patty smothered in jalapeño sauce; and a peanut butter and jelly burger with cookie butter, jam, bacon and cheddar cheese. The burgers are a blend of ground chuck, brisket and short-rub black Angus beef.

Other sandwiches include a Bigger Than Texas grilled cheese with a huge hunk of melted cheese, bacon and blistered tomatoes between two slices of Texas toast; a veggie wrap; and chicken and waffles, topped with hot honey sauce. They even have a favorite from north of the border in poutine, so there’s no need to travel to Canada just for the fries, beef gravy and cheese curd dish. And no need to visit Bavaria for a huge pretzel, River City Ale House has that as well – a foot of thick pretzel dough twisted into shape and served with beer cheese and mustard.

Have enough room for dessert? You can top off a meal with fried pearl sugar waffle a la mode, chocolate lava cake, and cheesecake made by the CheeseKake Ko. of Rochelle. The cheesecake has been a big seller, Jennifer said. CheeseKake Ko. is run by a pair of sisters from Rochelle, one of whom used to work with Jennifer at her day care.

That’s a pretty impressive menu, especially considering that food wasn’t even part of the couple’s original plan: The couple had originally just wanted to have a martini bar, but they heard there was a demand for a place with unique eats.

“The more we researched the market and talked to people within the community, and everywhere I heard, ‘Dixon needs something different,’” Jennifer said. “We decided, you know what, we have to go with that. We tried to focus on something different, so we took ordinary items and put kind of a different twist on it. Our menu kind of reflects that, the base of the pyramid is a traditional concept, but everything has a different twist to it.”

Juggling a business along with their other jobs keeps the couple plenty busy, so it’s a good thing the couple are built for speed.

“We both go at about 150 miles per hour,” Jennifer said – but it took a little convincing for some people to get behind their juggling act. Adding a business to their already busy lives was a concern at first for her father, Keith Miller. However, she convinced him that it was all going to work out, and he soon became one of River City’s regulars.

From his usual seat at the bar, Miller was able to see his daughter and Justin turn their whim into a successful business before Miller suddenly died on Christmas morning in 2022. Photos of Miller can be found in the restaurant, a way to keep his memory alive, Jennifer said.

“When we started this project, I called my dad and told him that I was going to start a bar,” she said, and he thought she might be taking on too much. “We opened in October and he unexpectedly passed away Christmas morning. I’m so glad that it worked out the way that it did, because he was able to come in and really see it full circle. He just loved this place, and I’m so thankful.”

The couple enjoy being able to mingle with their customers, and they’ve been able to not only spend time with old friends who stop by but make some new ones, too – some who are new to The Petunia City. With its strong tourism base, and being off an interstate, Dixon has proven to be a good spot for people wanting to enjoy the local flavors of the community, Jennifer said, and they’ve met people who’ve just been passing by and stopped in, and others who’ve made their bar a destination during their day trip. In addition, they plan to add gaming machines in late February.

“It’s refreshing to come here from our day jobs because we get to interact with the public,” Jennifer said. “One of my favorite things is when someone comes through town and they aren’t from Dixon, I’m like, ‘How did you find this place?’ It’s nice to hear that people are traveling through town, and they’re using their Google Map to navigate our city.”

Justin feels the same way too, and enjoys being able to see the design work he and some of his friends did put to good use.

“I enjoy the fact that people enjoy it,” he said. “The feedback from the community – ‘It’s a great place to eat,’ ‘I love going there,’ ‘It’s nice, it’s classy’ – It was something for the community, and there was a need for a different kind of menu as far as breakfast and lunch.”

The food and drink menu will rotate once more come spring, which the couple hope will give people another reason to return.

“Traditionally when you go to a bar, they don’t have the time to do this stuff, they just don’t,” Jennifer said. “That was kind of our vision: We wanted to have something different all the way around, and that’s exactly what we’ve done.”

River City Ale House, 314 W. First St., is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday. Find it on Facebook, go to rivercityalehouseil.com or call 815-284-0381 for more information.