After
more than two decades of providing pizza to Chatham residents, Mike Monseur and
John Leskovisek have transitioned their restaurant to chili instead.
Godfather’s Pizza, 21 Cottonwood Dr., is now a Dew Chilli Parlor, joining Dew Chilli Parlor Pub and Grill at 301 North Grand Avenue West. Two previous Dew Chilli locations on South Dirksen Parkway and Wabash Avenue both closed in 2023, and the owners indicated at the time they were exploring the Chatham and Decatur markets for expansion.
Monseur and Leskovisek have had the Godfather's Pizza franchise for central Illinois for more than 20 years, first opening Godfather’s Pizza in Chatham and later Springfield locations at 1549 S. Dirksen Parkway and 1754 Wabash Ave., plus stores in Decatur and Pekin.
Monseur
and Leskovisek added Dew Chilli Parlor to their portfolio of restaurants in
2017, although the Dew dates back to 1909, when founder Joe
Bockelmann served his first bowl of tavern-style chili, using the
unconventional spelling of “chilli” in the name of his restaurant. His original
location was at the corner of Sixth Street and Lawrence Avenue, but Dew Chilli
Parlor is best known for the more than 25 years it operated out of a parlor
added onto the front of Bockelmann’s home at 1216 S. Fifth St.
After his
death in 1975, longtime employee Rita Maurer took over the business until 1994.
The business was then dormant until Mark Roberts III, owner of technology company
GoWeb 1, bought the rights to the original recipes, along with the Fifth Street
building, in 2013. He operated a food truck before reopening the renovated
Fifth Street location the following year. Monseur and Leskovisek purchased the
business from Roberts in August 2017.
The Dew Chilli
Parlor in Chatham is now adorned with historical pictures and artifacts from
the early days of Dew Chilli in the 1900s. And for those who miss Godfather’s Pizza,
the business Facebook page advertises that the Wabash Avenue location will
deliver to Chatham residents.
