Local Ingredients for Local Flavor

Chef Zak Dishes on Delicious Dining at Duke’s

At Duke’s Alehouse and Kitchen, using locally sourced ingredients does more than just support local producers; it provides an unparalleled taste of McHenry County. A staple of Downtown Crystal Lake since 1994, Duke’s prides itself on serving mouthwatering meals with flavors singularly characteristic of our communities.

“Those ingredients are just down the road and are picked when they’re ready to be eaten,” said Chef Zak Dolezal, owner of Duke’s. “We’re able to get those ingredients and use them right away and it really makes things taste different. It really puts you in touch with seasonality and menus, but the ingredients ultimately just taste better.”

Salads made with beets grown in Richmond. Asparagus fresh from Richmond. Gluten-free buns baked in Woodstock. These are just a few of the naturally distinctive flavors that define not just the Duke’s menu, but McHenry County as a whole.

A Family Tradition

Growing up in the food service industry, Chef Zak developed a love of the culinary arts early. His parents owned Durty Nellie’s in Palatine before opening Duke O’Brien’s in 1994 in Crystal Lake. Between the two businesses, Chef Zak said he filled numerous roles, including washing dishes, bussing tables, bartending, and yes, cooking.

“I got a couple of my own jobs off and on to try and do things on my own,” Chef Zak said, adding that during his time at Duke O’Brien’s, he realized his passion for cooking. He pursued that love with a culinary degree from Kendall College, located in Evanston at the time. “It was intense — long days, kind of like the real world. I was at class 12-14 hours a day, but I didn’t get a lot of homework.”

After earning his culinary degree from Kendall College, Chef Zak received a degree in hospitality management from Purdue University, then worked in several restaurants around the Chicagoland area, including Marriott (Lincolnshire), Le Titi De Paris (Arlington Heights), Spring Restaurant (Chicago), and Lettuce Entertain You (Chicago). While gaining invaluable experience, Chef Zak said he missed the ability to be versatile and creative with menus and recipes. He soon found an opportunity to express that creativity in a familiar setting. 

“My dad asked me to come back to Duke O’Brien’s and help them out. I came up with a new concept for them — Duke’s Alehouse and Kitchen — and I fell in love with it,” he said. “Working in fine dining  in the city, I was really passionate about having these relationships with farmers and the food that they grew, and being really excited about sharing that food with us. I just thought, ‘That’s the way you’ve got to cook,’ having that direct interaction with the producer. It forms a trust, but it also makes customization and forces you to be versatile in the kitchen.”

Duke O’Brien’s rebranded as Duke’s Alehouse and Kitchen in 2004, and four years later, Chef Zak assumed the leadership position of the restaurant his family founded.
 

Local Works of Art

The culinary arts are more than just a punch-the-clock job to Chef Zak. Rather, cooking offers an opportunity for creative self-expression, using a palette of ingredients to prepare meals that are as visually stunning as they are flavorful.

“Cooking is like temporary art. It’s rugged and raw. The chefs and cooks you meet are there because they love cooking — you meet a lot of passionate people along the way, people who are into music, art, and all kinds of other things besides just grinding and making money,” Chef Zak said. “I love the people, the atmosphere, and the direct interaction you get with the customer. There aren’t a lot of products you put out that you pay for after receiving it. There’s a lot of pressure to impress people. After getting through a busy shift and putting out hundreds of plates and making hundreds of people happy, it’s very gratifying in the moment.”

Such culinary masterpieces reflect McHenry County as well. While the menu features a variety of familiar comfort foods, Chef Zak emphasizes local flavors, incorporating ingredients from area growers and shopping at farmers markets around the region. This process creates meals that not only taste better, he said, but also allow chefs to easily modify dishes and cater them to each diner.

“Once we started using local foods, we found since we were making a lot of dishes from scratch, we weren’t using a lot of processed or premade ingredients and we were able to take ingredients out,” Chef Zak said. “Food allergies are very prevalent, and back then, there weren’t a lot of places — especially in the suburbs — that catered to those dietary restrictions. So, we started offering gluten-free items and vegan options just to meet demand.”

At the same time, he added, local environmental groups approached Duke’s because of their support for local farmers — many of whom utilize sustainable farming practices. Though Chef Zak said Duke’s wasn’t founded on eco-friendly cooking, it soon became a driving principle. Taking an environmental approach to cooking, while certainly virtuous, provides what Chef Zak calls a “holistic approach to food.”

“There’s a huge correlation between our health, sourcing ingredients locally, the quality of food that we’re serving, and the environment,” Chef Zak explained. “By putting money back into local farms, we saw the environmental benefit by ingredients not traveling as far, farmers producing on smaller areas of land without any kind of subsidization, preserving nutrients in the soil without adding a bunch of fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides. It all really went hand in hand; by doing things more nutritiously and healthier, it benefits the environment.”