ROCKFORD, Ill. (Rockford News First) – A Rockford-area Beef-a-Roo could reopen before the end of the year, two local business owners say. <\/p>\n
Tom and Jerry\u2019s owner Robert Grottke and Candy Cloud owner Alex Edwards tell Rockford News First they now control the former Highcrest Beef-a-Roo location at 1670 N. Alpine Road. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe stuck to our guns that we want Rockford food, Rockford ran and we want to make the decisions locally and that\u2019s where we stand. We were we were not budging on that because we think that\u2019s the right thing to do. We were able to accomplish that and that\u2019s our focus,\u201d said Grottke.<\/p>\n
The two have spent months working to revive Beef-a-Roo after several locations closed this summer. <\/p>\n
Edwards said their goal throughout the process centered on bringing the brand back in a way that fits the Rockford community.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to be the operators. We\u2019re going to be able to run it the way it needs to be done for the Rockford area, bring the right food back and, you know, we got a lot of work to do. We\u2019re hoping to do the brand justice ultimately, and that\u2019s our main focus and goal is to do it right for the Rockford area,\u201d said Edwards.<\/p>\n
Grottke and Edwards need to hire employees, clean and refresh the restaurant and secure the products they want to serve. Grottke said even sourcing the right potatoes for Beef-a-Roo\u2019s fries could affect the timeline.<\/p>\n
The pair does not yet have a date on when the restaurant could reopen. <\/p>\n
In August, the owners announced they hit a roadblock when a Canadian company claimed to own Beef-a-Roo\u2019s intellectual property. <\/p>\n
Grottke said the North Alpine building has a different owner than the other seven locations, which allowed that agreement to move forward faster.<\/p>\n
The two said they are negotiating the other seven, but they do not want to rush into an agreement that could create financial problems later. They say their ultimate goal is to bring back all eight Rockford-area Beef-a-Roo locations. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf we take a swallow a pill on a bad economical deal, it\u2019s going to be, we\u2019ll be all right for a year or two, but we could end up in the same situation. We\u2019re really trying to avoid that. So, we\u2019re in it for the long haul,\u201d said Edwards. <\/p>\n
Grottke and Edwards said community support helped keep them moving through months of negotiations and setbacks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we thought back to some of the comments where you read where people are like sharing stories of big life events that occurred at Beef-a-Roo and that they\u2019re not going to be able to go back in those restaurants, that\u2019s what kind of kept me and Bob fueled throughout the process is we have that opportunity to bring that back for here,\u201d said Edwards. <\/p>\n
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Copyright 2026 Rockford News First. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ROCKFORD, Ill. (Rockford News First) – A Rockford-area Beef-a-Roo could reopen before the end of the year, two local business owners say. Tom and Jerry\u2019s owner Robert Grottke and Candy Cloud owner Alex Edwards tell Rockford News First they now control the former Highcrest Beef-a-Roo location at 1670 N. Alpine Road. \u201cWe stuck to our<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22141,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[8931,20555,20554,2726,2725,2723,2770,2724,20556,20550,20551,20553,20552],"class_list":["post-22140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-illinois","tag-beef-a-roo","tag-beef-a-roo-reopening","tag-beef-a-roo-rockford","tag-illinois","tag-illinois-dining","tag-illinois-food","tag-illinois-grocery-stores","tag-illinois-restaurants","tag-is-beef-a-roo-coming-back","tag-set-to-reopen","tag-tom-and-jerrys-owner-robert-grottke-and-candy-cloud-owner-alex-edwards","tag-wifr-news","tag-wrex-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dc\/117304354728070297","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}