Author: Connie

Café Navarre, South Bend IN: Top-Notch Farm-to-Table Dining

Connie Food & Drink, Indiana , , , 0 Comment
Café Navarre, South Bend IN: Top-Notch Farm-to-Table Dining

The menu changes regularly at Café Navarre. In fact, the salad that I had on my recent visit is no longer on the menu, at least not with the same ingredients. The restaurant’s expanding farm-to-table options means that dishes change often to incorporate the freshest, local in-season produce. It’s no wonder that Midwest Living magazine placed Café Navarre on their list of “Best New Midwest Attractions, Restaurants and Hotels.” From ambiance to food to service, everything was top-notch on our recent visit.

table

Opened just a couple of years ago, the restaurant is located in a completely renovated, centuries old downtown South Bend building that once housed a bank whose claim to historical fame is that John Dillinger robbed it. Restored to its original grandeur, the setting complements the elegance of the restaurant.

Cafe Navarre interiorDon’t miss a Midwest Wanderer post.  For a FREE subscription, enter your e-mail address in the Subscribe2 box to the left and click Subscribe.

My husband, Skip, and I met Lindsey Talboom, Communications & Public Relations Coordinator for Visit South Bend Mishawaka, at Café Navarre for lunch. Skip took Lindsey’s recommendation of the French Onion Gratinee. He agreed it was one of the best onion soups he has ever had. As I watched both Lindsey and Skip break through the layer of gooey gruyere, I was a bit disappointed that I hadn’t ordered the soup, too.

However, my salad was delicious, with fresh greens, fruit, nuts and a light vinaigrette dressing. I opted for an added small steak, which was done to medium-rare perfection. Lunch was served with an assortment of warm breads and butter.

salad

Service in the restaurant couldn’t have been better. Besides providing great table service, when our waiter found out this was my first visit to the restaurant and that I’m not from the area, he took the time to explain the history of the building and talk about other attractions in South Bend.

With its delicious food, great service and elegant ambiance, I recommend Café Navarre if you visit South Bend. The restaurant is located at 101 N Michigan Street and specializes in French, Italian and Spanish cuisines. Check the web site for hours or to make reservations.

Disclosure:  Our visit to South Bend was hosted by Visit South Bend Mishawaka, but any opinions expressed in this post are my own. Our accommodations were at the Double Tree by Hilton South Bend.

Thank you for reading Midwest Wanderer.  If you enjoyed this post and would like an e-mail notification when other posts are published, enter your e-mail address below and click Subscribe.  Be sure to click the link when you get the e-mail asking you to confirm. 


 

Explore Three Gardens near Champaign, Ill.

Connie Attractions & Events, Illinois , , , , , , , , , 0 Comment
Explore Three Gardens near Champaign, Ill.

It was a perfect summer weekend, sunshine with a few puffy clouds dotting the azure sky, a slight breeze and low humidity, ideal for a summer stroll through gardens of colorful flowers, hedge-lined pathways, cascading waterfalls, and arbors with benches for relaxing and taking in the beauty. We visited three gardens in and near Champaign County, Illinois, on that weekend, all only 15 to 30 miles apart. Two of the gardens, Allerton Park and the UI Arboretum, are owned by the University of Illinois, and the Mabery Gelvin Botanical Garden is part of the Champaign County Forest Preserve District.

Don’t miss a Midwest Wanderer post.  For a FREE subscription, enter your e-mail address in the Subscribe2 box to the left and click Subscribe.

Allerton Park & Retreat Center
Allerton 4Once the estate of Robert Henry Allerton, the property was donated to the University of Illinois, along with the income from the 1946 farm crops to establish operating funds. Today the 1500 acre park, one of the seven wonders of Illinois, includes the Georgian Manor house used for events, seven natural setting trails totaling 14 miles, and 14 formal gardens that include extensive plantings and over 100 sculptures and ornaments. Walk down paved pathways lined with Chinese musicians, stroll through the walled garden, or climb the spiral staircase in the House of the Golden Buddahs for a view of the gardens from above.

Allerton Park & Retreat Center is located at 515 Old Timber Road, Monticello, Illinois.

University of Illinois Arboretum
UofI Arboretum 4Considered a living laboratory, the UI Arboretum includes plant collections and facilities for teaching, research and public service programs. However, as a non-student, you can simply visit to enjoy the beauty, much of it made possible through donations by generous alumni. Bursts of color in the Idea Garden’s border annuals and the Children’s Garden create a cheerful atmosphere, while the calm serenity of the gardens surrounding the Japan House will leave you feeling tranquil . Development of the 160 acre arboretum property began in the early 1980s. Today 57 acres are developed, leaving plenty of room for further growth.

The University of Illinois Arboretum is located on Lincoln Avenue in Urbana, Illinois. Check the web site for detailed directions.

Mabery Gelvin Botanical Garden
Botanical Gardens 6This gem of a small eight-acre garden is tucked behind the Museum of the Grand Prairie in the Lake of the Woods Forest Preserve in Mahomet, Illinois. The garden includes a one-room schoolhouse and a Japanese garden with a waterfall backdrop and a bright red bridge crossing a pond filled with water lilies. Lots of flowers indigenous to Illinois, like the purple coneflower and the yellow daylily are displayed throughout the garden.

While you are there, be sure to visit the museum and the rest of the forest preserve. Our time was limited, but I would have loved to have rented a paddle boat to pedal around the lake. The Mabery Gelvin Botanical Garden is located at 650 N Lombard Street, Mahomet, Illinois.

See more photos of the gardens in the video slideshow:

http://youtu.be/4tSYI2wgHRs&rel=0

You can easily visit all three gardens in one day, although we broke it into two days and visited area wineries, too. There is no admission fee for any of the three gardens.

Disclosure:  Our visit to the Champaign area was hosted by the Champaign County CVB, but any opinions expressed in this post are my own. Our accommodations were at the Hyatt Place Champaign Hotel.

Thank you for reading Midwest Wanderer.  If you enjoyed this post and would like an e-mail notification when other posts are published, enter your e-mail address below and click Subscribe.  Be sure to click the link when you get the e-mail asking you to confirm. 


 

Tour Minhas Craft Brewery and Minhas Micro Distillery, Monroe WI

Connie Attractions & Events, Food & Drink, Wisconsin , , , , , , , , , 0 Comment
Tour Minhas Craft Brewery and Minhas Micro Distillery, Monroe WI

The brewery burns for seven hours, and the fire is put out with “green beer.” The owner is kidnapped by the mob during Prohibition. These are things movies are made of, but they are true events in the history of the oldest brewery in the Midwest and the second oldest in the nation. You’ll learn about these stories during your tours of the Minhas Craft Brewery and the Minhas Micro Distillery.

Minhas Craft Brewery Tour
The Minhas family has owned the Monroe, Wisconsin, brewery for less than ten years, but the  history goes back to 1845 when Mr. Bissinger opened the Monroe Brewery. If you grew up in the Midwest, you may remember the Joseph Huber Brewing Company, Augsburger beer and brewmaster Hans Kestler from radio commercials in the late 1970s and early 1980s. This is the same brewery.

Don’t miss a Midwest Wanderer post.  For a FREE subscription, enter your e-mail address in the Subscribe2 box to the left and click Subscribe.

In the beginning, beer was brewed only in the winter and produced only few hundred barrels per year. Almost 170 years and several owners, name changes and expansions later, Minhas Craft Brewery produces 275,000 barrels each year, and as of June 2014 was on track to brew 325,000 barrels for the year.

You’ll start your tour in the Lazy Mutt Lounge, where you are welcome to sample the beer and munch popcorn while watching an introductory film. Don’t worry about not having time to sample enough because you’ll have more time for that later.

Brewery tastings

The tour then moves outdoors, where your guide will point out the two separate buildings divided by a street. The beer is brewed in one building and then sent through a tunnel beneath the street to the bottling building.

Brewery tour - outdoors

Inside the brewery, your guide will talk about the ingredients that go into beer, including barley grown in Wisconsin, and about the entire brewing process. We weren’t able to go into the brew house on the day we toured for safety (and comfort) reasons since the kettle reaches temperatures of 225 degrees.

As the tour continues across the street with the pasteurizing and bottling processes, your guide will point out the different processes used for cans and bottles. At the end of the tour you’ll be given a six-pack that includes four different beer brands, a bottle of root beer and a keepsake glass.

Afterward you may go back to the Lazy Mutt Lounge for more beer and/or soda tastings and to browse the gift shop and the museum rooms, where walls are lined with beer advertising artifacts. Even the ceiling in the ladies room is covered with beer labels.

Brewery gift shop

Brewery museum 2

Ladies room ceiling

Minhas Micro Distillery Tour
The Minhas Micro Distillery opened in 2012 in space formerly used by the brewery. Gather first in the tasting room, where you can begin tasting the spirits.

Distillery tastingsThe tour officially begins with an introductory film describing the distilling process, followed by a short tour of the small distillery and the bottling process, which is far less automated than the brewery bottling process. You will receive a full-size bottle of alcohol, as well as your tasting glass, to take home with you

Be sure to stick around afterward to go back to the tasting room and gift shop where you’ll see Godstilla, the 1,000 gallon still.

Stillzilla

To survive the Prohibition years, the company made ice cream and near beer, among other ventures. To make near beer, full-strength beer first needed to be made and then the alcohol removed. The dealcoholizing was done in a back room. The original sign for that room now hangs in the distillery tasting room.

De-alcoholizing sign

Instead of dumping the alcohol from the near beer down the drain, it was sold on the black market, in Chicago mob territory. When the mob found out about it, they kidnapped the  owner, Fred Blumer. While tasting spirits after the tour, you’ll be treated to a film that will capture your attention about the 1931 kidnapping. The tasting room happens to be Blumer’s former office.

The Minhas Craft Brewery is located at 1208 14th Avenue and the Minhas Micro Distillery is located at 1404 13th Street in Monroe, Wisconsin. Tours are conducted daily and cost $10 each; however, the take-home gifts alone are worth that amount. Check the web site for times and further details. Note that photos are not allowed in production areas.

Disclosure: My visit to Monroe, Wisconsin, was hosted by Green County Tourism, but any opinions expressed in this post are my own.

Thank you for reading Midwest Wanderer. Don’t miss a post. Enter your e-mail address below and click Subscribe to be notified whenever I publish another post. Subscription is FREE. After subscribing, be sure to click the link when you get the e-mail asking you to confirm.   – Connie


 

It’s Christmas Year-Round in Santa Claus, Indiana

Connie Attractions & Events, Indiana , , , , , , 0 Comment
It’s Christmas Year-Round in Santa Claus, Indiana

400,000 pieces of mail are postmarked in the tiny town of Santa Claus, Indiana’s, post office each Christmas season. In addition, around 13,000 letters addressed to Santa Claus from children all over the United States are delivered here each year. It isn’t only during the holiday season that Santa Claus celebrates, though. The town embraces and capitalizes on its name, attracting tourists who come to celebrate Christmas year-round.

History
Originally called Santa Fee, the town was forced to change its name when it applied for a post office because the name too closely resembled the existing Indiana town of Santa Fe. There are several stories of how the name Santa Claus came to be, but the most popular is that during a meeting on Christmas Eve about renaming the town, a gust of wind blew the door open and the sound of sleigh bells was heard. A little girl yelled, “It’s Santa Claus!” and all agreed that’s what they would name the town.

Don’t miss a Midwest Wanderer post.  For a FREE subscription, enter your e-mail address in the Subscribe2 box to the left and click Subscribe.

The Post Office Department started forwarding letters addressed to Santa to the Santa Claus post office in 1914, and the newly named postmaster, James Martin, began answering them. In 1931 the postmaster general tried to change the name of the town to alleviate the post office of the influx of letters to Santa, but the townspeople wouldn’t hear of it, and the name remained Santa Claus.

Today you’ll find many businesses in Santa Claus that focus on Christmas, like the Santa Claus Christmas Store; associate their names with Christmas, like the Holiday Foods grocery store; or simply display a holiday icon, like the Santa Claus statue outside the local Subway shop.

   Subway Santa 2

Attractions
You’ll find plenty to do in Santa Claus to keep you busy, particularly in the summer months.

Santa Claus Christmas Store
Christmas Store exteriorStart your holiday shopping early in this 9,000 square foot store that’s everything Christmas. There seems to be no end to Christmas ornament displays, Santa statues line shelves high above, and the lights of Christmas village displays twinkle festively. Christmas ornaments designed exclusively for the Santa Claus Christmas Store make great souvenirs. Kids may even be able to visit with the jolly old elf himself when he’s not away at the North Pole. Purchase a Santa Claus postcard, address it and walk it down to the post office to have it mailed with the Santa Claus postmark.

Christmas Store interiorVisiting Santa
Santa Claus Post Office
Post Office exteriorIt looks like any other post office, but come November the Santa Claus post office will be flooded with Christmas cards sent to them to have the Santa Claus postmark applied. Postmaster Marian says 400,000 pieces of mail come through the post office during the holiday season when a specially designed giant red postmark is stamped on envelopes. If you take the mail to the post office in person, you may even be able to apply the postmark yourself. Outside of the holiday season, you won’t get the big, special postmark, but rather the regular round black one that shows your correspondence was mailed in Santa Claus, Indiana.

PostmarkApproximately 10,000 letters to Santa are delivered to the post office each year. Postmaster Marian says if letters are addressed specifically to P.O. Box 1, Santa Claus, IN 47579, they will go to the elves to be answered. However, Emily Thompson, director of the Santa Claus Museum, says the elves get many letters other than those addressed to P.O. Box 1. It must be Christmas magic.

Santa Claus Museum and Village
Museum SantaLocated in the area that was originally the heart of town before Santa Claus grew, the Santa Claus Museum takes you through the town’s history. See a diorama of Jim Yellig as Santa Claus. Yellig began assisting with replying to Santa letters in 1930 and was also the town Santa for over 40 years. Yellig sought the help of the American Legion to answer Santa letters and is credited with keeping the tradition alive. His daughter, Pat Koch, says her father didn’t play Santa, he was Santa.

The museum’s display of antique toys takes you back to a nostalgic yesteryear, and one room is devoted to the history of Santa Claus Land, the forerunner to today’s Holiday World Theme Park and Spashin’ Safari Water Park.

Museum_Antique toys

Old Post OfficeThe original Santa Claus post office, used only until 1881, had previously been restored and used as the House of Dolls at Holiday World. In 2012 the building was moved to the Santa Claus Museum property and refurbished to resemble an old-fashioned post office.The building is equipped with a handful of old school desks where children may sit and write letters to Santa.

Writing to SantaChildren drop the letters into the elves’ mailbox and jingle the bells as a signal to the elves to pick them up. All letters that include a valid address will receive a return letter the following Christmas season.

Mailing letter to Santa
Ringing the elf bellsAlso on the museum property is a 22-foot tall, 40 ton concrete statue of Santa, constructed in 1935, as well as the Deutsch Evangelische St. Paul’s Kirche, also called Santa Claus Church. The church belonged to several denominations before being moved in 2012 from its original site about a half mile away to the museum property. The church is used for events like Christmas concerts and the Halloween Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

Cement Santa
Church

Holiday World and Splashin’ Safari
Holiday WorldPay one price for admission to both Holiday World and Splashin’ Safari. The Holiday World Theme Park is divided into four holidays: Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween and the Fourth of July and offers thrilling rides and entertaining shows. Bring your swimsuit and cool off in the Splashin’ Safari’s Water Park.

Lake Rudolph Campground & RV Resort
paddle boatsAlthough I would technically consider it an accommodation, there is so much to do at Lake Rudolph that I’ve included it in this list of attractions. Ride paddle boats, play a round a mini golf, fish, or swim. Lake Rudolph even has its own small water park.

Santa Claus’ peak season is the summer when the holidays are furthest from most people’s minds. However, a visit to Santa Claus will put you in the holiday mood, no matter if it’s 90 degrees outside.

Santa Claus is located in southern Indiana. For information on more Santa Claus attractions, visit the Spencer County Visitors Bureau web site.

Disclosure:  My visit to Santa Claus was hosted by the Spencer County Visitors Bureau. However, any opinions expressed in this post are my own.

Thank you for reading Midwest Wanderer. Don’t miss a post. Enter your e-mail address below and click Subscribe to be notified whenever I publish another post. Subscription is FREE. After subscribing, be sure to click the link when you get the e-mail asking you to confirm.   – Connie


 

All Iowa Lawn Tennis Club, Charles City: The Court of Dreams

Connie Attractions & Events, Iowa , , , , , 2 Comments
All Iowa Lawn Tennis Club, Charles City: The Court of Dreams

tennis court 2The van we were riding in traveled down the country road past corn and soybean fields, the crunch of gravel beneath us, a trail of dust left behind. I thought we were headed to a park-like setting to visit the All Iowa Lawn Tennis Club in Charles City, so when the van carrying several travel writers turned into a rural farm, I was more than a little surprised. Here in front of us next to the farmhouse was a beautifully manicured Wimbledon court look-alike.

Mark Kuhn didn’t intend for people to come from all over to play when he turned the cattle feedlot on his Iowa farm into a grass tennis court. He built it for himself, his family and friends, following a dream he had for decades.

Don’t miss a Midwest Wanderer post.  For a FREE subscription, enter your e-mail address in the Subscribe2 box to the left and click Subscribe.

tennis racketsAs a young child, Kuhn listened to the Wimbledon tournament on the BBC over his grandfather’s shortwave radio and became enthralled with it. He took up tennis, his first racquet bought for him with S&H Green Stamps, and for 40 years he talked about building a grass court on the family farm. That first racquet is still in Kuhn’s collection, along with a racquet that was used at Wimbledon over a hundred years ago.

After discussion with his wife Denise and other family members and with their blessing, Kuhn researched turfgrass management at Iowa State University and got underway with the project with much help from the family.  In September 2003, 100 people attended the grand opening of the All Iowa Lawn Tennis club with an exhibition match featuring Coe College players and alumni.

tennis court 1Word spread about the grass court after media coverage, including a 2007 article in Tennis magazine, and people have been coming to play on it ever since. Folks from 35 different states, as well as from overseas, have played on the court, which is easier on the knees and cooler than playing on a hard surface court. The ball bounces lower and slower on a grass court, and even lower on a wet court, as we found out. Our visit followed a day of heavy rainfall.

Mark KuhnKuhn, a full-time farmer, spends about an hour a day on the court’s maintenance. The grass, the same type used on golf course greens, is on a base of sand and requires occasional rolling to keep it smooth, and of course, lines need to be reapplied regularly. Kuhn has attended Wimbledon twice, and is on a first-name basis with the Wimbledon groundskeeper, Eddie Seaward, who has shared maintenance secrets.

Features continue to be added to the court to make it even more Wimbledon-like from the gate to wooden net posts. The latest addition is an umpire chair.

AILTC gate

referee chair

Our group was invited onto the court to try it out. Not being a tennis player, I was thrilled that I even served the ball over the net, though I wasn’t so good when it came to hitting the ball that was served to me back over the net.

Serving

One can’t help but be reminded of the movie The Field of Dreams when visiting the All Iowa Lawn Tennis Club, especially both being built on Iowa farms. It’s no surprise that it’s been dubbed “The Court of Dreams.”

The Kuhns allow tennis players to use the court free of charge, but require reservations. Visit the All Iowa Lawn Tennis Club web site to request a reservation and for further details.

Disclosure: My visit to the All Iowa Lawn Tennis Club was hosted by the Iowa Tourism Office, but any opinions expressed in this post are my own.

Thank you for reading Midwest Wanderer. Don’t miss a post. Enter your e-mail address below and click Subscribe to be notified whenever I publish another post. Subscription is FREE. After subscribing, be sure to click the link when you get the e-mail asking you to confirm.   – Connie


 

Indiana’s Greatest Pizza is sold from a Food Truck

Connie Food & Drink, Indiana , , , 0 Comment
Indiana’s Greatest Pizza is sold from a Food Truck

Truck with tablesWe were traveling through Indiana Dunes Country along the southern shore of Lake Michigan looking for a place to eat when we spotted a shiny red vintage Studebaker food truck parked along U.S. Highway 12 in Beverly Shores. They had plenty of customers, which could only mean they had good food, so we stopped to check it out.

The truck was one of two owned by the Rolling Stonebaker, maker of wood-fired pizzas. The Rolling Stonebaker offers the standard pepperoni and sausage pizzas, but they also make unusual combinations with unique names like the Choke-n-Shroom and Potatohead .

Don’t miss a Midwest Wanderer post.  For a FREE subscription, enter your e-mail address in the Subscribe2 box to the left and click Subscribe.

Purple PigWanting to try something other than the ordinary, my husband and I chose the Purple Pig, a pizza with smoked pork shoulder, barbecue sauce, and mozzarella and provolone cheeses. When the pizza came out of the oven, a generous portion of tangy purple coleslaw was sprinkled on top. The super-thin, crispy, smoky-flavored crust was perfect with the smoked pork and barbecue sauce, and the crunch of the rough-cut coleslaw added another element to the texture.

It turns out we really did pick a winner. The Purple Pig was name in Food Network Magazine as the must-try pizza in Indiana in its “50 States 50 Pizzas” feature.

AndreaIn its fourth season in 2014, the Rolling Stonebaker food truck is parked most weekends by the Camp Stop General Store at the corner of Broadway and U.S. Highway 12 in Beverly Shores, Indiana. Other regular parking places for the truck are the Valparaiso Farm Market, Griffith Central Market and Chesterton’s European Market. The Rolling Stonebaker also caters. Check the web site to see where you can find them when you’re out and about in Indiana Dunes Country.

Thank you for reading Midwest Wanderer. Don’t miss a post. Enter your e-mail address below and click Subscribe to be notified whenever I publish another post. Subscription is FREE. After subscribing, be sure to click the link when you get the e-mail asking you to confirm.   – Connie