West Suburban Community Guide - Pioneer Press Communities ...

SHOPPING AND DINING
The West Suburban Chamber of Commerce’s communities are filled with terrific stores,
restaurants and quaint shops. If you have a need for fresh fudge or exercise equipment, a
four-course dinner or a “Chicago dog” with extra onions, or an antique or a newly painted
picture; our merchants and dining establishments deliver. If you are looking for the perfect
bottle of wine, a bag of fresh-made breads and a perfect bowl of soup, we have all of that and
so much more.
We invite you to check out the stores and restaurants on your way to the Brookfield Zoo, or as
you drive to a quiet forest preserve lake near Willow Springs. There are ample shopping options
at the Quarry Mall in Hodgkins and all around Countryside, as well as some great restaurants in
and around the Indian Head Park area.
Many publications have noted that our area has one of the best concentrations of excellent
restaurants. Try some new offerings in La Grange and Western Springs, perhaps a pizza in La
Grange Park, or hometown food in McCook or Lyons. And while you are out having fun, don’t
overlook the eclectic and specialty stores that abound in our portion of Cook County.
If you still need more places to go, we recommend that you refer to the Chamber’s map and
frequent the communities that surround the members of the West Suburban Chamber of
Commerce and Industry. They will make your search complete.
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TOURISM
The hotel rooms in the communities of the West Suburban Chamber of Commerce are centrally
located in Countryside and Lyons. Close to or on old Route 66, you have a choice of the William
Tell Holiday Inn, the Best Western-Chicagoland Countryside and various other lodging facilities.
Wherever you spend your nights, you will be minutes from all of your day activities.
Year-round events compliment the seasons. Our summer months bring forth the monstrously
popular annual La Grange Pet Parade, many house walks, carnivals, family evenings in the
parks and outdoor activities of all sorts. Autumn uses the softened light and temperatures for
fall festivals, Halloween walks, high school football, bonfires and the final sales at farmers’
markets.
Winter might be snowy and cold but that makes for perfect situations to enjoy the insides of
homes and businesses. Join us for holiday traditions, sledding and ice-skating, cross-country
skiing and a table close to a restaurant’s fireplace. Spring, with its beautiful flowers, egg hunts,
festivals of roses and celebrations, is also a great time to snag some sale items in local shop and
national brand stores.
We do encourage you to stretch your legs and see the “who” and “what” that makes up our
heritage. In the vicinity of Indian Head Park, we have the Graue Mill and Museum, named for
its proprietor Frederick Graue, who began grinding grain in 1852. Today the mill is the only
operating waterwheel gristmill in northern Illinois. The Graue House, which is next to the mill,
is an operating homestead that brings the past and the present together by giving visitors an
opportunity to see artifacts from daily life dating between 1850 and 1890. The Graue property
has the distinction of being one of only three authenticated Underground Railroad stations in
the State of Illinois.
Some children believe that milk comes from a grocery store, vegetables reside within a can and
fun has to be purchased. In our Western Suburbs we have the Flagg Creek Heritage Society,
where a museum and historic home at the Pleasant Dale Park District welcomes visitors to learn
more about area history on select days and times each month.
The Western Springs Historical Society’s Tower Museum is located within the historic water tower
at the center of Western Springs. The society displays historical items and preserves the artifacts
that were, in a time long past, the everyday components that made up household and personal
possessions.