Twisted Eggroll, a new Black-woman-owned restaurant, will be making its debut in Greater Grand Crossing, located at 657 E. 75th St.
Owner Nikkita Randle received a $784,238 grant from the Community Development Grant, a program created under Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Chicago Recovery Plan. Randle was one of 60 people to receive a grant to help businesses recover from the pandemic. Although this won’t cover all of the cost of the storefront, Randle tells Block Club Chicago she hopes to open the restaurant before the end of 2023 if everything goes according to plan. Her eggrolls are currently available through catering and delivery.
Renovations to the former home of Club Monaco include a large commercial kitchen “with a ton of walk-in freezer space.” On top of using the space to make countless eggrolls available for immediate sale or in frozen to-go bags, Randle also hopes to rent the commercial kitchen to other businesses hoping to encourage growth. When the new restaurant opens, customers can expect eggrolls filled with cheesesteaks, buffalo chicken, and apple cheesecake, as well as salads, french fries, and baked macaroni and cheese.
“This is something different, something new,” Randle tells Block Club Chicago. “In our neighborhoods, we’re quick to have the same fast food options, but I hope [Twisted Eggroll] makes people step out of the norm. I’ve created a menu where people can be like, ‘I just got a taste for this today.’ Everything will excite your palate.”
Twisted Eggroll first opened in 2015 to pay tribute to Randle’s father, who passed away from ALS in 2010. Randle, an avid cook at a very young age, was also inspired when she tried a cheesecake eggroll while on a date. At first, Randle considered launching the business as a food truck but found Chicago laws made the goal financially impossible. As a result, she quit her full-time corporate job in 2016 and started focusing on the eggroll business, hoping to eventually open a storefront.
