This all is accurate. I'll take your word for it regarding the monkey. Yes, Boni's.
Champaign-Urbana restaurants & bars
Battle89, you beat me to it. I chuckled when I read "absolute classics like Legends". And Fighter, even if we're laughing about Legends versus Deluxe, I agree with your sentiments.Jeez, Fighter, I'm old enough to remember when Legends was the the new upstart and what the heck did they do to Deluxe?
Guess it's time to get one of these and yell at the kids on my lawn...
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I don’t think anyone ever answered you.
Yes. Both Jupiters are still around. The SW Champaign one is big, usually with a lot of seating, plenty of parking, and has games for the kids to play. It’s pretty easy on and off I-57 at Curtis for those coming in or heading out of town.
Right next door is a new-ish breakfast place called Just Yokin’. It’s nothing exotic, pancakes, eggs, coffee, etc., but is perfectly fine, and gives another option for Saturday or Sunday morning beyond the old standbys like Marianne’s, Sammy’s and Original Pancake House.
One downtown place I haven’t seen mentioned is Farren’s. They used to be on the west side of downtown, but moved to Walnut St, just a bit north and on the other side of the street from Esquire where Radio Maria used to be. Good burgers, salads and so on. My favorite wings in town.
A couple places further East in Urbana worth seeking out on opposite corners of Washington and Philo: Huaraches Morleones is probably the most authentic Mexican in town. Really excellent. Not a huge dining area though. Boomerangs is a great sports bar with great bar food. Boomerangs shares a parking lot with the strip joint; I’ll let the reader decide if they think that’s a positive or negative.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Haha, to be fair life conditions stopped me from fulfilling my lifelong dream of attending the University of Illinois (i.e., I was an out-of-state applicant who DID manage to get in but was a pretty "meh" student so the tuition was out of our price range), so my anecdotes here are from visiting multiple times over the years ... so my take is probably one of the least valuable on the forum.
With that said, I think something that both makes Champaign awesome but ALSO kind of hurts its development in this sense is that Campustown and Downtown are so separate. As I have said before, I spent much of my life in Iowa City, which comes across as the polar opposite of Champaign in many ways. Whereas Champaign has a gorgeously planned, architecturally consistent campus and a very "manicured" feel to the campus area, Iowa City has its "campus town" and "downtown" as one big hodge-podge, and it seems buildings were randomly put up around Iowa's main version of "the Quad." As a result, I think Illinois has a much prettier campus than Iowa overall, but Downtown Iowa City is a more fun environment with a bit more character than Campustown ... pretty much imagine if you combined Downtown Champaign with its nicer restaurants and cool breweries/bars into Campustown's college town feel and it was all right next to each other. Sometimes I prefer Champaign's setup (when you want to go get a nice dinner downtown in Iowa City at a cool restaurant, you are literally in the middle of all the student bars, too ... and it gets old), and sometimes I prefer Iowa City's setup (my wife and I have been at Legends for a beer before and decided we wanted to switch up the vibe and go to more of a Blind Pig-type setting ... and it's always a bummer that we pretty much have to Uber back).
All in all, I think the perfect medium would be what it sounds like Green Street was like back in the day. I think part of the reason outsiders tend to underrate (IMO) Champaign is that people often judge college towns on how much "charm" they have, and Green Street is definitely starting to have more of a new/shiny look. Again, I still really like it, but I do hope some more unique bars or restaurants go in there over the next couple of years. Even a tiny addition could make a big positive difference, IMO ... just imagine plopping down an identical Blind Pig location where one of the fast food locations is on Green Street; it would be a really cool addition for the atmosphere. Again, though, I cannot stress enough that I love Champaign.
blackdog
- Champaign
Haha, to be fair life conditions stopped me from fulfilling my lifelong dream of attending the University of Illinois (i.e., I was an out-of-state applicant who DID manage to get in but was a pretty "meh" student so the tuition was out of our price range), so my anecdotes here are from visiting multiple times over the years ... so my take is probably one of the least valuable on the forum.
With that said, I think something that both makes Champaign awesome but ALSO kind of hurts its development in this sense is that Campustown and Downtown are so separate. As I have said before, I spent much of my life in Iowa City, which comes across as the polar opposite of Champaign in many ways. Whereas Champaign has a gorgeously planned, architecturally consistent campus and a very "manicured" feel to the campus area, Iowa City has its "campus town" and "downtown" as one big hodge-podge, and it seems buildings were randomly put up around Iowa's main version of "the Quad." As a result, I think Illinois has a much prettier campus than Iowa overall, but Downtown Iowa City is a more fun environment with a bit more character than Campustown ... pretty much imagine if you combined Downtown Champaign with its nicer restaurants and cool breweries/bars into Campustown's college town feel and it was all right next to each other. Sometimes I prefer Champaign's setup (when you want to go get a nice dinner downtown in Iowa City at a cool restaurant, you are literally in the middle of all the student bars, too ... and it gets old), and sometimes I prefer Iowa City's setup (my wife and I have been at Legends for a beer before and decided we wanted to switch up the vibe and go to more of a Blind Pig-type setting ... and it's always a bummer that we pretty much have to Uber back).
All in all, I think the perfect medium would be what it sounds like Green Street was like back in the day. I think part of the reason outsiders tend to underrate (IMO) Champaign is that people often judge college towns on how much "charm" they have, and Green Street is definitely starting to have more of a new/shiny look. Again, I still really like it, but I do hope some more unique bars or restaurants go in there over the next couple of years. Even a tiny addition could make a big positive difference, IMO ... just imagine plopping down an identical Blind Pig location where one of the fast food locations is on Green Street; it would be a really cool addition for the atmosphere. Again, though, I cannot stress enough that I love Champaign.
Let me tell you as someone who lives in the community I appreciate the separation of campustown from downtown because it means we don't have to deal with all the undergrads running around. Its entirely possible to completely avoid the campustown are even though it is right in the middle of town. Just the pure volume of students can be pretty overwhelming. The only times I ever actually go to campus are for events or if friends are visiting from out of town. It was also nice as a student because it meant we could get up to all kinds of shenanigans without bothering the community.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Yeah, I definitely think it is a cool setup and probably the best setup overall. Ideally, there would just be a few more places in Campustown with a "local feel" - like you could only go to that place in Champaign, Illinois - and a viable, scenic and walkable path connecting Downtown to Campustown so people could go back and forth during nice weather. I believe they were trying to do this with the "Midtown" area, but I do not believe there is that much there?
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
According to Google Maps, it is this area:
I admit I do not know much about that area, but given that walking along Boneyard Creek and through Scott Park would bring you right to the edge of Downtown, it seems like there is a lot of potential for that area to be a scenic "bridge" between the two main hubs of Champaign. Somebody can correct me, but I believe both of these photos would be part of the walk from, say, Murphy's to Downtown:
It would be really cool to see a cohesive and fully developed trail from Downtown to Campustown become yet another cool feature of Champaign.
According to Google Maps, it is this area:
View attachment 27875
I admit I do not know much about that area, but given that walking along Boneyard Creek and through Scott Park would bring you right to the edge of Downtown, it seems like there is a lot of potential for that area to be a scenic "bridge" between the two main hubs of Champaign. Somebody can correct me, but I believe both of these photos would be part of the walk from, say, Murphy's to Downtown:
It would be really cool to see a cohesive and fully developed trail from Downtown to Campustown become yet another cool feature of Champaign.
Yup. It’s mainly residences and parks. So it’s a pass through instead of a destination at this point. The hockey arena development, which would have lined its west side was supposed to be a big addition. We’ll see if any version of that goes through.
Shane Walsh
aka "Captain Oblivious"
- Cynthiana, Kentucky
Love this thread. Yes, the walk from Downtown Champaign to Campustown is quick and nice using Logan, the 2nd Street Basin, and Scott Park. Do it a few times a week, more during the summer. Garcias stopped being decent in the mid 90's when they started half baking the crust and using a TurboChef microwave in an effort to reduce cook times. Ralph and Joe used to decide to launch the balloon at the last minute and they would drive the van around the stores for extra employees to help setup, chase, and take down the balloon. Got to do that more than once.
I swear that I will never understand the love for Monical's pizza. I have family that has to have it every time they are in town and one of my nieces asked why do we always eat this crappy pizza? The pizza at Old Orchard is overlooked and underrated. Papa Dels Sicilian pizza is bready, but delicious if you are into that. Does not compare to a long running list of Chicagoland pizza joints imho. Destihl is still around up the interstate in Normal Illinois, but as mentioned earlier, the expansion plans fell through and the downtown location left. Blame the pandemic.
Best greasy spoon breakfast in town? Sams Cafe downtown. Try the french toast. Pour Bros downtown has a great outdoor patio. Everything that was opened and ran by the Nietos was sold and is now run by the same organization that runs Green Street Realty, take that for what it is worth.
I swear that I will never understand the love for Monical's pizza. I have family that has to have it every time they are in town and one of my nieces asked why do we always eat this crappy pizza? The pizza at Old Orchard is overlooked and underrated. Papa Dels Sicilian pizza is bready, but delicious if you are into that. Does not compare to a long running list of Chicagoland pizza joints imho. Destihl is still around up the interstate in Normal Illinois, but as mentioned earlier, the expansion plans fell through and the downtown location left. Blame the pandemic.
Best greasy spoon breakfast in town? Sams Cafe downtown. Try the french toast. Pour Bros downtown has a great outdoor patio. Everything that was opened and ran by the Nietos was sold and is now run by the same organization that runs Green Street Realty, take that for what it is worth.
Year was 1976
I am thinking homecoming weekend, but not sure a about that.
I think it will still be a pretty heavy lift requiring a lot of redevelopment to make the 2-3 blocks between that bottom photo (which is East of 1st, between Springfield and University) and Illinois Terminal an attractive walk. A bunch of ragged commercial buildings, the railroad tracks, and the Logan St. underpass. I think it is still too sketchy for a lot of students to feel comfortable walking through there at night. The sports arena would have juiced development over there, but that has cooled. Hopefully some day it gets done.
The area where students seem to now be drifting into "Downtown" is where Green St. crosses the train tracks. Brand new luxury apartment buildings right next to the tracks on the east side, and some new commercial developments (with some student-centric stores), just on the west side of the tracks, before you get to Neil Street. Google Street View hasn't quite caught up yet with what's actually there now, LOL.
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Fascinating. For whatever reason my memory tells me that 1994 was the year Garcia's became terrible, but I never had any idea why.
Shane Walsh
aka "Captain Oblivious"
- Cynthiana, Kentucky
For sure on all counts. There are still just too many old houses and small apartment buildings to tear down closer to the quad than Midtown. Lot of new buildings going up south of White between 6th and 4th the last couple of years, not to mention the monsters going up just south of Green. Eventually they will run out of buildable space that makes economic sense and move West. Seems most buildings with commercial space on 1st Street north of Green are empty.
The south side of downtown is weird because so much of it is owned by just a couple of major organizations and once the hockey arena failed it has sat empty.
OK then. I'm going to look more closely. I could have been there.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
From an outsider's perspective, it does seem like there is an almost unbelievable amount of density in the "core Downtown" area that just abruptly stops around its borders. I mean, there are seriously a lot of bars, restaurants and other establishments in the oddly shaped square bounded by Neil, Main, University and Chestnut. However, south of University and north of about Bentley's Pub on Neil Street, the vibe changes very quickly.
I also thought I read a while back that C-U was working really hard to develop Neil Street from I-74 to the Hyatt and make it a bit more picturesque and welcoming. It is sort of the "front door" to Champaign-Urbana for many visitors, and a pretty significant stretch of it leaves a lot to be desired.
Mr. Tibbs
- southeast DuPage
it was pretty dicey between 1979 - 1983
"low class" stores and such . not crime ridden, just reminded me of most of Indiana
As someone who really loves living in C-U, I have to admit that pretty much all the interstate entrances into C-U are butt ugly.
bdutts
- Houston, Texas
Thanks, yeah it would be cool to see that developed into destination trail to downtown.According to Google Maps, it is this area:
View attachment 27875
I admit I do not know much about that area, but given that walking along Boneyard Creek and through Scott Park would bring you right to the edge of Downtown, it seems like there is a lot of potential for that area to be a scenic "bridge" between the two main hubs of Champaign. Somebody can correct me, but I believe both of these photos would be part of the walk from, say, Murphy's to Downtown:
It would be really cool to see a cohesive and fully developed trail from Downtown to Campustown become yet another cool feature of Champaign.
Mr. Tibbs
- southeast DuPage
yea
coming in on 72 from 57 , it always felt like you were entering the back door parking lot at a mall .
it’s weird
No idea about crust but they really started skimping on ingredients.
I can't fathom how they still exist .
To the Campus town comments. Green Street has absolutely lost all it's charm.
The types of development are sterile.
Murphys is still my go to place. But even it's charm was reduced when they doubled in size.
The types of development are sterile.
Murphys is still my go to place. But even it's charm was reduced when they doubled in size.
Murphy’s changed their fries the last time I was there. Not their awesome homecut fries that you could add vinegar.
My friends and I our complained like old men sending soup back to the deli, but then admitted that the new fries were not as good but still awesome.
ilphotog
The camera never lies
- Champaign
Yes, still great