You name it: Rockford-area restaurants honor regular customers by putting them on the menu
Rockford Region Restaurant Week runs Jan. 25 through Feb. 4 as a celebration of the area’s culinary scene. We’re getting in the spirit at the Rock River Current, too. Throughout Restaurant Week we’ll be sharing stories, photos and features about the Rockford area’s foodie scene and restaurant industry.
By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — Marko Kuljanin walked into Wired Cafe about five years ago to find that his usual order had been discontinued.
In its place, however, was a familiar sandwich with a different name that then owner Crystal Douglas was sure would become Kuljanin’s new favorite.
“She pointed to the menu and said, you should try this one instead,” Kuljanin said. “She points to the menu and there’s my name, The Marko, and exactly how I made it.”
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Wired, 414 E. State St., is among several Rockford-area restaurants that prove you don’t need celebrity status to get something named in your honor.
Restaurants and breweries across the area have menu items in honor of regular customers, family members and beloved patrons. You’ll find them at places like Pig Minds Brewing Co., The Norwegian, Murphy’s Pub, Panino’s and Quixotic Bakery, to name a few.
“It’s not always necessarily about that particular individual,” said Chris Langguth, head brewer at Pig Minds Brewing Co., which has a brown ale named after longtime customer Philip Brockwell. “It’s more about fostering the community feel and identity of being a community partner.”
In honor of Rockford Region Restaurant Week, we reached out to participating owners to ask about menu item names. We found reasons for naming menu items ranging from practical to comical to emotional.
It’s the latter of the three that holds true for Jas Bilich, the manager of Murphy’s Pub, 510 S. Perryville Road, which his family owns.
Honorary names
At Murphy’s Pub, Ryan’s Burger is a half-pound Angus beef patty topped with avocado, a fried egg, and feta and cheddar cheese.
For Bilich, it’s also a reminder of Ryan Bried, a friend of the owners who helped influence the bar and grill’s direction. Bried, who had helped start country nights at another Bilich family establishment, died in February 2016 at age 36.
“Every time we see the order come through, or even if we’re checking the sales and we see how many people have tried the Ryan’s Burger, it kind of gives you a little bit of butterflies,” Bilich said. “It helps you remember and helps his name stay very fresh in a lot of people’s minds.”
Another sandwich at Murphy’s honors Ben Pehler, who died in a motorcycle crash in Beloit in May 2021. He was 34.
Pehler was a member of the Wolf Pack motorcycle club and a car owner and crew chief at Rockford Speedway. Bilich said he had a big personality and now has a burger to match.
Ben’s Burger is a half-pound Angus beef patty topped with smoked pork, fried jalapenos, house secret sauce and pepper jack cheese.
“These two gentlemen had a very close personal tie with the owner’s families, and they were a very big influence not only on the families, not only as a friend, but also on the establishment themselves,” Bilich said. “They created a mood. They created an atmosphere when they were around. That’s what we wanted to honor: the fact that they were there to help us create that atmosphere.”
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Panino’s, the locally owned Italian restaurant with locations at 5403 E. State St. and 2725 N. Main St., is in the process of updating its menu to rename its popular Combo sandwich.
Owner Frank Savitski said the ham, salami, pepperoni, American cheese and lettuce sandwich will soon be called Vito in honor of his dear friend Vito “Vic” DiGiovanni.
DiGiovanni, a former athlete and USSSA Hall-of-Fame softball umpire, had a knowledge of food and wine that was described as second to none. He died in April 2015 about a month before he would have turned 63.
“Vito and I enjoyed spending countless hours together on the golf course and taking trips into Chicago together to watch our teams — Bears, Bulls and White Sox,” Savitski said. “His passing has truly left a void in my life. Naming a sandwich after Vito DiGiovanni is my way of honoring my beloved friend.”
A man walks into a bar
This is no joke: A man walks into a bar and the bartender asks, “What will you have?” The man replies, “A drink named after me some day.”
That’s the origin story that Pig Minds Brewing Co. owner Brian Endl created for the Phil-Up, a brown ale named for longtime customer Philip Brockwell.
There’s just one problem, Brockwell says:
“I hate to ruin a good story with the truth, but no it didn’t actually go down like that,” he said. “They were creating a brown ale and needed a name, and I had been quite a regular there. There’s no specific reason that I’m aware of.”
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The actual story behind the Phil-Up may not have a punchline, but it does have its own charm.
Brockwell, who has worked at Interstate Graphics across the street from Pig Minds for nearly two decades, is perhaps the brewery’s first regular customer.
He watched it get built from his office, and when cars started filling up the parking lot one day he went over to try it out.
It turns out it was just a personal party for Endl and a few guests before the official opening.
“One of my running jokes is that I’ve been going to Pig Minds since before it was even open,” Brockwell said.
That was in 2012, when Pig Minds opened at 4080 Steele Drive in Machesney Park. Brockwell has been a regular ever since.
“People say why are you at Pig Minds so much?” he said. “Well, I can’t get home without going past Pig Minds and I can’t go past Pig Minds without stopping in.”
The Phil-Up was tapped out over the weekend at Pig Minds and at The Olympic Tavern, 2327 N. Main St. in Rockford, which also carried the special ale. Langguth said it was popular enough to warrant reproducing it, although he has no official production schedule for it yet.
“I don’t feel like I’m any kind of a celebrity or have any delusions of grandeur, but it’s a really big honor and it’s a lot of fun,” Brockwell said.
Hogging it
In the midst of sandwiches and drinks named for customers, there is one celebrity of sorts that hogs menu spots around Rockford.
Hamilton E. Hog, better known as Hammy, has several places that have named something in honor of the Rockford IceHogs mascot.
That includes the Hammy at Cheezy’s Grilled Cheese, which serves its sandwich with Swiss, grilled honey ham, spinach and chipotle aioli, and Don’t Tell Hammy at Wired Cafe.
The reason for the name was simple for Wired Cafe: What better way to name a ham sandwich than after the IceHogs mascot?
“To us it means that the community embraces the team,” said Mike Peck, vice president of marketing, content and operations for the Hogs. “You think Rockford you think, of course, Rockford Peaches, Cheap Trick, sock monkeys, whatever it might be. To see things from the IceHogs like Hammy being used as a name sake is pretty cool.”
‘I think I just asked’
The reasons why menu items got their names can be simple, as it is with The Sarah, one of the most popular dishes at The Norwegian, 1402 N. Main St., on Rockford’s North End.
The breakfast dish, named for Sarah Shaw, comes with two eggs, bacon, smashed red potatoes, toasted house sourdough bread and house raspberry jam.
“We named it after my sister-in-law because that’s what she orders every single time she comes in,” owner Emily Hurd said.
Quixotic Bakery has a similar story for The Ronit, which was named for Ronit Golan. Golan is the former owner of Ronit’s Kitchen, which was next door to Quixotic inside City Market, 116 N. Madison St.
“She loved butter pecan ice cream so I suggested that she try it with some gingerbread cookies, and it became known as The Ronit,” Quixotic owner Judy Johnson said. “She still orders it by name when she comes in.”
Quixotic, which began as a project at Grace Lutheran Church, also has an ice cream sandwich named after the former youth director Chris Thomas. It’s an ice cream sandwich with one chocolate chip cookie, one Milky Way cookie and chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream.
“While we don’t list the specific names the menu anymore, their pictures are still up on the menu board,” Johnson said.
Xen Kingsley, a photographer, poet and musician who has his own sandwich at Wired, is friends with the Douglas family who formerly owned the cafe. His unique sandwich is a peanut butter and jelly with apple slices, jalepeno and cream cheese on toasted wheat.
“I think I just asked, ‘how can i get my name on the menu?'” he said.
The Douglas family recently sold the business to Eight Fifteen Capital, which plans to continue the tradition of naming menu items after customers. In honor of Restaurant Week, they’re offering the Crystal, Shanna and Maggie, which are named after the Douglas family members who ran the cafe before them.
“People always want to have something they can identify with,” Kingsley said of Wired’s naming tradition. “To be able to go somewhere that you like and have something that represents you, and you in turn represent that place is pretty awesome.”
Wired has perhaps the biggest list of menu items named after regular joes listed alongside its cups of joe.
There’s the Cool Couple Combo named after Randy and Marsha Scott, The Marko named after Kuljanin, Xen’s PB&J named after Kingsley, The R.A.D. named after nearby business Rockford Art Deli and its owner Jarrod Hennis, and The Kevin Haas, named after the author of the article you’re reading right now.
“It shows how much they connect with the community,” Kuljanin said. “As soon as you walk in you feel welcomed.”
This article is by the Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on X at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas
