A Portage Life in the Spotlight: John and Tara Piontek

John and Tara Piontek own JT’s Route 6 Eatery, located on US Highway 6 in Portage. Made with fresh and pure ingredients, the couple continues to roll out new dishes inspired by the community’s appetite and their own.

John is originally from Portage, and Tara is originally from Tennessee. The two met while working on a project in Tennessee and were married within 28 days after meeting. Both interact very regularly with their customers, but Tara tends to do more of the background work while John is the full-time chef. The couple has a great team dynamic and make it a regular habit to visit customers around their restaurant.

“Tara’s ability to help with all things administrative, coordination, marketing, and more is so helpful,” John Piontek said. “It frees me up to do other things.”

Prior to JT’s Route 6 Eatery, the Piontek’s established Fat Guys Fries Food Truck, one of Restaurant Guru’s Top 10 Food Trucks in the Midwest and Hammond’s 2026 Live in the Ville award-winning food trucks. While JT’s Route 6 Eatery is their core business, the Piontek’s still operate Fat Guys Fries Food Truck, and both businesses are staples in the area.

“With the food truck, it is not always possible to stay away from frozen ingredients because of limited kitchen and storage capabilities,” John Piontek said. “However, with JT’s Route 6 Eatery, this is never really a hurdle.”

Nevertheless, the couple serves several dishes from Fat Guys Fries Food Truck. These include their fresh cut fries, Philly cheese steak sandwich, and fried vegetables.

The Pionteks built both of their businesses from the ground up, and they take great pride in that.

“It’s amazing what prayer and hard work can do,” Tara Piontek said.

While both businesses were not easy to get off the ground, JT’s Route 6 Eatery had some unique challenges. In fact, the business began after the couple went through a challenging financial time that started about a year ago. While they continued to operate Fat Guys Fries Food Truck, they both had to work a lot for not much revenue.

“We prayed constantly and things started to change in the spring,” John Piontek said. “We were able to get through the winter, but I was definitely in a dark spot. Tara was as well, but she pulled herself out of it faster than I did.”

Around April, the Pionteks were eventually able to secure some large events for the food truck. One event management team even went so far as paying the Pionteks far over and above the originally quoted revenue. Instead of paying them $500 for the day, they paid them $5,000.

In June, the couple began renting and remodeling the property in which JT’s Route 6 Eatery now sits. With a limited budget, they transformed it into their own. They had to divide and conquer, so usually one of them would run the food truck, while the other would work on the new space.

“We cleaned everything ourselves and, to save several thousand dollars, even hung the sign with the help of friend and owner of Smoke on the Water Barbecue Food Truck, Mark Badella,” John Piontek said. “There was so much grease on the walls and the ceiling that I took a chisel and hammer until we found silver under the appliances, including the flat top griddle.”

To clean the shoot, John held onto Tara as she got upside down inside of it to wash the walls.

“We had so many members of the community cheering us on, which we were so grateful for, and they couldn’t believe what we were doing ourselves,” he said. “We wanted it done right even though we were on a limited budget. We are all about a clean environment.”

Despite the limited timeline and loads of work, the couple was ready for the restaurant inspection, which was the key to officially opening JT’s Route 6 Eatery.

“Tara did an amazing job cleaning the shoot,” John Piontek said. “The shoot and everything else passed inspection with flying colors.”

As they were preparing the property, John actually lived at a little place nearby so he could walk over to the restaurant easily in the morning.

“I would get up around 4 a.m. and work until 11 p.m.,” John Piontek said. “The local community members that have now become clients would stop by as I was working and say, ‘We saw your light on at 5 a.m. Wow.’ They truly care about us and our business, which is amazing.”

The Pionteks also really care about the community, which is actually one of the reasons they’re bringing their recipes to Portage in the first place. The business owners want to bring more fresh food to the area.

Among customer favorites, as well as ownership favorites, are JT’s Route 6 desserts and the breakfast items. These include banana fosters, strawberry pancake flambe, blueberry pancake flambe, and homemade biscuits and scratch-made gravy to name a few.

“When it comes to banana fosters, I don’t even need caramel,” John Piontek said. “The blend of rum and brown sugars add the perfect sweetness and make a sort of a sauce. We just rolled it out, and our customers love it.”

Another customer favorite of JT’s Route 6 Eatery’s is the french onion soup.

“We slowly caramelize the onions and add in beef stock,” John Piontek said. “The croutons are made from the same sourdough starter that we use for our focaccia bread, focaccia pizza, homemade meatballs and meatball sandwiches, and regular sourdough loaves.”

The restaurant will soon roll out a new dessert after a kind community member offered the suggestion. She is currently helping John create the perfect recipe.

The community, already big fans of the Fat Guys Fries Food Truck, has certainly supported the Pionteks with JT’s Route 6 Eatery. The couple has reciprocated the love and support by pouring their hearts into creating fresh, local food that truly nourishes with an atmosphere that feeds the soul.

Each Friday, JT’s Route 6 Eatery’s offers specials ranging from their french onion soup to lemon rice soup to their french onion burger. Specials can be found on their Facebook page at facebook.com/p/JTs-Route-6-Eatery. Their Instagram handle is jtsroute6eatery. To make a reservation call (219) 488-9209.