Sidetrip: Central Illinois

Recently I took a trip to Central Illinois where I was able to visit with family as well as revisit some long-time favorite restaurants.

We started out with Papa Del's pizza.  This is a University of Illinois institution, but sadly I couldn't find a website!  It's a deep dish pizza with lots of crust, sauce, and cheese.  We did the pepperoni version which was as good as we remembered.  Papa Del's pizza is so thick that 1-2 slices is plenty of pizza.  Really one is probably enough, but given we don't eat it very often it was hard to stop at one.  There is another local pizza favorite that I didn't have this time around, but worth a mention.  Monical's is a favorite for the townies.  It is about the exact opposite of Papa Del's - a thin, cracker crust pizza cut into squares.  You can get deep dish at Monical's, but really...why bother.  If you're going to do deep dish, go Papa Del's.  Both pizzas are good and worth a try if you have the opportunity.  We finished the evening with cupcakes from Cakes on Walnut.  This is a relatively new bakery in downtown and worth a visit.  They have some great flavors and are nice and moist.

Lunch the next day was a visit to Farren's Pub.  This is a small restaurant that has grown to be one of my must visits when in town.  It has a small kitchen off to the side of the bar and you might expect run-of-the-mill bar food.  It is a pleasant surprise to be presented with a menu that will please both the foodie and the non-foodie in the group.  The burgers are great and the handcut french fries are worth getting.  They offer a Kobe burger on the menu. I've had that in the past, but the regular burger is just fine with me.  I don't need the "massaged beef" that the Kobe offers.  My only disappointment with this restaurant is that once or twice they have had a wonderfully seasoned barbecue pork sandwich on the "specials" menu.  They haven't had this the last several times I've been there.  I wish they had this on the regular menu so I can be sure of getting it when I visit.

That evening we were on the western edge of Central Illinois and stopped at a restaurant in a small town, Liberty, Illinois.  Mike's Place (no website) has to be the local favorite of that area.  It is traditional country cooking at its best.  I had to go old school and get the Country Fried Steak.  It was exactly what I expected - fried yummy goodness and mashed potatoes covered with gravy.  The rest of my party went with breakfast for dinner.  We all ended the meal with homemade pie.

We ended the western edge visit with brunch at the country club the following morning.  The meal was good and a great way to end the weekend visit.