THE HEAT STAYS ON
Joe Rogers' palate-challenging chili still strong after 60 years

By JOHN REYNOLDS

STAFF WRITER
  Stuart Shiffman still remembers the day he ate two bowls of Joe Rogers' extra-hot chili, commonly known as "firebrand." Shiffman was used to eating one bowl of the ultra-spicy chili, but on that day, back in the 1980s, a friend speculated that he didn't have the fortitude to down a second bowl.
  "I told him I could eat a second bowl if he paid," Shiffman said Wednesday, as he finished lunch at Joe Rogers' Original Recipe Chili Parlor/The Den, 820 S. Ninth St. "Much to his annoyance, he did end up paying."
  Shiffman, a Sangamon County judge, was one of dozens of patrons who had lunch Wednesday at Joe Rogers' Original. The restaurant will celebrate its 60th anniversary Saturday, and even though it has gone through several changes over the decades, a lot remains the same.

"I HAVEN'T changed the recipe, and I haven't added anything to the menu.

— MARIANNE ROGERS, JOE ROGERS' DAUGHTER AND SUCCESSOR
  Marianne Rogers, the daughter of founder Joe Rogers, still cooks with the recipes her father used when he started the business 60 years ago.
"I'm not adding anything. I'm simply doing what my mother and father started, period," Marianne Rogers said. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it. I haven't changed the recipe, and I haven't added anything to the menu. Everything is the same."
  According to Rogers family history, Joe Rogers had a great bowl of chili at someone's house when he was a young man. He liked that family's recipe, but it wasn't, in his opinion, perfect.
  Rogers experimented with recipes for several years until finally hitting on one he liked. He opened the Den Chili Parlor at 1125 South Grand Ave. E. on Dec. 31, 1945. The small restaurant had no tables and only 11 stools at the counter. Still, customers flocked to the restaurant.
  One of the things that makes Rogers family chili different is the way it is prepared. The beans and meat are cooked separately, which enables customers to get personalized orders. They can have no beans, extra beans, extra meat or no meat at all. They can also specify how much oil they want in their chili.
  And when it comes to the spice level, customers can choose between mild, medium, medium/touch, medium hot, hot and the J.R. Special. The last, named after Joe Rogers, is the version customers refer to as firebrand.
  As at the original restaurant, the names of people who have finished bowls of the J.R. Special are listed on the wall (asterisks show people who have eaten more than one bowl in a single sitting). Nearly 2,000 names are on the wall, al-though the actual number of people who have eaten the extra hot chili is much higher, Marianne Rogers said.
  Also on the list are the customers' hometowns, which include locations across the country and around the world.
  "We have the best group of customers you find anywhere," Marianne Rogers said. "They come from all walks of life. ... You have people who don't look like they have anything at all and they come in and have chili. Then you have people in three-piece suits."
  Shiffman, who admitted he has given up on the extra spicy and moved to medium hot, said the atmosphere is an important part of the restaurant's charm.
  "You sit next to people. Some-times you know them and some-times you don't, but they all share a love of chili, and I think that makes for an interesting place," Shiffman said.
  Matt Ramirez, a Horace Mann employee, was a few seats away from Shiffman Wednesday. He eats at the restaurant at least every other week. Ramirez said he doesn't personally know Marianne, but does say "hi" whenever he enters the restaurant.
  "It seems like everyone who walks in here, she knows them," Ramirez said.
  Joe Rogers died in 1973, and Pauline Rogers, Marianne's mother, died in 1992. Their pictures are on the wall. In 1984, Marianne Rogers moved the business to 1121 South Grand Avenue E., but the business was sold as a franchise in 1985 to another family, who added a second restaurant at Parkway Pointe.
  In the early 1990s, the business arrangement soured. A court settlement in 1995 gave the Den Chili Parlor name and other trade-marks to the new owners, but Marianne Rogers retained the family recipe.
  Marianne Rogers signed a non-compete clause that was in effect for two years. In 1997, two years and one day after the settlement, she opened Joe Rogers' Original at the current location on Ninth Street.
  The other two Den Chili Parlors, on South Grand and at Parkway Pointe, later closed, and in 2000, Marianne Rogers regained the Den name. Because some costumers had gotten accustomed to the new name, she decided to use both.
  Since the first of the month, employees have been asking customers to sign up for an anniversary drawing to be held Saturday.
  The five winners will each receive a dozen $5 gift certificates to Joe Rogers' Original Recipe Chili Parlor/The Den.
  "They will have $60 in gift certificates. That's better than a cake," Marianne Rogers said.
  The restaurant's normal hours are 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Because of the New Year's holiday, the restaurant will close at 3 p.m. this Saturday and will be closed all day Monday.
  John Reynolds can be reached at 788-1524 or john.reynolds@sj-r.com.