Springfield is down to one Dew Chilli Parlor, at least for now. Owners Mike Monseur and John Leskovisek have announced that the Dew Pub and Grill at 2690 S. Dirksen Parkway, which has been closed since the June 29 derecho hit Springfield, will not reopen.
A statement posted on the company’s Facebook page said, “The storm was not the only factor. It was just the last straw,” citing the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent staffing crisis as other setbacks that have occurred since the Dirksen Parkway location opened in 2018. The initial five-year lease was up at the end of July.
“The decision was to take the approach of moving on from the Dirksen Parkway location… We do not know when a new location will be announced, as we are still searching for a location in another market to replace the Dew location which was closed on Wabash Avenue earlier this year,” the statement continued.
The Dew Chilli Parlor at 2312 Wabash Ave. closed in January at the end of its five-year lease, and the owners said at the time they were exploring options in both Chatham and Decatur. While the location at 301 North Grand Ave. West closed temporarily following the derecho, it has since reopened, and the owners indicated "the location will begin to take on a new look as we work to give the old building an upgrade." Monseur and Leskovisek own the North Grand property, which previously housed the Red Coach Inn.
The 4,900-square-foot building on Dirksen Parkway has been listed with Blake Pryor of Coldwell Banker Commercial Devonshire Realty with a purchase price of $725,000 or a lease price of $15 per square foot.
“I assume the most likely user is another restaurant, but it’s certainly possible that someone could look at it for the location and do some kind of retail,” said Pryor. “Having the visibility and direct ingress/egress from Dirksen makes it pretty attractive.”
The Dew dates back to 1909, when founder Joe Bockelmann served his first bowl of tavern-style chili, using the unconventional spelling of “chilli” in the name of his restaurant. His original location was at the corner of Sixth Street and Lawrence Avenue, but Dew Chilli Parlor is best known for the more than 25 years it operated out of a parlor added onto the front of Bockelmann’s home at 1216 S. Fifth St.
After his death in 1975, longtime employee Rita Maurer took over the business until 1994. The business was then dormant until Mark Roberts III, owner of technology company GoWeb 1, bought the rights to the original recipes, along with the Fifth Street building, in 2013. He operated a food truck before reopening the renovated Fifth Street location the following year. Monseur and Leskovisek purchased the business from Roberts in August 2017.
They continued to operate the Fifth Street location for another year before closing it, citing safety concerns due to parking along the high-traffic road. Roberts later sold the building at auction.
Monseur and Leskovisek expanded rapidly, opening the Dew Chilli on Wabash followed by locations at 301 North Grand Ave. West and 2690 S. Dirksen Parkway within the first year of acquiring the business. Monseur and Leskovisek also own the Godfather’s Pizza restaurants in central Illinois.