Local Secrets, Big Finds - IllinoisLocal Secrets, Big Finds - Illinois

Local Secrets, Big Finds - Illinois

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Margie's Candies
Chicago

773.384.1035
"Go back to the 1920's" and pamper that sweet tooth with the "most delicious hot fudge sundae in creation" at Margie's Candies, a Chicago "landmark" serving the community since 1921. This corner candy shop, decorated with dolls and memorabilia from the 20's, serves sandwiches and salads, but the homemade candy and ice cream is "why the locals keep coming back for more." Read more.

Mendota Sweet Corn Festival
Mendota

815.539.6507
If you love sweet corn, then the Mendota Sweet Corn Festival is the place to be. Experience some free, hot, buttered, sweet, and delicious sweet corn every August as the Mendota community "pulls out all the stops" for the longest-running harvest festival in the town's history. Make sure the check out the beer garden and the craft booths, but the highlight of this festival "will always be the corn." Read more.

Meson Sabika
Naperville

630.983.3000
Meson Sabika
Experience Spain without leaving the country at this "superbly" restored mansion originally built in 1847, that has "ambience to spare." Meson Sabika serves up "sublime" tapas and different varieties of paella that are "better than any paella served in Spain or anywhere!" Enjoy a glass of sangria as you stroll along the grounds covered in 150-year-old oak trees, and make sure to "bring someone special" to "knock their socks off." Read more.

The Green Mill
Chicago

773.878.5552
"If it's good enough for Capone, it's good enough for me," is what you'll be saying as you enter the Green Mill, a "phenomenal home away from home for Chicago jazzheads." Chicago gangsters such as Al Capone used the Green Mill as a hang out during Prohibition, and now the "in-crowd" gathers nightly for jazz concerts, roaring swing dances, poetry readings, and "superb martinis."

Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind
Chicago

773.275.5255
Experience a "whirlwind of dramatic entertainment in just sixty minutes" at the longest running show in Chicago, where audiences are "amazed, entertained and delighted" by the 30 plays put on by the theater company, the Neo-Futurists in just an hour. "Experience every emotion" as the Neo-Futurists swing from screwball comedy to scorching political rhetoric to heartbreaking sentimentality in "less time it takes to purchase a ticket." Make sure to come early, for the Neo-Futurists will even order you a pizza if the show sells out. Read more.

Spoon River Valley Scenic Drive
Fulton County

309.647.8980
Celebrate "fall splendor at its best" with 100 miles of the "most amazingly lush" colored countryside in the Spoon River Valley that inspired Edgar Lee Master's "Spoon River Anthology." For the first two weekends in October, join locals from 15 different villages at the yearly festival as they indulge in funnel cake, apple butter, and the "infamous" Ellisville ham. Make sure to check out the antiques booth where you might get "a real find," and the caramel corn-making booth is "excellent for kids." Read more.

Quad City Brew and View
Rock Island

309-788-VIEW
Quad City Brew and View
For "one of the best places you will ever see a movie" and a "great place to grab a beer and chill," come to Quad City Brew and View, the only independently own movie theater in the area, showing new release, second-run, independent, and classic movies for $7. The theater has stadium style movie seats with small cocktail tables and cup holders, so audiences can indulge in the "fantastic pizzas" and specialty beers the Brew and View has to offer. Read more.

Wildlife Prairie State Park
Hanna City

309.676.0998
Come see what "pioneer life must have been like" at Wildlife Prairie State Park, where animals such as black bears, otters, and coyotes roam along the prairie as you "live off the land" by fishing and camping. Make your trip back to the 1800's complete and learn about the history of Illinois with a trip to the log cabin, the one-room school house, and there's even a train to show you around all of the 2,000 acres. Read more.

Highnoon Ride
Chicago

773.684.8588
This July "experience the wild West in the Mid-west" at the Highnoon Ride. Sponsored by Broken Arrow Horseback Riding Club, these African American Cowboys from Illinois gather in Chicago's Washington Park, and saddle up to celebrate the history of Black Cowboys in American. Over 100 riders attend this event, which raises money for LaRabida Childrens Hospital and Research Center.

Town of Lebanon
St. Clair County

618.537.8420
Feel as if "time has stood still" in the small, cobblestone filled, Midwestern town of Lebanon. Founded in 1804, during the time of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Lebanon is home to over 20 mid-Victorian antique and specialty shops, which appear "right out of the 1800's." Lebanon is also home to McKendree College, the oldest college in Illinois as well as the Mermaid Inn, a hotel where Charles Dickens stayed in 1842. Read more.