Taste of Lincoln and Historic Preservation Week showcase community

[MAY 6, 2000]  The annual Taste of Lincoln, sponsored by the city of Lincoln and Main Street Lincoln, will be Sunday, May 7. Building on last year's successful progressive luncheon style, this year's Taste of Lincoln will begin at 11:30 a.m. and continue until 3:30 p.m.

Diners will begin their jaunt by exchanging their ticket for a map at the north side of the courthouse. More than 20 local eateries will be featured, some with special satellite locations downtown for this event. A free trolley will be available, in case all that eating makes you tired or you're still dressed in your Sunday best from church. The covered trolley is from Springfield and holds 34 passengers.

Local businesses are adding their own flavor to the Taste of Lincoln by offering door prizes that day. Winning numbers will be drawn from Taste of Lincoln tickets and posted at participating locations. A variety of curbside entertainment is also on the menu to add to the day's festivities.

 

The Taste of Lincoln will be the kickoff for Historic Preservation Week, also sponsored by the city and Main Street, with financial support from Beans and Such and the Blue Dog Inn. The Mayor's Awards for Historic Preservation will be announced at 11:45 a.m., as well as winners in the "Most Historically Influential Lincoln Resident" contest for students and the "Lincoln Legacy Quiz."

Area students’ projects from the Western Illinois History Fair will also be featured at 20 locations. Most projects will be displayed in the business windows for diners’ enjoyment as they roam downtown.

"Both events work hand in hand with each other," said Wendy Bell, Main Street's program manager. "It's a great way to showcase all that Lincoln has to offer, both historically and in the present."

 

 

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Tickets for the Taste of Lincoln are $10 for adults and $5 for children ages 3 through 12. Children under age 3 eat free. Tickets are available in advance at the Main Street Lincoln office on the second floor of the Union Planters Bank building at 303 South Kickapoo, and through Main Street Lincoln board members and participating restaurants. For more information, call 217-732-2929.

This year's Taste of Lincoln committee members are Nancy Schaub, chairman; Sally Grieme; Jim Drew; Sallie Marcotte; Jean Gossett; and Jason Steffens. Key Printing and Gossett's Decorator Studio also contributed to the event.

Following are the eateries opening their doors for the Taste of Lincoln:

  • Beans and Such
  • Blue Dog Inn
  • Brandt's Arcade Café'
  • Eckert's Restaurant
  • Elk's Country Club
  • El Rey Mexican Restaurant
  • Grapes and Grounds
  • Guzzardo's Italian Villa
  • Illico Apollo Mart
  • Katie's Tea Room
  • Logan County Pork Producers
  • Logan County Farm Bureau Women's Committee
  • Lunch Express
  • Martin Moo Moo's Ice Cream Shoppe
  • Papa John's
  • The Restaurant at the Depot
  • Sam Sorrento's Ristorante
  • Steak 'n Shake
  • Wendy's
  • Vintage Fare

 

Lincoln computer users
alerted to “love bug” virus

[MAY 5, 2000]  Computer users in Lincoln are alerted to a new computer virus that appeared May 4 and has spread around the world like a chain letter, primarily through the Outlook e-mail application.

By Friday morning, Nick O'Donoghue, Computer Consulting Associates Internet support manager, had no accounts of it striking here in Lincoln  – "not that I'm aware of," he said.

People are advised to delete e-mail received with the subject line “ILOVEYOU.” People should not open the attachment.

According to FRISK Software International, a producer of anti-virus software, the virus is in the attachment to the e-mail message. The body of the message says, “kindly check the attached LOVELETTER coming from me.” The attachment is called LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.TXT.vbs. 

If the attachment is opened, the virus makes copies of itself and causes them to be executed each time Windows is opened. The virus mass-mails itself to addresses in the Outlook address book. Computer files with the extensions CSS, HTA, JPG, JPEG, JS, JSE, SCT, WSH, VBE, VBS may be destroyed, as the virus overwrites them with copies of itself. The virus adds the VBS extension to any files that did not already have a VBE or VBS extension. Files with the extension MP2 and MP3 may have their “Hidden” attribute set. Files destroyed by the virus cannot be retrieved unless there are backup copies.

 

 

Guzzardo’s Italian Villa—
A touchstone place
Third generation takes charge of family restaurant

[MAY 5, 2000]  Assemble every man, woman and child who lives in Logan County in the grandstand at the fairgrounds. Then ask everyone who has ever worked for Guzzardo’s Italian Villa to please be seated.  A few hundred folks will remain standing.  Now ask everyone who ever met their junior-high-school friends at Guzzardo’s after a Saturday evening movie to be seated.  Pause for the giggles and the rustling as half the crowd takes a seat.  Next instruct everyone who holds fond memories of their family gathered around one of the big tables in Guzzardo’s middle room to sit.  Of the dozen or so who are still on their feet, seat all those who can conjure up vivid images of John Guzzardo’s outlandish antics rooting for the Lincoln Railers.  One lone soul will remain standing, and you will know that he just moved to Lincoln this morning.

Since Dominic “Doc” Guzzardo and his wife, Rose, arrived in Lincoln from LaGrange in 1947, the Guzzardo family has been a part of every Logan County family’s memories.  Doc was a milkman, a pie man and an insurance man before buying a horse barn in the back of a Pulaski Street building on Lincoln’s square and converting it into a restaurant. 

 


    [April Heern]

 

The Guzzardos introduced pizza to Lincoln, but the new restaurant, opened in 1957, served a full menu—everything from lobster to steak.  Doc and Rose’s 11-year-old son, John, washed dishes and their 15-year-old daughter, Gracie, waited tables. 

In the mid-1960s, the Guzzardos opened the Rose Room, a lunch and banquet business on the ground floor of a building near their second-floor restaurant.  About the same time, Frankie Hallett, an LCC freshman from Ohio, started waiting tables at Guzzardo’s, and within a month had caught John’s eye.  John gave Frankie a ride to the LCC dormitory one night after work, and, well, the rest is history. 

 


[Sign above back door]

 

Doc and Rose, John and Frankie, worked side by side in the family restaurant.  Gracie and husband Bob Ware went away to Murray State University, then came home again as Bob took up teaching at Lincoln Community High School and later Lincoln College.  Grace worked at Graue Pharmacy for 25 years.  In 1999, Bob and Grace were tragically killed in an airplane crash in Colorado.  Doc had passed away in 1992.

 

 

Rose’s banquet room grew into a catering business, and for 32 years the Guzzardos have served food at the State Fair.  In the 1970s, the family took a stab at the frozen pizza business, but abandoned that venture to refocus on fresh-baked pizza pies served to folks they know.

John and Frankie’s three children grew up in the business.  Michelle and Janelle waited tables, and Nick bussed tables.  Now Michelle and husband Kyle Heisner live in Austin, Texas, with their children—Allison, 5, and Jonathan, 7.  Janelle and husband Arve Kjoelen live in Edwardsville with 3-year-old Natalie, and 2-year-old twins, Joshua and Zachary.

 

 

Nick and his wife, Shelly, are the mainstays of the Guzzardo business today.  “It’s in Nick’s blood,” John says proudly.  “He is the main man now.  Nick orders, hires, fires, bids on catering jobs, and cooks.  He does it all.”

 

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“If I could do it all over again, I wouldn’t change a thing,” says John.  “I love this business.”

Asked if he feels the same way, Nick grins, “I love it now.  Ask me again when I’m in my 50s.”

April Heern loves working at Guzzardo’s, too.  She’s a sophomore at LCC, and has served tables at the restaurant since she arrived here from Carbondale her freshman year.  “The Guzzardos are great people to work for,” she says.  “They will bend over backwards for you.”  April plans to be a social worker after college, but right now, she is happy to work for the Guzzardos.

 


Glenda Allison also worked for the Guzzardos, about 35 years ago.  “The kids from the junior high came here every Friday night, filled up all the tables, ordered Cokes and french fries, and left without a tip,” she remembers.  “When they were gone, we had to chip the gum from under the tables. I’ve eaten here almost every week since.”

 


[John talks with Tom and Darla Kissell.]

The Guzzardos have been active in the Lincoln Christian Church in Lincoln for 50 years.  They have served in city government—Doc as an alderman and John as mayor.  They have supported every good cause in the community, especially the ones that focus on kids.

When you climb the stairs to the reception area at Guzzardo’s, you may be greeted by Frankie or Shelly.  They ask about your family.  You ask about theirs.  You realize that you don’t come here only because the food is good, but because it makes you feel good to be here.  Guzzardo’s is a touchstone place.  You see people you know.  You remember when your children were small.  You think of athletic banquets here with kids dressed and polished, eating pizza and getting awards.  You can hear echoes of Doc’s chuckle and see him pouring a cup of coffee while rehashing the Lynx’s last basketball game.  You are glad that Rose, always busy helping some group in town, was not too busy to count the pennies and keep this family business solid over the decades.

 


[Nick and Shelly Guzzardo, the third generation]

You bite into a schnitzel, a tenderloin way too big for its bun; eat one of the cinnamon twists that the kids swarm to when they enter the salad bar room; and spoon some French onion soup.  Your companion stares at a massive plate of piping-hot, baked mostaccioli.  You relax.  You swap stories.  You know you are in a good place. 

 

[LDN]

Wines, coffees, biers and sweets
[MAY 4, 2000]  Grapes and Grounds Café had its grand opening Monday, May 1, at 125 Sangamon St. in Lincoln.  The café serves imported coffees, wines and biers. The café hours are 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily.  On Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays it will remain open as late as the adjacent Eckert’s Fine Dining.

Part-owner Jon Steffens said, “Our grand opening received great support from the Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors and a steady crowd of residents throughout the day.   Downtown business owners and patrons came out to show support, and almost everyone bought something.”  The Steffens brothers, Jon and Jason, operators and part owners of the café, are a part of a family corporation that includes their parents, business entrepreneurs Larry and Bette Steffens. 

 


[Beth and Jason Steffens stand behind the counter of
their newly opened café.]

 

Jon and Jason Steffens liked the idea of gourmet coffee blends and flavorings so much that they decided to open Grapes and Grounds.  Jason’s wife, Beth, has been instrumental in the launching of this new venture. “We are trying to create a social climate where people can meet friends or read the newspaper while they drink coffee and eat sweets,” said Jon Steffens. Biscottis are now available, and the dessert menu will be expanded to include muffins, pastries and many of the dessert items that are served at Eckert’s Fine Dining.

Jon Steffens joined the family corporation in December 1998 as a partner and is the chef for Eckert’s Fine Dining, another of the family’s holdings.  The restaurant serves gourmet six-course French and Italian fare.  Jon said that his love of good food blossomed after a six-month stay in Italy, as did his love of fine wines and coffees.

The café serves a full array of specialty coffees: cappuccinos, lattes, espressos with and without flavors, as well as specialty teas. The café also sells its own special blend of packaged ground and whole bean coffee under the Grapes & Grounds label.  Chia tea (the Turkish word for tea) – a rich and creamy blend of honey, cream and spices – is served, as well as frozen drinks.  The menu includes many sugar-free offerings. 

 

The café carries 90 kinds of wine, a small selection according to Jon Steffens. “Our wines are affordable but good at $8 to $20 per bottle.  We want people to get in the habit of picking up a bottle of wine on a weekly basis to drink with their meals.”  At these prices, he feels, people can afford to buy and try different wines on a regular basis.  Wines are imported from all over the world – South Africa, Chile, Italy, France, etc.

 

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The café has a computerized, interactive wine guide where patrons can research wines from different countries to find out what kind of wine would be best for a particular meal.  “There is a ton of information there,” said Jon Steffens.

European biers are available that will appeal to bier lovers with and without trained palettes.  The owners will concentrate their selections of biers on micro brews.  In the early years of Lincoln, the 100 block of Sangamon Street was known as “Dutch row,” since the owners of that block were of German nationality.  Although the makeup of the block may have changed, the flavors of the German pubs have returned.

 

Patrons can purchase baskets made to order, filled with wines, coffees, biers and with their respective accoutrements for any occasion.  Wine racks, bottle openers and host of other items are also available to help complete the experience.

 


[Jon (left) and Jason (right) Steffens sit outside their Grapes and Grounds cafe on Sangamon Street.]

The Steffenses have purchased most of the property on the 100 block of Sangamon Street, from 121 Sangamon St., the location of Eckert’s Fine Dining, to 129 Sangamon, where the Pink Shutter is housed.  Some of their other downtown properties include a building at 412 Pulaski, across the street from the Vintage Fare restaurant, and properties at 519 and 521 Broadway St., the locations of Action Rental and Sorrento’s restaurant.

 

[Kym Ammons-Scott]