They keep it light and lively— Plentywood Farm in Bensenville Illinois in their own words. about a restaurant now it’s called Plentywood Farm it’s in Bensonville this is in my opinion the most under advertised restaurant I’ve ever seen because as you drive down or up church street you almost won’t even see the little road that ducks back into it and yet each year thousands and thousands of people find their way to Plentywood Farm so there has to be a reason and I think we’ve gotten several of those reasons well anchored if we concentrate on it for a minute well I think the biggest reason is probably that it’s still family owned and operated and very carefully supervised by um Mrs. Howell that’s Katie that’s Katie yes this is Catherine Howell you’re speaking formally she opened the restaurant her first restaurant in 1932 right in the midst of a very bad depression and nobody thought it was seed and it did so fantastically well her husband had to quit his job and take over as manager and it was a log cabin and it was a very charming log cabin and we went there before they built a new restaurant oh now they have this great big restaurant but feeling is still the same because they’ve used several rooms instead of one big dining room you still have the sort of cozy friendly feeling and you’re greeted at the door by one of the Howells that would be either Pete or Sandy or their wives yes again the family feeling and Katie Howell stays in the kitchen and supervises all of the food as it goes to the tables I think undoubtedly a word is due to their chef you can’t talk about a restaurant without mentioning a chef he’s the backstage manager who gets not too much of the glory but by golly if he doesn’t have the kitchen well disciplined in a rather fatherly friendly way nothing’s going to happen out front his name is Aragonte he is one of the finest chefs in the whole world and yet he has found his niche his way of life in this atmosphere of the family rather than in a huge hotel or a fancy downtown complex which is an interesting approach to his personality yes and Aragonte spends much of his time training young men to be chefs they have kitchen help there from the nearby high school and I think now also from a junior college who work under Aragonte and learned to be hallowed chefs, vegetable chefs, beef chefs, sauciers and I think this is is a very interesting thing because there are young men who would like to go into this profession and very little opportunity for them to I first met Plentywood Farm it must have been oh 10-12 years ago when I was working for the Bowman Dairy Company and I was with the Bowman people and we were out one day traveling through the dairy farms of western and northwestern Chicago land and we stopped for lunch at this particular restaurant the reason we stopped is that Plentywood Farm was one of the early users of Bowman products and they were all very good friends so we went into this fascinating old log cabin type restaurant with the plank floors and they had a great collection of piggy bank I’m a nut about people who collect things anyway so we met the halls at that time shortly after that we heard the rumor that they were going to enlarge and build a new building and the architectural work of the building is just unbelievable it has a kind of Japanese feel it has a stream that runs all the way through the interior of the restaurant so wherever you sit you are either looking out a window on green grass and trees or you’re looking right into a little stream with fresh water and bubbling waterfalls it’s the most conducive feeling for working up an appetite you’ve ever seen short of being out in the mountain so yes Plentywood is open for both lunch and dinner it’s open every day of the week but Monday and lunch is run about two dollars and that includes everything appetizer and dessert you saw and dinners range a dollar or two higher but again it is a complete dinner with appetizer and fabulous desserts things like apple crisp a la mode with cinnamon ice don’t you dare go to Plentywood farm without trying that for your dessert you’ll do other things in subsequent visits but you’ve got try that apple crisp with cinnamon ice cream one interesting point for parents who like to take children out for dinner there’s a very very good family atmosphere there’s plenty of space the waitresses are all very very polite and there is no cocktail bar you may have a drink at the table but they have never put in a bar as such and this again keeps family feelings the rest they really cater like mad to all the people in the western suburbs many of the companies have their annual dinners get-togethers and since they’re quite close to O’Hare international airport many of the pilots and the pilots associations and the airlines have all kinds of things there so look for the sign very carefully when you come down church street or as I say you’ll miss it but there’s a big parking lot inside and you’ll go away with a very comfortable feeling and oh yes they have my statue right at the front door oh come now what do you mean oh come now so you happen to be Scottish you’re not Robert Burns I still say he looks the way I wish I looked you can check that out and see the statue right at the door as you go in to Plenty Wood Farm

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