White Fence Farm Marks 65 Years: 'It's Like One Big Family'

ROMEOVILLE, IL — The White Fence Farm may have hit retirement age, marking 65 years as a family-owned restaurant this September. But the beloved Romeoville restaurant is nowhere near done serving up its famous fried chicken and making new life-long customers.

Robert C. Hastert opened the White Fence Farm in September 1954 as a humble, family-style restaurant. In the next 65 years, the restaurant has added more dining rooms, an animal farm, an antique collection, a car museum and five carry-out locations. (Some form of restaurant has existed on the site since as early as the 1920's, when the then-owner of the state operated a hamburger stand.)

White Farm Fence, 1376 Joliet Rd., has become a local favorite and a popular destination along Route 66. The restaurant has also created a family of its own, especially among staffers who have been there for decades and families that come back year-after-year, said Laura Hastert, the restaurant's third-generation owner.

"I was pretty much born here," Hastert said. "The managers my dad and grandpa hired are still here. Now, their families all work here. It's like one big family."

Hastert was working as a business manager in California when she came home in the late 90's to help her dad run the business after her grandfather passed away. She came home to many of the same people who helped run the business in her youth, and helped serve some of the same families, too.

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For example: Judy Rice, White Farm Fence's front-of-the-house manager, has been with the restaurant since 1983, Hastert said. Now, Judy's kids work there. General Manager Larry Bigger and his wife, Shirley, met at the restaurant and have been around since the 1970's. Day manager Chuck Ker has been employed at White Fence Farm for 40 years. As has Beverly Svoboda, payroll specialist. Head cook Hue Moran has manned the kitchen since 1974.

"They treat it like their own," Hastert said of her employees. "It's a great place to work. Who gets to go to work and make people happy? We do."

Customers have been along for the ride as long as some employees, Hastert said. There's one family who has visited on their deceased grandmothers birthday for 20 years. One customer decided to have his own antique car — a 1947 Ford pickup — displayed at the business' antique car museum, made up of business founder Robert Sr.'s collection. One customer has donated over 800 antique music boxes to the collection, Hastert said.

"The tradition alone," Hastert said. "It feels really good."

There have been changes over the years. Although the alpaca's have been around for some time, Hastert now collects the animals' wool and sells it in the business. The practice has been a hit with the local knitting community, Hastert said. The alpaca wool has sold out all four years it has been available.

There are no plans to close the business, although customers did have a recent scare. After the 2018 closing of a restaurant with the same name in Colorado, some customers got confused. The rumor spread like wildfire, leading to an outpouring of grief, anger and sorrow from lifelong customers, Hastert said. (As it turns out, previous generations of White Fence Farm actually helped the Colorado one set up shop. It was sold recently, and the new owners didn't last long, Hastert said.)

"I can't tell you the millions of calls I got about it," Hastert said.

Hastert does not have a succession plan just yet. She does have three adult children that could take over the business. But they'll have to pry it from her hands first, she said.

"If I can figure out how to run it from the grave, I'll do it," Haster said with a laugh.