September 20, 2007: Rochambeau, LLC signs a ten-year lease for the former Augie's space at 5347 North Clark Street from the property's new owner, Raymark Venture. Raymark Venture would later sell to an investor group and within a couple of years, the property would be owned by the large REIT Newcastle Limited.

The base rent was $7500 per month and the opening budget was set at $450,000, $350,000 of which was financed through the Small Business Administration.

Full of optimism, we were charged with many decisions, including whether to refurbish the iconic Augie's sign for our own image, or to take it down and allow the beautiful tile working on the facade of the 1910 building to come forward.

We ultimately decided to have a more discreet street presence and removed the sign in favor of a striped awning and sandblasted wood sign above the windows. We wanted discovering the restaurant to be like finding a hidden gem.

Augie's was a time capsule dated to 1955, and full of its own charm. The renovation and creation of a new space for 5347's next generation would take six months once the building permits we acquired.

A new liquor license was necessary in order to be able to serve Bourbon and other libations; this process took four months, much less time than is typical in Chicago. But, we were working our butts off.

The original storefront was a simple plate glass construction, with a tight opening budget we chose to keep it simple and go from there. It was also consistent with our objective of designing a space that had the basic elements of modern Chicago design - sweeping lines, open space, bringing the outdoors indoors - while appointing the details of the space with elements of Southern urban and country design as well. Joel Berman was the architect and design was envisioned by Paul.

The original dining room space relied a lot on crushed velvet curtains and gleaming white tabletops and bar. The design was clean and cheery but proved to be to "live" or noisy when the dining room was full.

White tabletops also instigated an image of fine dining, which wasn't good for non-special occasion dining.

When the Great Recession hit, sales dropped by half! That required a nimble reaction and a lot of hard work.

By the end of 2008, our survival was uncertain, we even had a Friday night in which we had only five guests. By early 2009. business had stabilized albeit at a low level. We were at least sure we could break even until things improved. We focused hard on execution of high quality, locally-sourced food with compelling presentations.

In April 2009, Chicago Magazine named us one of their Best New Restaurants, and things picked up substantially.

Then, in October 2009, Bon Appetit listed us as the Best Fried Chicken north of the Mason-Dixon line, and suddenly we were doing 120 covers on Tuesday nights with a line down the block (fried chicken was only Tuesday nights at that time).

In January 2010, Chicago Tribune's Phil Vettel awarded us three stars and suddenly we were a "name" restaurant in Chicago.

With sales picking up but still way below the levels we experienced during our opening months before the Great Recession, we decided to work on the space to make it warmer, with a more casual feel and, to express a passion of ours, a much larger Bourbon list.

The new dining room space and bar featured hand-made-in-chicago cherry wood butcher block, a reflection of our in-house hog butchering program in which we only used whole hogs from local farms.

Our Bourbon list grew from only a handful of key names to over 100, with the requirement that they be made in the South or a distillery local to the Chicago area.

In 2016, Eater National Restaurant Critic Bill Addison called Big Jones "One of the most important Southern restaurants in the country," north or south, citing our use of heritage recipes and ingredients in a way that made the historically staid and nostalgic Southern cuisine fresh and exciting. The following January, He would name our fried chicken the "Singular Best in America" which was definitely a humbling moment. We love our fried chicken. What do you think?

In 2017, with our original SBA loan matured and paid off and our lease up for renewal, we decided to invest further, signing a five-year extension and adding another 5-year option. We also went to back to the SBA for a fresh investment to "finish" the restaurant we started on a lean budget, adding fully modernized equipment, an open kitchen, updated HVAC, and a storefront designed by Thom Greene of Greene & Proppe Design. It felt more like home than ever.

The Covid-19 pandemic was as difficult to navigate as one might imagine, but we were determined to stay open - never closing for even a day - to take care of our employees who either didn't qualify for unemployment or who needed to work for their mental health, and also to be here for our community.

We took the opportunity to use the good will toward restaurants at the time to do two things we'd always wanted to do: Add employee benefits and reduce the impact of tipping on employee compensation. After a year of enduring mean, factually wrong, and often toxic Yelp and Google reviews regarding our service charge policy which allowed us to eliminate the tip credit and pay everyone living wages with benefits, we reneged and went back to a tipped model. We can, however, proudly say that we have retained and will continue to retain employee benefits, including health/dental/vision, accident and hospitalization, paid vacation, paid sick leave, and paid time off.

The pandemic reinforced in our minds what we've always believed: restaurant workers are highly skilled employees requiring sometimes years of training, and are deserving of the same benefits as people in other professions, including wages which are not only living wages but allow for some degree of comfort in life. We are committed to being that kind of employer.

What's next for Big Jones? We don't plan on going anywhere, although the competitive landscape in Andersonville has changed and the future is perhaps as uncertain as it's ever been. Chains, both national and regional, and restaurant groups have taken notice in the neighborhood and now dominate the restaurant business here. There are very few one-store, independent businesses left. We will continue to ply our trade and focus on being the best we can be, and hopefully we can count on our community to truly shop local, supporting what is unique to Andersonville and provides value beyond cheap eats.