PEORIA – Todd Hohulin would have liked to save the first dollar made at 2 Chez.
“But we needed it,” he said. “So, it went right back in the till.”
He and his family took ownership of the eatery in 2006, and Todd said, “we needed some luck early on.” They received financial support from friends and family, borrowed from their 401(k) and leaned on the relationships Todd built with salespeople from previous restaurant experience.
“Our first orders, they gave us credit on,” Todd said. “Thank goodness, so I didn’t open in the hole, but yeah, I remember saying, ‘Man, we have $500 left and we’re just opening and we’ve got to make this work.’ So, yeah, it’s been a wild ride.”
Two decades later, 2 Chez has proven itself to be an enduring destination for fine dining in Peoria.
‘You’re never out of the woods in a restaurant’
Taking ownership of 2 Chez was somewhat serendipitous for Hohulin. He started his restaurant journey at that very spot when it operated as a Maid Rite Diner. He went on to work at various other businesses, including longtime local staple Rizzi’s Italian Restaurant, before trying his hand at ownership.
“I thought, well, if I go broke young, then I could still recover,” said Todd, who took ownership of 2 Chez at 32. “So, we just went for it.”
The restaurant − originally opened by chef Bill Egenlauf in 2003 − sat situated in a strip mall near the intersection of Knoxville Avenue and West Pioneer Parkway. Wife Cyndi Hohulin said they looked at various options, but 2 Chez “felt like home.”
Operating 2 Chez is a family effort. Cyndi co-owns the business and handles bookkeeping, scheduling and other tasks around the restaurant while working another full-time job. Isaac, their son and vice president, works at the restaurant’s bar.
Over the years, the family has navigated the ups and downs of an everchanging industry while remaining ready to pivot and change.
“You’re never out of the woods in a restaurant,” Todd said. “I mean, you know, the minute you think you got it made and you got everything figured out is about the time you really need to reinvent yourself because it’s a changing world, and it seems like the changes have sped up over the years.”
2 Chez has steadily evolved as the Hohulins work to adapt and improve.
Catering, for example, was a big part of the business for a time – taking Hohulin and his family out of state on some occasions. Eventually, he said they realized they needed to let the catering go so they could dedicate more of their time and energy to the eatery.
“You would be amazed how much work a small restaurant throws on,” he said. “I mean, it’s a thousand details. And if you lose sight of the details, you lose sight of it all.”
In recent years, Todd said there have been a “tsunami of changes” for restaurants to grapple with.
The COVID-19 pandemic was one such example – forcing restaurants to reinvent how they operated and interacted with guests. Todd said they had to “take everything we knew and just throw it right in the garbage” and find a new way to approach things.
Though challenging, Cyndi said they managed to adapt well.
This willingness to adapt as needed is crucial for restaurant owners, Todd and Cyndi said. While restaurateurs should give their ideas time to “blossom,” Todd said, they should not be afraid to evolve and improve.
“The 2 Chez we are today will be a lot like the 2 Chez we are in hopefully 10, 20 years from now,” Todd said, “but it’ll have different nuances.”
Through it all, certain elements remain at the heart of 2 Chez. Cleanliness and consistency are two important aspects, the couple said.
Inventiveness is also at the root of the restaurant. While customers can find relatively regular menu items such as duck breast, pan seared scallops, halibut Florentine and rack of lamb, Todd said “we’re never quite satisfied.
“We’re always kind of coming back to, you know, what’s the next thing we’re going to do?” he said.
For line cook Jeremiah Moulton, the ability to innovate and try new things is one of his favorite parts of working in the kitchen.
“That’s probably one of my favorite things,” he said, “is having the challenge of getting something, working with it, and (seeing) what you can come up with.”
Moulton said Todd continuously works to improve and regularly adapts recipes to meet customers’ needs and tastes.
‘The relationship business’
Caring for its people – patrons and employees alike – is also at the heart of 2 Chez.
“We’re in the food business but we’re also equally in the relationship business,” Todd said, “and that’s really the heart of it.”
Over the years, Todd said they have formed “deep relationships” with customers and have had the privilege to be there for all stages of life.
The restaurant is also fortunate to have long-term employees – like Moulton – who have been at 2 Chez for the majority of its existence.
“It just means a lot,” Cyndi said. “You don’t see that very often.”
Moulton boasts 18 years at the eatery, starting as a dishwasher before working his way up to line cook.
“If I could start all over, I’d do it again there – just the way it has been,” he said.
While he’s heard stories of screaming and yelling in other kitchens, Moulton said such negative experiences are “non-existent” at 2 Chez.
Indeed, Todd’s goal is to offer a “refuge” for employees. They work hard, he said, while also working to have a good time – from pranks played on each other to time spent together outside of the restaurant.
When staff feel supported, Todd said, they reciprocate this support.
The restaurant closes twice yearly for the Hohulins’ family vacations. Initially, Todd said the restaurant remained open, but they wanted to give staff time to relax, as well.
“We want people to have full lives,” he said. “So, we realized that, you know, work is a lot of things, but it’s not everything.”
‘Everything in this place actually has meaning’
2 Chez has become something of a second home for the Hohulin family, staying with them through various seasons of their lives.
Todd remembers building makeshift beds out of seat cushions and tablecloths for his children when they were young. Nowadays, Isaac works alongside his family at the restaurant, while their daughter helps with social media from her home in Colorado.
At the end of each night, Todd and his family gather around a family-style table built by him and Isaac for dinner. It’s often late, with Todd noting, “I try to get dinner on the table before midnight.” Yet, it gives them time to sit, connect and talk about their day.
Looking around, Todd said, “everything in this place actually has meaning.”
Making the restaurant their own has been a “constant quest,” as the family worked to differentiate themselves from what came before. Funds, of course, were limited at first, but the Hohulins did what they could − repainting the interior and decorating with copies of family photos.
Today, the inside of 2 Chez paints a picture of the family’s life. Photos and paintings still fill the dining room, stickers to the left of the bar tell the stories of countless travels and knick-knacks collected along the way sit scattered throughout.
“It’s not just the family pictures that kind of keep us grounded, you know, but it’s also all the little things we have…” Todd said. “There’s a memory behind every single one of them.”
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This article originally appeared on Journal Star: ‘A thousand details’: Fine dining restaurant reaches 20-year milestone
Reporting by Cassidy Waigand, Peoria Journal Star / Journal Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
