Are Joliet's Neighborhood Bars A Thing Of The Past?

JOLIET, IL — One of Joliet's best known watering holes is the building at 931 North Hickory St. This is where Andy and Sophie Wrobel made a name for themselves running their neighborhood bar at the corner of Hickory and Moran Streets for 45 years.

Andy & Sophie's Bar was known for serving great homemade dishes for lunch including meatloaf, corned beef and cabbage rolls, Polish sausage and sauerkraut.

Now in their seventies, the Wrobels decided to retire in August 2019. They sold their business to Patrick Walsh, a trial lawyer based in suburban Hinsdale.

Walsh continued to keep Andy & Sophie's open after purchasing it. After the worldwide pandemic caused Illinois to shut down all its indoor bars and indoor restaurants in March 2020, Walsh chose to keep Andy & Sophie's closed indefinitely.

Unfortunately for Walsh, Andy & Sophie's got off to a rough start within months after he took over ownership.

On Jan. 31, 2020, Elier Trujillo, a 35-year-old Joliet man, was critically injured after being shot four times in his abdomen right outside Andy & Sophie's Bar. The shooting victim had been in the bar for less than an hour.

Several months later, Trujillo filed a civil lawsuit accusing Andy & Sophie's employees of selling or giving intoxicating liquors to accused shooter Matthew Ramones, and the intoxication "caused (him) to injure plaintiff and caused serious and grievous bodily harm to plaintiff."

While Andy & Sophie's has remained closed since March 2020, Walsh has remained focused on the litigation. He has previously told Joliet Patch that the shooting victim's lawsuit has no merit. Walsh said that lawsuits like this "are unfortunately part of the business," and "we don't have any responsibility."

"According to the Joliet Police Department and upon information and belief, the plaintiff was in possession of illegal drugs which was the cause of the incident ... the sale of illegal drugs, cocaine, was the cause of the incident," the law firm representing Andy & Sophie's has argued.

On Monday, I called Walsh for the first time in months. I was curious where things stood with reopening Andy & Sophie's for the Joliet area community.

Back in late January, Walsh told me the inside of his bar had been undergoing renovations, and that he has been following the governor's coronavirus restrictions over the past several months.

"I'm hoping it gets open real soon," Walsh remarked in January.

Eight months later, nothing has changed, Walsh acknowledged Monday.

"We want to be safe and do the right thing," he said, citing the global pandemic as a key reason why he has continued to keep Andy & Sophie's closed to the public.

I asked Walsh if he had a specific date in mind for reopening.

"I don't know," he said. "I can't really say with any certainty ... We'd like to get things going. We're still closed as a result of the pandemic. We're hopeful that COVID gets under control."

Since Andy & Sophie's has been closed, the new owner has done remodeling within the interior of the structure.

"It's going to be different," he told me Monday. "We just want to do everything right."

It would be nice to see Walsh bring Andy & Sophie's back to life before the end of the year.

As it stands, Andy & Sophie's remains shuttered, off limits to the community, for the past year and a half.

Meanwhile, a number of other prominent neighborhood establishments in Joliet are also dormant or are closed for good.

O'Charleys Irish Pub was a mainstay in Joliet for 40 years and a fixture at 117 North Center St. since 1988. Then, O'Charleys closed Aug. 17 leaving thousands of Joliet residents sad.

Over in the Cunningham Neighborhood, the current owners of the Malnar's Tap neighborhood bar and restaurant at 1123 Clement St. hired the law firm of Bretz, Flynn & Associates in April to sue a Wisconsin insurance company for refusing to pay for the devastating fire that caused several hundred thousand dollars in damage to the building on Feb. 1, 2020.

Malnar's has remained boarded up since the fire happened.

If and when Malnar's will reopen for lunch and drinks remains a giant unknown with the lawsuit pending. Civil lawsuits often take three to five years for resolution, and some take even longer.

O'Charley's is gone forever. Malnar's Tap may never reopen during your lifetime.

Back at the corner of Hickory and Moran, attorney Walsh does not have a firm date in mind on when he plans to reopen Andy & Sophie's.

For many of us, Joliet's neighborhood bar scene has been a part of our lives in one way or another. It's where we met up with friends around the holidays or on weekends. Where we watched live bands. Where we threw a few games of darts. Where we took turns buying pitchers of beer or putting money into the jukebox to play our favorite music.

It's sad to see, but some of Joliet's most notable establishments are going away. Let's hope that Andy & Sophie's won't be one of the next neighborhood bars to fade off into history. But after being closed for 18 straight months, is it realistic to expect a great comeback for Andy & Sophie's?