Category > Restaurant & Bar Reviews
Here's a secret: you can only get the best pizza in C-U two nights a week. On Friday and Saturday evenings, Matt Kitzmiller takes over Mirabelle's stone deck oven to bake pies using simple, freshly-made dough and quality ingredients from places like Common Ground, Art Mart, and the farmers' market. Yet until this paean reaches Smile Politely's 60 readers (just kidding, you other 10 readers!), Kitzmiller's only publicity's been enthusiastic word of mouth, a Facebook page, and a neon …
| Generally speaking, I tend to shy away from what might be considered "unauthentic" anything. Meaning, I want my matzo balls coming from the hands of a Jewish cook with their Bubbie's recipe memorized, or my Soul Food coming from an African-American who can time their grits without looking at a clock. Similarly, I'd rather listen to most anything than to have to hear a Stevie Ray Vaughn or Kenny Wayne Shepard guitar lick or lyric; a white man playing …
What is this very unimpressive looking building doing getting a feature? Well, hopefully it will soon be a new bar in town. Keith Cameron Smith, owner of Cameron's Catering, needed a bigger kitchen to work in for his company. He and his partner found a building and made an offer on it just last spring. They bought it in May 2009, and were quickly contacted by people interested in leasing the bar area of the building. At first, that …
4. La Bamba 1905 Glen Park Drive Champaign (355-6600) and 606 S. Sixth St. Champaign (344-6600) This may seem like an obvious choice, but I didn't really discover the veggie burrito at La Bamba until after I graduated from college, moved back to C-U and realized I needed beans and veggies in a large quesadilla after the downtown bars closed. That's when I discovered La Bamba isn't just for college kids — their location just off Mattis St. is …
Let me be clear: Kaiyo has the best sushi I have ever tasted. And speaking as a Chicago native, with access to extremely fresh fish, that is saying something. The buffet is $17.95 which comes to just under $21.00 with a beverage. The sushi was amazingly fresh tasting. The owner says that it's because the seafood is flown into Chicago then delivered to Champaign twice a week. The sushi is also prepared no more the thirty minutes before opening …
Campus has KAM's and Chipotle, Urbana has the homely downtown with Crane Alley and the Courier, Champaign touches on the gourmet urban with Bacaro and Jim Gould's, and Savoy has... Dairy Queen and the abandoned Spaghetti Shop. Pretty much the only reasons to come out to Savoy are for the movie theater and Friar Tuck's. Food, generally, is left to be desired elsewhere. Even then, I have a M.O. when it comes to eating in Champaign-Urbana: I drive up …
One of the blessings (and curses, depending on how you look at it) of working on campus is there is no shortage of delicious noms to choose from on the lunch hour. Working smack dab in the middle of Green Street, I don't have to venture far at all to indulge in Indian, Mexican, Chinese, Sushi... But most days I am good, and I pack my lunch, especially in this cold weather when even a five minute jaunt for …
About a year ago, Editor supreme Joel Gillespie and I whimsically dined at the newly opened Xinh Xinh Cafe in Urbana. Its location was suspect; parked in the Schnuck's Plaza on Vine and Main in downtown Urbana, next to fast food Chinese, Quizno's, and Papa Murphy's, we didn't see reason to give it much promise. But then we ate. And ate, and ate. And by the meal's end, we were talking with Shai Mauth, the owner and head chef, …
Part of living in Champaign-Urbana — and not just stopping over for a degree — is coming to terms with a few certainties related to our cultural and geographical landscape. Feel free to lament the lack of a natural body of water, or the fact that we don't play host to a Minor League baseball team; these are things we have to drive to find because of choosing to live in a "micro-urban" location. Perhaps you are upset by …
When Benjamin Franklin said, "Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy," it is doubtful whether he knew what a cliche his statement would become. And yet, last night, literally hundreds of Champaign-Urbanians came to The Blind Pig Brewery (known also as The Piglet) to partake of that cliche — to guzzle down a pint or two of life-affirming, locally-brewed booze.
Most Recent Food Comments
Looks like you are also all members of the killer sideburns club.
@Annie: Yeah, my bad. That was the best part! Drinking + memory exercises = fun @Rob: According to Ask the English Teacher, “My dictionary says ‘drunk’ is an archaic past tense of ‘drink.‘“ We’re all about the new grammar around here.
“more beer is drank” Awesome. Way to go “editors.“
You left out the best part—you have to REMEMBER your number after the beer chugging! Yeah, I’m a member.
Great article, man. Like you, I didn’t really know Daniel all that well, but I felt the impact of his death. I too was inspired by him and it pleases me to see that he continues to live on in the spirit of the community.
Thanks you guys…I love living in a community that can connect, share, and create through food. It’s inspiring…
<div> A beautiful recap of the evening and thank you for sharing why you find what the Fund is doing is inspiring. I haven’t been able to write too much about my feelings about the community’s loss of Dan yet either, but Dan has also inspired me…
Seth and Justine, thanks so much! Through your writing and your photos, everyone can get at least a taste of what was served up Sunday night. Dan would very much have liked that! As you say, our community is very much “fertile ground,“ and Dan had such…
That is perhaps the best article you have ever written… a love letter to Champaign-Urbana and the people who call it home.
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Most Recent Comments
Illinois has simply had no luck at all in these Mizzou games. None. I think maybe we’re do for a couple of bounces to go our way. If we get one or two (or sever or eight) breaks, I think it’s a win.
Jason, Savoy could easily join the CPL tax district, which is probably closer to most Savoy residents than the Tolono library is. But my impression is that Savoy residents as a whole don’t want to pay the cost of the CPL (Tolono’s library taxes are cheaper), even…
Sorry, but I am lagging behind on updates to the map. Also, some construction projects were delayed from their original start date. On a more positive note, I am putting together a map of haunted houses in Central Illinois. I have a few plotted already, and I…
I’ve never gotten the privilege of all the services CPL cardholders get. I just want to be able to go out of my way to drive to the CPL to check out books, pay fines, maybe buy some coffee, and enjoy the library. None of those activities…
These days, there is more to using a library than checking out books. At one time, paying into the Lincoln Trails system probably would cover the expenses incurred by other libraries in the system. Now, with Internet, videos, coffee shops, wireless Internet hubs, etc., I suspect the…
(speaking as a Savoy resident) By paying taxes to support a member of the LTLS, we are paying our “fair share” to use any LTLS library—Tolono, Champaign, Urbana, etc. This is how library systems work. The 6% of CPL’s circulation represented by Tolono users is NOT significant…
I read Timbo’s argument. I think the key word is “speculating.“
I would be interested to hear more about the “word on the street”—how are individual hauling companies fulfilling their promise to recycle?
Timbo makes a smart, sound argument. Reread it.
I joined on 09-09-09 after living here over a year, and having to listen to my dad tell me how his best friend is, like, #27 or something crazy like that, and how said friend never lived further than 50 feet from the Illini Inn while going…
And, I might add, no one is being prevented from using the Champaign library. They are just being asked to pay their fair share if they are going to use it as their primary library.
The equation is pretty simple here. If you want social services, then pay the taxes required to run those social services. These things only work if everyone puts in their fair share. As a heavy user of the Champaign Library, I say bravo to this new policy.
Curtis Orchard is always good for an hour or three, especially if you have rugrats.
What is the increased marginal cost of serving a resident of Savoy or Mahomet? I suspect negligible. What is the increased revenue to be realized by this new policy? I suspect very little. Aside from these financial aspects, what are the most probable results from this new…
Looks like you are also all members of the killer sideburns club.
Thanks for the article, Ben. I was not familiar with this band until now and even though I won’t be able to attend the show on Friday they are now on my radar. A *good* jam band is hard to find, and these folks appear to fill…
Nice article, love the Dead quote in the beginning. If they can get down here to Central FL I’ll definitely be heading out to the show. Some of my friends have finally stopped wincing when I say “jam band.“ I’ve now tried my best at more descriptive…
@Annie: Yeah, my bad. That was the best part! Drinking + memory exercises = fun @Rob: According to Ask the English Teacher, “My dictionary says ‘drunk’ is an archaic past tense of ‘drink.‘“ We’re all about the new grammar around here.
Katie, have the residents of Savoy and Tolono thought about having their taxes raised a little to help their public library expand? That’s a possibility for them. And then everybody wins.
good call on that Herring recording, Josh. Love that version of Exit Music….here’s a clip of the Cinco de Mayo show (from about six months prior). As I recall, this Shakedown went on for roughly a half hour, while getting into the Trampled Underfoot jam in the…
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I joined on 09-09-09 after living here over a year, and having to listen to my dad tell me how his best friend is, like, #27 or something crazy like that, and how said friend never lived further than 50 feet from the Illini Inn while going…