Famed drive-in Sonic opens in Crest Hill

CREST HILL--Mayor Ray Soliman nibbled his way through important city business Monday.

"I had a chili cheese dog, a hamburger, tater tots, chicken strips and ice cream," Soliman reported. "And I got a chicken melt on thick Greek toast. But they made it to go because I was full."

Soliman and other city and chamber officials tasted sample-sized offerings from Sonic during a ribbon-cutting ceremony. The fast-food chain opened its first restaurant in Crest Hill at 1820 Plainfield Road. It's the second Sonic in Will County.

The county's first Sonic opened in January in Lockport Square on Farrell Road.

"It's good for Crest Hill, and it's good for the surrounding community," Soliman said. "It's good for our economy and it's good for our residents. And the food is tasty."

Mike Perry, who owns both Will County Sonics, said Chicago-area consumers were craving something new and it's the perfect time for Sonic to move north from the Oklahoma-based chain's southern roots.

"It's a great market for Sonic and our restaurants have done very, very well," he said. "It's the breadth of the menu: We have everything from ice cream to our Super Sonic cheeseburgers to breakfast."

The Crest Hill Sonic will be open from 6 a.m. to midnight, and perhaps later in the summer, Perry said. Sonic restaurants do not include dine-in space. Instead, customers can use the drive-through, an outdoor patio or park their cars in a stall and have their meals delivered by carhops on roller skates.

In addition to the Crest Hill and Lockport Sonics, Perry's Great Lake Sonics company owns franchises in Country Club Hills; South Bend, Ind.; and Mishawaka, Ind.

Perry said he is talking with officials in Plainfield, Bolingbrook, Mokena and Frankfort about locating Sonics in those towns. And he's interested in opening many more Sonics in the south Chicago region.

Soliman said Perry picked the Plainfield Road location in Crest Hill because of large volume of traffic headed to and from Westfield Louis Joliet mall and to Weber Road.

Sonic Corp. operates almost 3,400 restaurants, with large concentrations in its home state and neighboring Texas.