Happy Place Cafe: Delicious Comfort Foods, Homemade Soups, More

SHOREWOOD, IL — For the past 11 years, Filiberto "Fil" Lopez has estalished Happy Place Cafe along U.S. 52 next to the Walgreens as one of the Joliet region's most steady sit-down family restaurants. The Shorewood sit-down restaurant at 1150 West Jefferson Street, next to the Walgreens, is known for its daily comfort food selections and its affordable menu.

Customers can order from the breakfast menu throughout the entire day. When you enter Happy Place Cafe, the signboard lets customers know all the daily specials.

On Friday, the first day of March, the Happy Place specials all ranged in price from $8 to $15.25.

There's a shrimp stir-fry, broiled salmon, broiled sea bass, shrimp basket, a fish sandwich, a cowboy burger and more. Specials come with soup plus one side order.

Glasses of wine on Friday are only $2.

September will mark the 11-year anniversary for Happy Place Cafe. Lopez said he has worked in the restaurant industry for 25 years, starting when he was 17 years old.

During 2024 — which is a Leap Year — Happy Place Cafe will be open 364 days.

It's only closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. The Shorewood sit-down restaurant stays open 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday; 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Happy Place has not made many drastic overhauls to its menu over the years, according to Lopez. "Basically, we are the same as we started," he remarked. "Most of the people know us for our pancakes, but our top seller is the skillet."

More specifically, it's the meat lovers skillet and the skirt steak skillets that are among the top sellers. The menu lists a dozen different skillet creations.

"My favorite skillet is the gypsy skillet, mushrooms, onions, green peppers, ham and American cheese," the Happy Place Cafe owner remarked.

Happy Place is known for its wide array of comfort foods including baked meatloaf, breaded pork tenderloin and of course, the Roast Tom Turkey which is a turkey dinner with stuffing and cranberry sauce.

"We sell a lot of the roast turkey, and it's one of our top sellers for dinner for seniors, too," Lopez said.

As Friday's daily specials illustrate, Happy Place is known as one of the more affordable restaurant options for families. It has become a regional destination, Lopez pointed out.

In addition to drawing most of its customer base from Shorewood, "we have a lot of customers from Plainfield, Crest Hill, Joliet, we have customers from Oak Lawn and Lansing. We have customers from Naperville," Lopez explained. "We try to treat our customers like a family, and our servers known the regulars."

During Thursday's interview, Lopez was asked to explain the key to Happy Cafe's longevity. After all, restaurants often come and go. Some only last six months or a year. Happy Cafe is approaching its 11th anniversary, and the restaurant stays busy year-round.

Lopez said he learned many years ago, "every time you cook, think like you're cooking for your mother. After 10 years, we have a good reputation, I think."

The Shorewood restaurant owner does not envision any sweeping changes during 2024.

"I think we're going to keep it the same for this year. In the middle of March, we are planning to introduce a new sandwich. It's going to be a buffalo crispy chicken sandwich," he said.

And whether it's Lent or not, Happy Place is a popular destination for its fish, in particular, the sea bass. The size of the sea bass is about 10 ounces. It's a flavorful-tasting fish.

Happy Place Cafe typically features the sea bass on its Wednesday and Friday daily specials.

"Sea bass, that's something we sell a lot of," Lopez noted. "It's our top seller of fish. We offer broiled or grilled. That's been on the menu since we opened."

For over 30 years, Thayer's Bros. Deli on Joliet's Ruby Street was known throughout the Will County region for its great tasting selection of Mrs. Thayer's homemade soups.

Here in Shorewood, Lopez's long-time customers also know Happy Place Cafe has been a crowd-pleaser when it comes to the soup selections.

Happy Place often goes through as many as 8 gallons of its chicken noodle soup on a daily basis. You can order chicken noodle Monday through Saturday. On Sunday, people flock to Happy Place for its cream of chicken with rice. That's the only day you can get it.

Mondays soups usually include: cream of broccoli; Tuesdays, beef barley or chicken gumbo. Wednesdays are vegetable beef or split pea. Thursday includes cream of potato. Friday is typically white clam chowder or cream of vegetable.

As for Saturday, the last day of the week to get your chicken noodle soup fix, you can also get French onion soup or cream of mushroom, Lopez explained.

Soups. Skillets, sea bass and plenty of pancakes. And that's not all Happy Place is known for, according to the owner.

"For lunch, we sell a lot of burgers. And we sell a lot of tuna salad."

Lopez said he's glad he settled on Shorewood to open Happy Place in 2013. Happy Place Cafe is 1.2 miles up the road on U.S. 52 from the busy Route 59 intersection.

"I like Shorewood," Lopez said. "It looks neat and it looks clean."

Happy Place is open for sit-down, carryout and online. To review the menu or order online, visit the website for Happy Place Cafe.