Rax Roast Beef Or Arby's: Ferak Food Column

JOLIET, IL - On Thursday afternoon, I embarked on my latest Joliet Patch food column, but decided to take a different approach. I turned into the Marycrest Shopping Plaza and eventually made my way over to Rax. Yes, Rax. The Rax at 2136 West Jefferson St. has stood the test of time. It's been around before Wrigley Field had lights, before Joliet ever had riverboat casinos, before Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen played for the Chicago Bulls.

The Joliet Rax has been operating on Jefferson Street since Moses parted the Red Sea. OK, OK, not that long but you get the drift.

I remember going to the Rax with one of my uncles back in the 1980s when cassette tapes were starting to appear in car stereos and when you talked about The Police, everybody knew you were talking about the rock band.

For a while, Rax was quite a large fast-food restaurant. It started in the 1960s in Springfield, Ohio, and reached its heyday in the 1980s with 504 locations in 38 states, according to this Wikipedia entry. But like many restaurant chains, the vast majority of Rax restaurants went under.

According to the Wikipedia entry, there were only eight Rax restaurants left in the entire U.S. as of 2016.

That means the Rax in Joliet is special. It's still around.

When I stopped for lunch on Thursday afternoon, the restaurant was busy. Lots of senior citizens, too. I ordered the $5.99 Rax roast beef original. I went with a Coke and the twisty fries.

Then I sat down and ate my meal. Every bite of my roast beef was delicious, just like I remember this place as a kid. As I looked out the restaurant window, onto West Jefferson Street, I thought about the number of fast-food restaurants that have come and gone over the years.

During my family's many years of living out of state, we occasionally ate at Rax's fast-food competitor Arby's.

The roast beef sandwiches at Arby's are good, don't get me wrong, but if I have a hankering for a roast-beef sandwich, I'm going to hit the Rax on Jefferson Street from this point forward.

Sorry, Arby's lovers.

Images via John Ferak/Joliet Patch Editor