Jun
25
Where to go, what to do
Last year, we discussed the best food and attractions of Heritage Festival after the event. This year, let’s keep a running tab of the fest’s best so we can all partake.
I’ll take this opportunity to put in a plug for Night Ranger — not familiar with their music, but the concert will benefit a good cause (the 1846 Blodgett House) and one of the musicians is my neighbor’s son — and the Rock Academy kids, who always put on a great show, particularly considering their tender years.
Share your must-see, must-do and must-eat attractions with your neighbors here.
Does anyone else think that this restoration effort has become a money pit. I think in the future this concert should be used as a vehicle to improve the lives of human beings. This concert can be a real draw with the right band and the right charity. I know this will rub many the wrong way, but I feel strongly that in the economy where charity has taken a big hit the 1846 Blodgett House is not the most worthy cause.
I vote for Grill sergeant pork chop on a stick and roasted corn on the cob!! Make sure you stop by your favorite GOP booth and register to vote! I wish I was going to the concert, maybe next year.
Thank Chad for the GOP tent advice. I’ll be sure to seek THAT one out. Um, not really. Just curious, can you go an answer/comment or two without politicizing it?
Looking forward to Roasted Corn on the Cob and real Lemonde. Lots of good bands each night. Elevation on Sunday night (U2 cover band) is really good.
Chad:
While I disagree that preserving our community’s heritage with mostly private dollars is “not a worthy cause,” please keep in mind that the heritage-oriented cause or organization that benefits each year from partnering with the Village to conduct the annual Heritage Concert is not limited, much less permanently affixed, to the 1846 Blodgett House project. On the contrary, any deserving cause or organization that demonstrates it can meet the specified criteria may apply for that status. This year, the 1846 Blodgett House group not only met that criteria but was also the only applicant. Frankly, now that the “heritage” has been put back in to Heritage Festival, we should be very reluctant to allow it to so easily slip away.
Besides, there are multiple opportunities for deserving not-for-profit groups and causes to partner with the Village in ways that allow them to raise funds to further their diverse missions. For example, running the parking deck during the festival, running the beer garden, bingo tent, etc. However, you’d be amazed how few step up and apply each year. Case in point, the Village practically had to beg a NFP, charitable or service organization to run the very popular bingo tent (and raise some decent funds) this year.
In short, NFP organizations like the 1846 Blodgett House, the DG Rotary Club, J. Kyle Braid Leadership Foundation, and others, get to use the net proceeds of these events to further their own defined missions because they organize, meet the criteria, and put forth the effort and manpower to deserve it.
So, will we see your group apply to run the Beer Garden next year?
See you at the Fest!
Food on a stick. No.
Meat, Meat, Meat. I’m mildly disappointed.
You just haven’t lived until you’ve thoroughly made a mess of your sleeveless T-shirt while devouring a Grill Sergeant pork-chop-on-a-stick slathered in BBQ sauce. Follow that with a falafel sandwich from Taste of Egypt, roasted corn from the DG Noon Lions, wash it all down with a Maui Wowi fruit smoothie, and you are primed for a heat-stroke induced street festival food coma. Yum!
So, put on your best ripped jean shorts and flip-flops and come slumming with the rest of us “townies” this weekend. Heck, I’ll even buy you a Leinenkugel.
I worked as a cook at an Armenian restaurant for 8 years so I know something of falafel, I was pleasantly surprised to find that particular dish was not offered on a stick here at Heritage.
That said, I’d take you up on that Lienie…
DG Lions Club Roasted corn. Tried it yesterday. Not so good. Other patrons standing nearby also disappointed as they chomped their way through tough cold tasting corn. Hope today is better.
Grill sergeant chop on a stick rules! Slathered in sauce and tender, a good cut of pork chop and juicy. Good call! Also the large helpng of fresh pasta with sauce at Capri for $4 Was well worth it,
Re. Lions Club corn roast…We buy our corn from Nature’s Best in Westmont, noted for their vegetables. We pick it up each day for what we think is needed that day. It had recently been bought by them for our event and kept in their cooler until we take it. We do not cook it too long in advance because we want it to be hot and tasty. We had hoped and thought everyone had enjoyed the corn, because those were the comments we had received. Everyone who worked in the Lions booth were volunteers. They were, Club members, their family, friends, and DG North Cross Girls Cross Country Team members. Our Club has been doing humanitarian services for DG of over 80 years, and we do it because we love our community and want to reach out to those that can use some help. Some of the money from the corn roast will help us sponsor the annual Halloween kids parade down Main Street. We do it each year. The corn roast is our biggest fund raiser, and we try to our hardest to make sure the corn is good and tasty. If anyone has any thoughts on how we could to a better job, please let us know. Thank you for your support.
Sorry folks… The Dupage Marines have the best roasted corn! Hands down! Problem is, nobody bothers to walk that far up Main st to get to is. That said, I have to say, this was the work Fest I have ever seen in it’s history… While it has been getting smaller and smaller every year, this was visibly smaller and frankly, not that much choice in food. Very disappointing. And I must also voice my opinion on putting the fest on both sides of the tracks. Whoever decided that this was a good idea was clearly sick. Kids on one side, parents on the other. OMG
I agree the Marines had good corn and they are a great group. The Lions Club appreciates your comments. I do know that Heritage Fest means very little revenue for most downtown retailers and they are the life blood of a viable downtown. One reason the Fest is being down sized is to bring more retail shoppers in on the Fest weekend. Regarding using both sides of the tracks for the Fest, that is an accident waiting to happen.
Luckily for us, my daughter is to young to partake in the ‘big kids’ rides near the Tivoli so we spent all of our time on the South side of the tracks. I agree with DGlifer, I held my breath every time the gates came down at the crossings.
Aside from Capri’s respectable if not spectacular chicken parmesan sandwich, the food was the stuff that prison riots are made of. Nothing says midwestern festival like overpaying for something deep fried and jostling for a spot near the garbage on the curb to consume it. Eww. We pushed through the crowds until we reached the safe harbor of the patio seating at Ballydoyle, a quiet oasis from the tattoos and Dorals smoke. Perfect. You can watch the river rush by from the shady bank, and they sell beer in real glasses!
I always enjoy the local oddities at Festival time, not the cookie cutter fried on a stick carny people who travel the circuit all summer long. If I wanted to see them I could sell the homestead and move to Antioch.
The local color, the local flavor, that’s where the magic is. There was the guy who wanted all of us to abandon the toll way system (he had his own booth!), the dedicated volunteers at Golden Opportunities and they’re crowd pleasing furry companions (spent a lot of time there). Have you ever met a Mason? Ever wonder what they’re doing in that building? I did, so I asked (it’s a secret..). I had a long conversation with the manger at Gatto’s about how happy he’s been with the restaurant and the communities response. All the local volunteers helping out at the ‘tot’s area’ (brilliant) who scrambled to find me some wipes for my boy’s bottom. Thanks guys!
I enjoyed the more ‘intimate’ scale of this year’s fest. The best flavors were the local one’s, and they weren’t available on a stick.
The pony ride was the best ride for little kids. I believe the rides used to be in the Post Office Parking Lot before AOTG…? Maybe it would be alright to condense the fest to Main South of the tracks to 55th. Then the “under 12 my parents are in the beer garden” kids wouldn’t have to cross the tracks alone??? The early evening switch from families to Ed Hardy & Tats was fun to watch if not downright scandelous at times in some of the “dead end” area created by the rides backing up to the train platforms.