I am in Champaign-Urbana for the week for work. The semester is over, so most of the students are gone, and I’m a forty-something lover of good food and beer (not necessarily in that order). I’m done with work by 5 or 6 each day, and I’m looking for things to do here in Illini country. Suggestions?
Try Milo’s in Urbana. It’s attached to this old, largely defunct mall, and is right next to a dance studio. Sounds like a dive from the location, but it’s quite nice. Small menu of interesting, high quality food.
You might also want to take a walk around Japan House out at the VetMed complex area. They have tours of the inside at specific times during the week, but you can walk on the grounds at any time.
The Bread Company in Urbana has decent European type breads & cheeses and wines & beers, and often has jazz ensembles playing.
I always liked Basmati for Indian food in Champaign, too.
If you’re interested in music or theater, check out Krannert Center’s schedule.
Personally, my favorite Chambana local is the dog park in Urbana, but you don’t mention being “with dog” on this trip.
Hope one of these pans out for you.
Campustown should still be OPEN, if barren, so I suggest checking that out if you haven’t. Murphey’s and Legends are bars on Green Street that aren’t bad. Za’s is good food.
Also if you go south on Neil through downtown, you’ll see Merry Ann’s Diner which is pretty good food if you’re out late. If you turn right just past the Chancellor Hotel, you’ll come upon one of the best icecream places ever (though they don’t serve ice cream…just frozen custard). Jarling’s Custard Cup. Wonderfulness.
It’s an interesting name for a town, since it seems to translate as Country-City.
Where is it? What was the origin of its name?
Actually it’s two separate cities, but they’re really close together. They’re located east-central Illinois, a couple hours south and slightly west of Chicago.
Wikipedia sez:
Apparently, according to this page, Champaign County of Ohio’s county seat was Urbana as well.
Weird.
I enjoy Champaign. It’s an interesting town. Check out Periscope Records (i think it’s still open) a neat indie record store. Garcias puts out good pizza, there are several locations, and the White Horse Inn makes a dandy haystack (if you’re unfamiliar, it’s a coronary-inducing creation; a sandwich, covered in french fries, covered again in either cheese sauce or gravy) and no trip to CU would be complete without a visit to LaBamba for a Burrito as Big as your head.
I second the recommendation on Merry Ann’s. Good drunk food. Stop in at Minicis (pronounced min-eh-chees) for good Italian, and Chef Jean-Louis for the best French food ever to formerly be served in a bowling alley in Arcola Il. (it’s actually in Urbana now)
Jillians is a nice pool hall, and a good place to people watch. If you’re a bakery maven, then Sweet Indulgence in the Windsor Galleria is the place. Really. Try the Cheesecake. Really.
With all the kids gone, and probably not being all that interested in boozing at the bars, you might feel like the place is pretty sleepy.
For good food I highly recommend a restaurant called City of New Orleans. Excellent steaks and seafod with a Cajun/Creole twist. Really interesting little place built partially into a old stainless steel train car (hence the name) that serves, unequivically, the best Banana’s Foster I’ve ever had. It’s located just a bit north of Campus, on University Ave IIRC.
Besides that, it’ll be a terrific time to enjoy the outdoors if your the active type. The lack of students will make lazing on the quad really nice, and there’s a really terrific network of bike paths to get some exercise on. Though, it’s flat as hell and besides the coeds and buildings there isn’t too much to see.
There’s a few good live-music venues in the center of Champaign off-campus. I forget the name, but it’s just north of Springfield Ave on Neil.
Krannert Art Centre is a good place to find a little culture, though honestly it’s not my forte, not sure what the schedule is like in the summer, I know they do have some good non-student performers there.
On campus, Green Street, Sixth St. Wright St, and Daniels St. are where the bulk of the bars/cheap eats are. Should be plenty of summer school kids there having drinks if you’re looking to go out. They make a square which is all about a 8 blocks total.
It’s been awhile so some things might have changed, and perhaps your interests may be different than my previously college age experience there. Wish I could tell you more about what those non-drunks did to fill their time…heh.
I’m beside myself here! I’m covering my monitor with spittle having read this tripe!
First to dispense with the minor misconception, Garcias’ isn’t bad. Nothing wrong with it, and they have a good atmosphere. But Papa Del’s is the FAR superior pizza, both traditional and Chicago style.
Now to deal with this awful description of Champaign’s greatest contribution to culture, sorry Ebert.
The Haystack is something that simply must be seen, and eaten, to be believed. While my fellow alum buttonjockey is correct that it will take 5 years off your life, his description, while perhaps accurate to the White Horse, is far from the original legend. I’m assuming he’s a bit younger than I and hasn’t experienced the original creation. This he cannot be faulted for.
A quick history of this beauty.
It was started as a creation by a very low-rent trucker motel. The motel was located near the expressway off-campus. The entire complex consisted of about 25 roach infested motel rooms that I can only imagine had seen some of the most heinous events one would care to imagine. Also, there was a gas station, and most importantly a truck stop style diner with some truly unique waitresses, we’ll leave it at that.
Here’s where we get to the gist of it. They somehow, probably going back 20 years or so, come to the idea to try and cater to the drunk, hungry frat boys. Now, when you undertstand that this place is quite scary, quite stomach turning, and quite far off campus for a bunch of drunk 20 year olds to reach, it was a difficult task. They however tapped into the one thing that testosterone laden man can’t resist, greasy drunk food and one-upsmanship. They developed a running contest of which fraternity could eat the most Haystacks over the course of the semerster. No idea what the prizes were, but it’s safe to assume that the bbragging rights were the most important feature. So it became a bit of a tradition, year after year guys would make a pilgramage here whenever it was possible. Often times this involved “borrowing” cars from other students, waking up really pissed off significant others who were sober enough to drive 6 or more guys to a scummy diner, and an endless array of other shameless adventures.
Now, for the recipe, the description of the culinary dynamo which reached legendary status on campus.
Begin with a bed of crispy hash browns spread over a very large plate, onto that you’d sprinkle some shredded cheese. Then you’d bathe that with a few heaping ladels of sausage gravy (which was homemade and incredibly tasty). This laid the base for the meat of the dish, so to speak. Ontop of this you’d nestle a 1/2 pound cheese burger patty, cooked medium rare. Finally the entire mess was crowned with 3 eggs, cooked any style. I reccommend over easy so the yolk floods the mix below… My mouth is watering.
Over time, Mary Anne’s, which was much closer to campus, decided to rip off the recipe. They toned it down quite alot, replaced the cheeseburger with a sausage patty, made the portions managable, and just generally made a neutered version of it. Mind you, it was still damn tasty if you couldn’t make the trip to the original Haystack, but anyone who had both knew it was a thin replica.
Sadly, time, roaches, termites, drug trafficing and any other host of unseemly things led to the demolishion of the old Haystacks truck stop. It was eventually paved over and turned into a mega-gas station with not diner attached. Thankfully by the time it fell, the dish had reached legendary status and all the other late-night food places decided to pay homage with an imitation of the dish. So now you’ll see it on menus all over, but none come close to the original. Mary-Anne’s would certainly be the closest to accurate. I encourage you to expirence the ooze!
Urbana in Champaign County, Ohio? There are a lot of things to see and do! See this page for more info.
Oh, you mean Illinois? 
My friend Joy has been living in Champaign-urbana for nearly two years. To hear him tell it, you’re best off drinking the biggest bottle of bourbon you can find before you go around town. Every morning…
Periscope and City of New Orleans have both closed, years ago. Cities do change, folks.
Green Street - Campus Town - has been “rejuvenated” and has lost much of its charm and dirty. Murphy’s is still there, but it has a new fascade to fit in with the whole street.
White Horse is the same as it ever was, though.
Jarling’s is fine, although they tried to open a 2nd location in Urbana and failed. There’s a new place in Champaign called Kozy’ Custard that’s really good.
I never went to Merry Anne’s, but it’s still there, and so is Aunt Sonia’s across the street. Many people (myself included) prefer the awesome bacon waffle at Original House of Pancakes, though.
Papa Del’s on Green is still the best Chicago stuffed around. Garcia’s is kind of barely limping along and most of their locations have been downgraded to “dive” status. You can still see the tomato hot air balloon flying over sometimes.
La Bamba has moved, but it still going strong into the wee hours at their new Campus Town local. They have a mural in their new local that, if I remember correctly, features a football team with burrito heads.
I never understood the appeal of Za’s, but it is popular. And it now has a Champaign location.
Jillian’s is still a fav with the law school crowd.
I just left C-U in Aug. 2004, fyi.
Papa Dels - As Omniscient said, Papa Dels is some of the best deep-dish pizza you’ll ever have period, not just in Champaign. On Green St between 1st and 2nd.
The Bread Company - Great place if you’re looking for some unique wines and beers. They have many microbrews, and unique foods. A lot of fondue-esque and pasta dishes. Their thin-crust pizzas are excellent also. On Goodwin just south of Green St.
Kamakura - A decent sushi place I used to frequent often. On Neil just south of Green st.
Dos Reales - Probably the best Mexican food in town. It’s on Prospect south of the highway (74).
Biaggi’s - An upscale itallian restaurant that runs on the pricey side. The food is good, but it doesn’t quite have the local flavor the other places do. It’s on Neil several miles south of Green St.
The campustown bars are pretty trashy (and very empty during the summer), so I’d head to the bars in downtown Champaign (take Neil north from Green St) if you’re looking for a brew to enjoy with a more mature crowd. For live music, check out Highdive and Cowboy Monkey. To catch a ballgame, Guidos, Barfly or the Brass Rail are your best bets. Jupiters is a good place for some pizza, pool and beers.
I left C-U in 2001, so some of this may be dated. Before I left, there were several good bars in downtown Champaign (not the same thing as Campustown – about a mile from campus). We used to go listen to live music at the Highdive on summer weeknights – get an Octopus (the free local rag which has entertainment info). There was also a bar near there with an outdoor beer garden which sometimes had decent music (I forget the name – I think it used to be Mike and Molly’s, but then changed hands after a coked-up bouncer killed someone. Or maybe now it’s Mike and Molly’s, I don’t know.)
If you’re still there on a Sunday morning, go to Silvercreek in Urbana for their brunch buffet. Fairly fancy, yet reasonably priced. Delicious desserts. The Courier Cafe in Urbana has good burgers, sandwiches, and milkshakes – get the sweet potato fries. Radio Maria in downtown Champaign is also really good.
Man, now I’m all nostalgic for summer evenings in Champaign-Urbana. Good times…
Thats a sad, sad thing that that restaraunt closed. It was one of the very few that qualified as good dining IMHO. I was always surpriced it remained such a unknown commodity when I was there. Guess we see what happens. Allow me to weep now.
While you’re certainly right that Green/Sixth street has changed, it’s “charm” probably wouldn’t have translated to a 40-something professional. Lets face it, the old version was fun for a college kid but grossed out all the parents back in the day. (Class of '98, FTR) The new look is probably a good thing and still draws students, even in the summer.
I just graduated from C-U a couple of weeks ago so this should be pretty up-to-date
Restaurants:
Indian: Bombay Club on Green or Basmati on First/Sixth? (Champaign)
Thai: Siam something on Main street in downtown Urbana
These two are pretty good and have ethnic food prices.
Upscalish:
Timpone’s-high-end Italian (Urbana)
Radio Maria: fusion. Great atmosphere. Prices are high for Chambana but the same quality restaurant here in MA would have much higher prices. (Downtown Champaign)
Great Impasta: Italian (downtown Champaign)
Silver Creek steahouse in Urbana.
Pub Grub/Nice Bar: Farren’s down in Champaign. Great sandwiches, burgers and salads.
Bars: downtown Champaign seems less undergrad infested although I suppose it doesn’t matter at this point. Most of my classmates and I used to frequent
Guido’s & Boltini Lounge (across the street from one another in downtown Champaign). Guido’s is a sports bar and Boltini is a martini bar.
There’s also Barfly and Jupiter’s for bars down there but I didn’t like them as much. In downtown Urbana you have the Office and that other one opposite Busey bank but they tend to be a bit towniesh (of course, that could not matter to you). The Office has become pretty mainstream, though, I think.
Another favourite was the Tumble Inn on Neil.
Cafes: Cafe Kopi & Aroma in downtown Champaign are good. For Urbana I always liked Cafe Paradiso.
Hope that helps, enjoy your stay. I am so glad to be out!
Champaign-Urbana has some pretty good barbecue. My parents and I were visiting one of my sisters in Urbana on the same day of Hands Across America (remember that?) and the restaurant we were in (Lil Porgy’s?) happened to be right on the route. No, we didn’t join in.
Damn. I haven’t been back in a while. That sucks.
Shame about Garcia’s. I liked thier stuff, not as good as PD’s but it’s not BAD, and it’s cheap.
CU was my first Jimmy John’s experience. Love JJ’s.
What about the Ribeye? That place still around? Awesome salad bar.
Thanks for all the suggestions, folks. Unfortunately I’ve had far less free time than expected, as we’ve been working late on the benchmark. I did get out for a couple of beers at The Blind Pig last night, which was the first decent beer list I’ve seen in town.
Haven’t been recently, but there was a great gyros place on one of the major streets near campus. Sorry can’t recall the name or the street. Just remember it was near the bar I was slamming shots in the night before along with the rest of parents from my son’s hockey team 
Went out to Farren’s for dinner tonight with some folks from the University. Great burger, so-so fries, and decent beer list. After, I went back to The Blind Pig and tried another couple beers. I had never had Delirium Tremens on tap before, and it was as good as I expected. One more day in town, and I’ll try to hit one of the recommended places tomorrow.