EJ’s Place in suburban Skokie might not seem like the kind of restaurant that would be nimble in the time of a crisis. The place looks like an an old-fashioned Wisconsin supper club from the 1950s landed in the north suburbs and features a menu stuffed with large cuts of meat and Italian comfort food. Traditional and comforting? Yes. But pioneering?

Yet when the coronavirus pandemic forced the closure of all restaurant dining rooms in the state, EJ’s was able to seamlessly pivot to curbside pickup orders placed on an app. The owner and his daughter are also helping to imagine what EJ’s might look like later in 2020 if dining rooms are able to open.