{"id":92848,"date":"2026-01-21T20:07:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T20:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/92848\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T20:07:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T20:07:10","slug":"lehigh-county-restaurant-closing-after-fathers-death-owner-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/92848\/","title":{"rendered":"Lehigh County restaurant closing after father\u2019s death, owner says"},"content":{"rendered":"

A family-operated Lehigh County <\/a>eatery plans to shutter permanently for the second time in five years.<\/p>\n

The Wicked Chef,<\/a> 279 Cetronia Road in South Whitehall, plans to serve its last handcrafted dishes Jan. 30. The closure could come earlier as chef and owner John Walter Moniak is currently selling off all kitchen equipment, a food truck and products.<\/p>\n

Moniak of Allentown<\/a> posted on the restaurant\u2019s Facebook page on Friday<\/a>, saying the past year delivered him a \u201cseries of highs and lows to say the least.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moniak\u2019s father, John Moniak Jr., died in November. The younger Moniak then decided to close the restaurant with his wife, Georgiann Moniak, and son, Chase.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you, to all our customers for your support, friendship and allowing me to feed you,\u201d the posting added.<\/p>\n

This is the second closure for The Wicked Chef.<\/p>\n

Moniak originally opened in October 2019 prior to the March 2020 shutdown amid the coronavirus pandemic. By July 2020, Moniak posted on Facebook the challenges in the pandemic were too much <\/a>to stay in operation.<\/p>\n

The Wicked Chef shuttered after July 30, 2020. Moniak then reopened and gave the eatery a second chance by summer 2024.<\/p>\n

The restaurant is known for its handcrafted sandwiches on soft brioche and ciabatta rolls. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s the \u201cTwisted Chicken,\u201d which is chicken breast dredged in a seasoned flour and topped with mayo, bleu cheese crumbles, balsamic roasted tomatoes and arugula; the \u201cMojo,\u201d which is a pile of smoked pulled pork, smoked brisket, applewood bacon, pickled red onions and homemade pickles finished off with a zesty Carolina BBQ sauce; and the \u201cGobbler.\u201d <\/p>\n

For the Gobbler, think fresh ground turkey mixed with smoked gouda and roasted red peppers before being topped with mayo, arugula and roasted balsamic tomatoes.<\/p>\n

Nods to Moniak\u2019s Polish heritage also fill the menu. There are such items as \u201cplacek ziemniaczany,\u201d which are potato pancakes, served with sour cream and chunky homemade apple sauce.<\/p>\n

Other menu selections include a smoked brisket hash; a brisket \u201cNacho Libre\u201d platter; and a smoked brisket quesadilla.<\/p>\n

By Wednesday afternoon, the eatery\u2019s farewell posting garnered more than 100 reactions and 40 comments. Loyal patrons shared memories, including one woman celebrating her husband\u2019s final radiation treatment at The Wicked Chef, and others saying they\u2019ll miss the food truck at area events.<\/p>\n

Many commented they would be flocking for their last helping of the family\u2019s homemade potato pancakes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A family-operated Lehigh County eatery plans to shutter permanently for the second time in five years. The Wicked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92849,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120],"class_list":{"0":"post-92848","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-allentown","8":"tag-allentown","9":"tag-allentown-headlines","10":"tag-allentown-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}