PEORIA MAGAZINE August 2022

D I S H A N D D R I N K

SAY A LITTLE PRAYER … AND PASS THE PASTA Troy Ummel has gone from poor house to promised land with his Connected

BY MIKE BAILEY PHOTOS BY RON JOHNSON

O n more than one occasion in 2009, Troy Ummel felt a very strong urge to go to his knees to ask for a little help from Upstairs. He had moved back to central Illinois to help care for his ailing father, following a successful and colorful career at prominent restaurants in Florida and elsewhere around the world. He had a Culinary Institute of America diploma, and he felt he was ready to go out on his own, in his hometown. “Well, I knew I was going to be here a while. What was I gonna do? I had a lease, the place was turnkey. I went back and forth, made a deal,” recalled Ummel. But even for a risk-taker by nature, this was a risk . “The recession in ’08 had bled over into 2009,” he recalled. “I’m in arguably the worst city for fine dining … I’m in the worst location” – at 3218 N. Dries Lane, between one parking lot and another parking lot and another “with potholes that would swallow a car” – “It’s the worst economic time. I have no money. I have no staff. I have nothing. “I’m a very … you’re gonna laugh … I’m a religious guy. I sat right in this chair and I said a prayer. ‘My Lord, what have I done?’ “Not two seconds after I said my prayer, I heard, ‘Hello? Hello?’ Very heavy accent. ‘Hello?’ In came Father

at the mispronunciation. A year later, he was back, and again the call went out for prayer requests. “I raised my hand and said, ‘Please stop praying for Connected, just for a moment. We can’t keep up.” And so it has been at Connected ever since, where despite that “awful” location, Ummel has managed to build one of the best and most consistently popular restaurants in central Illinois. The five DiRoNA awards he has on the wall – among North America’s most prestigious restaurant prizes – join two Wine Spectator honors as testament to that at the everything-made-from scratching throwback. Of the 23 Illinois restaurants listed by the Distinguished Restaurants of North America (DiRoNA) on its website, all but Connected are in the Chicago metropolitan area. Not even a near-biblical plague like COVID could derail him. No government assistance for this small business, which didn’t qualify because it hadn’t suffered losses. Ummel just pivoted to a frozen entrée takeout operation. That first COVID Easter alone, 200meal kits went out the door – 800 meals. Like any successful restaurateur, Ummel also is a superior storyteller, of course – a little Mark Twain in there somewhere, a guy who knows how to work a room. Listening to him is like sailing down a long river with no end of tributaries, as he drops the names

Elias, a priest in Peoria, and he said, ‘David Joseph” – a well-known Peoria builder and developer – ‘and his wife tell me you’re a good cook.’ Father Elias then walks right back into the kitchen. I’m very proud of this to this day. I didn’t have much but I had something. I knew good food. I’d worked at some of the best places in the world. I sliced some prosciutto for him, some parmesan ... I think they’re staples. “He says, ‘Put me down for 8 to 12 people tonight.’Wewere off and running.” Nothing if not nondenominational, Ummel wanted to cover all his bases. At the small Mennonite church in Groveland he attended with his father, the pastor asked for prayer requests. “Usually, it’s ‘my Aunt Jane is sick.’” Next thing he knew, he was hearing, “Lord, bless Connections” — he laughs now

16 AUGUST 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE