Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Spring!

You know spring has hit Peoria when the Ice Cream Shack on NE Adams opens for the season.
My favorites are the shakes, tamales and BBQ sandwiches, all even better on a day when it's nice enough to sit out on one of their concrete benches.

This week I had lunch at Café 401 in Peoria. I tried the chicken salad sandwich again, and this time the salad had dill in it (last time it seemed sweeter, and I don't remember the dill), but again was one of the best chicken salad sandwiches I've ever had. The wheat bread was some of the softest bread I've ever laid my hands on.

On a sad note, the Penguin Tap has closed, which I first heard about here. I was just there March 14 for lunch. One of the great things about lunch at the Penguin was that you could count on some home style lunch specials, and I was also a big fan of their pizzas.
Over the last six months or so, it seems like the local restaurants being shuttered in Peoria are far outnumbering the local restaurants opening up, and I hope this trend doesn't continue.
We have a blast visiting local restaurants when we travel, and we have also met many great people at the local restaurants we frequent in central Illinois.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Really! Closed! That surprises me..I don't see lack of business being a reason...we tried going there a few times in recent years (dinner) and it was always way too busy!

Jennifer said...

Oh, I used to work at that Ice Cream Shack. I loved it. And I must tell you, it was always super clean inside. Probably the cleanest place (food or non-food) that I've ever worked.

Gosh, for some reason a turtle sundae is sounding good right now!