Homewood Restaurant Owner Katie Wennberg, 47, Dies Suddenly; Husband Erich Vows to Keep Maple Tree Inn’s 50-Year Legacy Alive

Maple Tree Inn in Homewood celebrated 50 years in business in 2025 — a milestone most restaurants never reach. For owners Katie and Erich Wennberg, that half-century didn’t come without heartbreak, sacrifice, and an almost supernatural determination to keep going.

Katie Wennberg was literally born into the restaurant. Her father, Charlie Orr, opened the Maple Tree Inn just two years before Katie came home from the hospital to their small apartment above the Beverly location in 1977.

By age 10, she was cleaning kitchens and washing dishes. By 11, she earned her first paycheck at $2.13 an hour. By 16, she was the general manager.

Alexandria Man, Marlow Trottie, 35, Killed in Cummins Street Homicide; Family Remembers Him as a Generous Soul

While her peers enjoyed free weekends, Katie was learning every corner of the restaurant business. It wasn’t always easy to accept, but it shaped everything she would become.

Her father shifted the menu from American fare to Cajun and Creole cooking in 1980, inspired by a New Orleans chef he watched on television one New Year’s Eve.

That decision gave Maple Tree Inn its identity — the one that still fills plates today with shrimp and grits, jambalaya, and the restaurant’s signature hickory buttered barbecue shrimp.

Katie stepped away briefly for graduate studies but returned around 2007 when her father fell ill. She was clocking in at midnight after interning as a guidance counselor, staying until 4 a.m. to set the team up for the next day.

When her father passed away in 2010, she became the official owner. By that point, she and Erich had already agreed to buy in together, despite the restaurant being in disrepair and the odds stacked heavily against them.

Statistics gave them a 95 percent chance of failure within six months. Instead, they doubled business in that same window.

A Fire That Took Everything — and a Community That Helped Rebuild

In August 2018, weeks after OpenTable named Maple Tree Inn one of the 50 best Southern restaurants in America, a fire tore through the Blue Island location in the middle of the night.

Erich noticed the power had cut out and found smoke filling their second-floor apartment. He yelled for Katie to get out. She grabbed her dog and ran. Erich later said they were likely two minutes away from not surviving.

Over 80 firefighters responded. The building was gutted. The Wennbergs lost their home and their restaurant on the same night. Katie ran back inside for her cat, Slick, before firefighters pulled her out due to smoke inhalation. Slick made it out, unrecognizable beneath a coat of black soot.

Within 90 days, they opened a temporary location and kept serving food. A call from the mayor of Homewood led to a new permanent home, and in February 2020, they reopened. Five weeks later, COVID forced them to close again.

Through all of it, Katie credited the same thing for their survival — love. Love for the food, the customers, the staff, and most of all, for each other.

Tragically, the Chicago-area food community recently learned of Katie’s sudden passing. Erich announced the news while assuring guests the restaurant would remain open, its team intact, and its mission unchanged. He asked people simply to come in, raise a glass, and celebrate her.

Her legacy, like the restaurant she devoted her life to, is not going anywhere.