We had the opportunity to spend a little time in Naperville after the Chicago Autumn Feis and I wanted to mention a few places that may be worth a visit if you are a food fan.
Quigley’s Irish Pub
Quigley’s is on Jefferson, pretty much in downtown Naperville. It is a nice place and has that dark, wood paneled walls and big booths atmosphere you would find in a pub in Ireland, they even got the smell right. Nice cold pints and some pretty decent Irish food make it a nice place for a beer after a hard morning of feisin’, or for a lunch, dinner or just a snack.read more
Wanted to give a special shout-out to the ‘ribbon lady’, aka Made by Mare over at http://www.madebymare.com. She has a lot of unique ribbon gift ideas and is an absolute joy to deal with. I have purchased a few things from her and she even let me return an item.
If you see her at a feis, stop by and say hi, or visit her at her site, http://www.madebymare.com. Be sure to ask about Batman keyfobs, but don’t believe her if she says she has a Guinness keyfob ;) (inside joke).read more
Up until now, I have not found any feis accommodations worth blogging about, I mean hotels are hotels right? Some are nicer than others, but generally, as long as they are clean, they are really all the same. But when we waited to long to make a hotel reservation, in Muskegon, the weekend of the Irish Music Festival and feis, I just knew we were going to end up in a hotel that was on the less acceptable end of ‘really all the same.’ I have to say though, we stayed somewhere this weekend that we all liked so much, I needed to blog about it.read more
We had an eclectic little restaurant recommended to us because of the filets, and were told they had some gluten free options. Did a quick Google search and found the Via website. Looked good, so we checked it out and were not disappointed.
Via offers plenty of gluten free pizza and pasta options, and the gluten free crust (according to the boy child) was pretty good, which is hard to do. All of us had pizza and it was the best Pizza Diavola I have had in the U.S. I had the opportunity to visit Italy a few times for the Navy and really enjoyed their pizza. These pizzas were more Italian style, made in a brick oven, and were pretty darn good right over here in ‘Merica,read more
Posted by What The Feis& filed under Feistaurants.
I mentioned this place in the North Coast Feis Eats review back in February, but we hit it again this weekend and it seemed even better.
If you have the opportunity to go to Grumpy’s Cafe you have to take advantage of it. We went again last Sunday before the Cleveland Feis, got there shortly after 8 and were seated immediately. Good coffee in mis-matched mugs like the type you would find in your cupboard at home, and a homey yet eclectic feel make this a great place for a pre-feis breakfast.read more
When we attended the North Coast Feis we stayed in downtown Cleveland which provided us a nice variety of eats. As I have in past posts on this blog, I wanted to point some of the restaurants out so the next time you feis in the area, you have an idea where you might want to try with a little info to back it up. Anyway, here goes for Cleveland…
Grumpys – We hit Grumpys for breakfast as it was between the hotel and the IX Center and was recommended by the hotel staff. This is one of those local places we were lucky enough to find. Great menu, huge portions of a lot of standard and not so standard breakfast fare, and VERY reasonable. This place will be our Cleveland breakfast place and I highly recommend it!read more
If you head up to the Muskegon Feis I have to recommend an eclectic breakfast place we stumbled across called Toast N Jams. Retro styling in side, nice menu, great food and reasonably priced. One of those local gems you really oughta try.
We got to Niagara Falls on Friday night and stayed through Monday morning, so I figured I would add this bonus ‘tourism review.’
What can I say, if you go to this feis, you are literally a short walk away from an impressive natural attraction. We saw the falls every day during our walks and drove down one night to see the falls lit up. If you have never been, its one of those ‘you gotta see it’ places.
We stayed on the Canadian side, which actually has more attractions than the American side. You can visit places like Hard Rock (actually on both sides), Planet Hollywood, Margaritaville (which has Alexander Keith’s on tap, a fabulous beer I first had in Halifax where it is brewed), Ripleys Believe It Or Not, and lots of wax museums. If you have ever been to Myrtle Beach, or Gatlinburg, it’s kinda like that, with a Canadian accent. I would consider it a ‘family tourist area’ but tattoo parlors and head shops were evident on the main street. We stayed up on Lundy’s Lane, a few miles from the main area and there were some more mature shops in plain view, if you know what I mean.read more
Quigley’s is on Jefferson, pretty much in downtown Naperville. It is a nice place and has that dark, wood paneled walls and big booths atmosphere you would find in a pub in Ireland, they even got the smell right. Nice cold pints and some pretty decent Irish food make it a nice place for a beer after a hard morning of feisin’, or for a lunch, dinner or just a snack.
