By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — The city has demolished the former 15th & Chris burger restaurant a little over a year after it was damaged in a fire.
City officials said it was demolished because it was a potential public safety hazard, and it had been condemned after the fire because of multiple code violations.
The city contracted with Northern Illinois Service Co. for $10,150 to complete the demolition. As of Tuesday morning, the structure had been removed. There are still blocks of rubble and construction equipment on site as work to cleanup the property is completed.
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James Purifoy, 50, opened 15th & Chris, 201 15th Ave., in late summer 2014 and quickly became a local culinary celebrity. The restaurant became one of the city’s most popular burger joints both at the brick-and-mortar restaurant and the mobile food truck. It won the Register Star’s What Rocks contest for best burgers five times, including in 2022, the last full year it operated before the fire.
He had also been featured on CNN Money’s “My American Success Story,” for building the popular burger restaurant after learning to cook and earning his associate’s degree in culinary arts while serving a 10-year prison sentence starting at age 19.
The restaurant was severely damaged in a fire Jan. 22, 2023, around 8 p.m. Rockford Fire Department officials have said the fire was incendiary, meaning it was intentionally set, and local and federal authorities are investigating it as arson.
Defense attorney Elder Granger told members of the media that Purifoy was in the restaurant the night of the fire prepping his food truck when he was attacked by three people.
Granger said that Purifoy woke up during the blaze and crawled out of the building before attempting to drive himself to the hospital. He made it a short way before emergency workers were dispatched to his vehicle to transport him the rest of the way.
Granger said that Purifoy suffered third-degree burns in the fire, and that Purifoy and his family had received several threats prior to the Jan. 22, 2023, fire. A post on the 15th & Chris Instagram account says Purifoy spent 48 in intensive care. A GoFundMe that Granger established raised more than $10,000 for Purifoy.
No arrests have been made and no charges have been brought in the fire. It is still an open investigation.
On April 13, about a week before another fundraising event was scheduled for Purifoy, he was charged with aggravated fleeing police, driving on a revoked licensed, operating an uninsured motor vehicle and operating a vehicle with a suspended registration. The fundraiser was then cancelled. Those charges against Purifoy are pending, and he’s next due in court May 1.
15th & Chris has not operated its food truck since the fire. Its Facebook page and website have been deactivated.
Before becoming 15th & Chris, the building was home to several ice cream shops. It was Polar Dream in the 1950s and ’60s, then Lic & Sip in the early ’70s before becoming Penguin Igloo. It also went by the name Tip of the Iceberg before closing in the late ’80s, according to newspaper archives and records in the city directory.
This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on X at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas