NWI Business Ins and Outs: Chomp, Caribbean Roots and Bibibop opening, Capriotti's, McDonald's and Glorious Coffee closed

The restaurant started as a food truck last year and opened a few months ago in Valparaiso's Lincoln Kitchen culinary incubator, where eateries focus on takeout and delivery as they seek to build up a clientele. Owners Mike Luick and Anne Carbonel are looking at moving to a brick-and-mortar spot in downtown Chesterton if a deal goes through. 

They're planning to expand to multiple locations in the future and have been eying spots in LaPorte and Winfield, though exactly where it ends up will depend on the availability of real estate.

"I want to have my business name on the side of a building," Luick said. "We started the brand as a food truck and decided to try Lincoln Kitchen for the winter and see what the response was. It's been really good in Valpo. But we want to have our own brick-and-mortar. We looked but there's nothing in Valpo now."

He hopes to move into a full-time space this spring, by the fall at the latest.

"We specialize in fresh sandwiches," he said. "I use real fresh ribeye steak for your cheesesteak, just like they do at Geno's Steaks. We use Amoroso's bread, which is authentic. We sautee our peppers and use Cheez Whiz and provolone."

The menu also includes hot dogs, freshly squeezed lemonade and the Big New Yorker, which mixes pastrami and corned beef.

Mike Luick has been cooking since he was a kid. He used to make Italian Beefs at Miller Pizza when he was 13 years old. He originally wanted to open an Italian Beef food truck but said the classic Chicago sandwiches were hard to prepare on a truck so he settled on a Philly Cheesesteak.

"I'm a sandwich guy," he said. "I've always loved a good Philly Cheesesteak. It's a sandwich that's been neglected in this area. I've got a good twist on a Philly that's based on my trips to Philly."

His brother is the chef Ed "Eddie" Luick at Blue Point in downtown Valparaiso.

"I followed my brother into cooking," he said. "I was a dishwasher at the Miller Bakery Cafe in Gary when Chef Gary Sanders ran it. He's passed now but was known for salads, desserts and writing cookbooks. I loved food and cookies food as a kid. My mother was amazing and inspired me. I was into sports and cooking. I didn't make it into the NBA but I stayed with cooking."

He does several versions of the Philly Cheesesteak, including with barbecue sauce, bacon and cheddar.

"It's a great meat. When you bite into it you can taste the cheese, vegetables and soft bread. It's a good flavor," he said. "It's a soft meat. When you order a ribeye sandwich, it's all one piece and it's tough. It's a better twist to do it with Italian bread and peppers mixed in. Mine tastes like Geno's, like places in downtown Philly."

He plans to continue to operate the Chomp food truck, which will hit the road again in the first week of April. It will be at Coffee Creek in Chesterton every Wednesday, the Chesterton European Market every Saturday, the Hobart Lakefront Festival every Thursday and the Founders Square in Portage every Friday this summer. It also will make stops at the Lake County Fair, Valparaiso's Popcorn Festival and other big festivals.

"Try to support a local business, not another chain," he said.

For more information, find Chomp on Facebook and Instagram.

Relocated

D & K Salads and Soul Food moved from Lake Street in Gary's Miller Beach neighborhood to the Steel City's Glen Park neighborhood south of the Borman Expressway, where it's now known as D & K Soul Food.

It kept the same menu of salads, soul food, smoothies, wraps, soup and soul rolls at its new spot at 3669 Broadway in Gary. Dishes include jerk chicken, jerk salmon, jerk shrimp, smothered turkey chops and smothered pork chops.

For more information, call 219-487-5306 or visit danksoulfood.com.

Coming soon

Caribbean Roots is going to go from being an outdoor pop-up in Gary's Miller Beach neighborhood to a brick-and-mortar fixture of Lake Street.

Pastor Ryan Flemming with The Revolution Church has run the Caribbean restaurant out of a tent and was looking for a permanent home. 

Then D & K Salads and Soul Food relocated. So Caribbean Roots is taking its storefront at 625 S. Lake St. in Gary, next to Indie Indie Bang Bang on Miller's main commercial drag.

"My interest in Caribbean food is largely from my wife, who's from the Dominican Republic," he said. "But we go beyond that and dip into the other islands and their flavors and cuisines. We have food from Puerto Rico, Cuba and Jamaica and are processing other offerings, like a roti from Trinidad and Tobago."

Flemming has lived in Miller for 15 years and was looking for a way to serve the community. He started cooking free community barbecues during the coronavirus pandemic and it evolved into doing a barbecue pop-up down the street during the warmer months.

Caribbean Roots slow cooks meats like pork butts, rib tips, racks of ribs, briskets, half chickens and jerk chicken.

"We marinate and season our meats before slow cooking them on a wood-fired stove to a perfect goodness," he said.

Top sellers include empanadas, jerk chicken, oxtail and mojo chicken. They come with sides like rice and beans, white rice with a Dominican stew, Jamaican rice and peas and coconut rice with red beans. It does frequent specials, offering items not on its regular menu.

"I want people to enjoy all the flavor and diversity of Caribbean cuisine," he said. "I've been eating it the whole time I've been married. I appreciate the freshness, the flavor, the unique spaces and the heat component. A lot of Dominican flavors are spicy without being hot. It's very spicy and flavorful and there's a history behind the influences of the foods of the island. It's influenced by Africa and India. It's very diverse. It inspired what we know as modern barbecue. We try to honor the peoples of the West Indies and honor those cultures and their history. We offer authentic food to the best of our ability."

Caribbean Roots' tagline is "Food from the Sol," a play on the Spanish word for sun.

"We put our heart and soul into it," he said. "We try to communicate through food. We're looking to bring people together."

The new brick-and-mortar location will let it operate year-round instead of closing up in the colder months. It will go from being open three days a week to likely being open five days a week.

"Now that we have a kitchen, we will have a more diverse and larger menu," he said. "We love the challenge from a culinary perspective of serving different foods from the various countries and islands. We don't just want to be a Dominican restaurant though that's our roots and our foundation. We want to offer some of the other items, especially those they're aren't available around here."

Caribbean Roots aims to be open by March 1. The 1,500-square-foot restaurant will seat 30 to 40 people inside and also offer takeout.

"If you're looking for authentic Caribbean food made with passion and love from people who care about their customers, community and the food, give us a chance and come check us out," he said. "We're easy to find and access, right by the South Shore and the Indiana Dunes National Park. We're less than a mile from the lake.

It likely will be open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and from 12 to 7 p.m. on Saturday.

Closed

If you're headed to the Chicago Auto Show, there's one fewer dining option at McCormick Place this year.

The long-running McDonald's on Level 2 in the North Building closed after at least a decade in a rare closure for a Golden Arches. Connie's Pizza, which started in 1963 when Jim Stolfe traded his Oldsmobile Starfire for a small pizzeria on the South Side, is still there if you have a taste for pan or deep dish pizza.

Opening soon

Bibibop Asian Grill is slated to open on Feb. 15 at 9140 Calumet Ave. in Munster.

The fast-casual restaurant that's similar to Chipotle offers Korean cuisine made with fresh, high-quality ingredients. It's offering the first 100 people in line free Bibibop for a year and $5 off if they wear orange.

It's opening next to Noodles and Co., Potbelly's and Starbucks.

Specializing in "healthy and affordable Asian food," it serves chef-curated bowls like the Steak & Noodle bowl that blends sweet potato noodles, steak, bean sprouts, broccoli, carrots, egg, sesame seeds and Gochujang sauce and the Teriyaki Tofu & Greens bowl features salad, tofu, potatoes, black beans, bean sprouts, kale, corn and teriyaki sauce.

Bowls can be ordered off a set menu or customized to one's taste with ingredients like sweet potato noodles, rice, corn, kimchi, red cabbage, pineapple and kale. It also caters.

It serves drinks like kombucha, green tea, black currant tea, lemonade and pop.

It's a chain that has a location in Carmel and is opening one in Naperville.

For more information, call 219-332-2021 or call www.bibibop.com.

Closed 

Capriotti's Sandwich Shop closed its location at 1906 U.S. 41 in Schererville.

The Delaware-based sub shop chain still has a restaurant in North Hammond's Marina District by the Chicago border.

It opened in Schererville in 2022 in a space previously occupied by another sub shop, Which Wich. Popular in its home base on the East Coast, Capriotti's serves soups, salads and subs like the Capastrami, American Wagyu Cheese Steak and its signature Bobbie. It bakes turkeys every single day to make its award-winning Bobbie sub sandwich, which also features stuffing and cranberry sauce for a taste of the Thanksgiving holiday year-round.

Closed

A hybrid Glorious Coffee and Teas and Jamba Juice closed in Schererville.

The hybrid coffee and smoothie shop opened in a new strip mall at 1906 U.S. 41 in Schererville in 2022. It was the only drive-thru coffee shop on the west side of U.S. 41 south of U.S. 30. The others are all on the eastside of the major north-south artery to capture the northbound commuter traffic in the mornings.

Glorious Coffee and Teas and Jamba Juice still have a joint location in Crown Point.

Temporarily closed

Johnny K's Patio in Lansing has temporarily closed for renovations.

The locally owned fast food spot at 17816 Torrence Ave in Lansing specializes in Chicagoland street food like gyros, gyros burgers, pizza puffs, Italian beef, tamales, Chicago Dogs and Maxwell Street Polishes. 

The expansive menu has several Greek items like souvlaki, mostaccioli and spanakopita as well as seafood, subs and pasta.

Reopen

The Buffalo Wild Wings at 3720 Ridge Road in Lansing reopened after extensive renovations.

The sports bar chain that specializes in Buffalo wings got a more modern look and upgrades right before the Super Bowl, when Americans consume more chicken wings than on any other day of the year.