A sandwich shop in Menasha recently received a grant aimed at supporting Black-owned restaurants.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chicago\u2019s House of Hoagies is one of three Wisconsin restaurants that received a grant from condiment giant Heinz. The company is partnering with the Lee Initiative and Southern Restaurants for Racial Justice to administer more than $1 million in grants per year.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lona Young is the owner of Chicago\u2019s House of Hoagies. A Chicago native herself, she moved to Wisconsin about 25 years ago. She founded the restaurant in 2019 after a Facebook post she made spun into a catering business and ultimately a standalone restaurant in 2020.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u201cMind you, when I started the construction, literally, COVID happened,\u201d Young told WPR\u2019s \u201cWisconsin Today.\u201d \u201cWhen I walked in the finished product, I was like, \u2018Oh my God, this young lady from the south side of Chicago is doing great things.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Young shared more with \u201cWisconsin Today\u201d about her business and how hoagies tell her story.<\/p>\n
The following was edited for clarity and brevity.<\/p>\n
Kate Archer Kent: Have you thought about how you\u2019ll put the grant you received recently to use?<\/p>\n
Lona Young: I used it on taxes and some repairs that I needed to get done at the restaurant \u2014 those little things you don\u2019t really think about when you\u2019re sitting down doing your business plan and mapping everything out. You forget that the garbage disposal might go out. I need to put funds aside for that. Or maybe the refrigerator goes out, and you bought it and it only has a one year warranty. All those little expenses add up quickly, and these are things that you have to keep doing in order to keep your business open.<\/p>\n
KAK: I understand the hoagies on your menu are named after different neighborhoods and landmarks from your childhood in Chicago. Why name them after these places and neighborhoods?<\/p>\n
LY: I\u2019m from Chicago. When people see the name, the first thing they ask: \u201cAre you from Chicago?\u201d And then they always want to put you to the test. Well, I wanted to be ahead of the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n
So I made sure that each one of my hoagies told you where I am from, what neighborhoods I hung out or where me and my friends hung out. For example, I have a Ford City Hoagie that\u2019s going to tell my Chicago people like, \u201cOh my God, her and her friends hung out at the Ford City Mall. She\u2019s legit.\u201d I\u2019m from Altgeld housing projects. I have a hoagie called Altgeld Gardens. They\u2019re going to (say), \u201cOh, she\u2019s from out south. She\u2019s from 131st and Michigan. She\u2019s the real deal. She knows how we like our food.\u201d<\/p>\n
People want to know that you\u2019re authentic. If they walk into a New York deli, they want to feel like they\u2019re walking into that bodega in their neighborhood. If people walk into a Chicago restaurant, they want to feel like they\u2019re walking into their neighborhood.<\/p>\n
KAK: Do you have a New Year\u2019s resolution for yourself or for Chicago\u2019s House of Hoagies for 2025?<\/p>\n
LY: A lot of people don\u2019t know that I have a \u201cfeed the children\u201d (initiative) that I do in my restaurant. If any child walks in my restaurant and tells me that they\u2019re hungry, there\u2019s no questions asked. I feed them. I don\u2019t need to know your story. I don\u2019t need to know any of that. I\u2019m going to feed you.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Once a year, I did a \u201cfeed the community\u201d event where I fed the community, no questions asked. It was free to the community. I did free face painting for the kids, (offered a) free bounce house. We gave away free diapers as well as ties for men that were trying to get back into the workforce. We fed everybody \u2014 no matter race, color, creed, age, whatever. If you\u2019re hungry and you need to eat, come and eat.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Wisconsin Public Radio, \u00a9 Copyright 2026, Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System and Wisconsin Educational Communications Board.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A sandwich shop in Menasha recently received a grant aimed at supporting Black-owned restaurants.\u00a0 Chicago\u2019s House of Hoagies is one of three Wisconsin restaurants that received a grant from condiment giant Heinz. The company is partnering with the Lee Initiative and Southern Restaurants for Racial Justice to administer more than $1 million in grants per<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86995,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[3776,3774,3772,3775,3773],"class_list":["post-86994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wisconsin","tag-wisconsin","tag-wisconsin-dining","tag-wisconsin-food","tag-wisconsin-grocery-stores","tag-wisconsin-restaurants"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dc\/117606191114516098","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86994","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=86994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}