Rt 66 Wandering #6 - Dell Rhea's Chicken Basket

I had the pleasure of meeting a few of my friends at Dell Rhea’s Chicken Basket in Willowbrook, IL. While, I could say we went there to have some of their famous fried chicken, we actually went for the Friday fish fry. Which happens to include whole lobster, fried shrimp or all you can eat fried cod and catfish. All at very reasonable prices, I might add.

Welcome to Route 66 Wandering #6. If you want to follow along on the “wanderings” you can see our visit to Henry’s Drive-In (Wandering#5) where we enjoyed a real Chicago style hot dog. Or you can start from the beginning at Lou Mitchell’s Diner (Wandering#1).

Dell Rhea’s Chicken Basket

The Chicken basket got it’s start in a gas station and eventually moved it’s location to this mid-century brick building, which still looks pretty darn sturdy if you ask me. As you can see a storm was rolling in while I was taking these photos. But believe you me, I found no dark clouds looming over this awesome little corner of old Rte 66.

Dell Rhea’s was granted landmark status as a Route 66 original location. This Wayside exhibit display is evidence of that, as I learned on our trip to Pontiac, IL . Not sure if you can actually see the drawing of the restaurant on the display in this picture, but I can tell you it’s remarkable how much the building looks the same. Classic old cars excluded, of course.

I used to work right around the corner from Dell Rhea’s and one of the things that I think also makes this place so welcoming for not only the Rte 66 travelers, but the locals as well, is the home-style setting.

It’s really cozy, but without trying to hard. There’s no Route 66 pomp and circumstance.

You can find tell-tale signs if you look, but honestly, I’d say many of the locals that go there may not even make the connection that this is one of the original stops on the Mother Road. Personally, I didn’t link it together until more recently.