Here's a short but interesting story which begins with a torn receipt dating from July of 2008 that I've kept in my wallet because I dearly wanted to put a recommendation on LTH for the place.

Last year my wife to be, stepson and I were searching for a place to have dinner at in Galena. We traveled from one place to another, some expensive and most crowded and found ourselves on a back street saying how bout pizza?

Procento's Pizzaria (http://www.procentos.com/) it was and the owner's son Jack Jr. greeted us. The place was doing a bang up delivery business to the locals and we found ourselves in a rather quiet part of the dining room. We settled on ordering their double decker pizza special...and darned if it wasn't one of the best pizza's I've ever had and I was raised on the south side of Chicago!. Darned that was good...now they did error on our order because of the volume but Jack Jr. did us right and popped for their Double Chocolate Cake which was nothing short of phenominal.

So, if you're in the area...check them out @ 105 Franklin St, Galena 815-777-1640, you won't be dissapointed

Best Wishes,

Jeff and Donna

I spent the last weekend in Galena and had a great time. I stayed at Marcottes Family Hotel just east of Elizabeth,IL which was fantastic with very clean, large rooms with a wonderful host and very homey atmosphere at a great value.

Friday night we headed into Galena and I ate at the Market House Restaurant. The restaurant had a Friday Fish Fry and Fried Chicken special. We were started out with complimentary pate and garlic butter with different crackers. The pate was a whipped version that was spreadable on the crackers which I thought was tasty. We then ordered the fried green beans with the raspberry vinaigrette sauce. Hot and crispy were tasty and the cool dip went well with the hot green beans. I had the fish which came with catfish and flounder with the sweet potatoes fries. I particularly enjoyed the catfish with a crispy breading and moist, juicy, fish inside. My dining companion had the chicken which she enjoyed quite a bit saying it was juicy with good seasoning. I had a taste of her garlic mashed potatoes which were addictive with the butter and super creamy texture. A very warm hostess and waitress made us really like this place.

Saturday dinner was at 111 Main. Started with the jalapeno calamari which were good. I liked the spiciness with the calamari. The restaurant gave us complimentary salad and soup. The salad was a simple greens with a vinagrette. The fresh greens really made the salad shine. We had the bone in rib eye with mashed and green beans and the pulled pork with roasted potatoes and sweet corn on the cob. I enjoyed the bone in rib eye but i think they missed the mark a tiny little bit on the medium rare. The steak was on the low side of medium rare, but still very juicy and tender. The pulled pork was good, but I don't believe it was smoked. Corn was delicious with the natural sweetness. I liked it here and thought the prices were very reasonable considering chicago restaurants with a similar focus on local seasonal cooking.

All in all, a very enjoyable weekend getaway.

I see it's been years since my original request in 2004. My husband and I will be joining my sister and her husband for Galena's fourth of July festivities. We have lodging, just wondering if there are any new suggestions for restaurants (breakfast/lunch/dinner) and bars (all casual). Thanks.

This is slightly off topic, but I'm driving from Chicago to Galena on Friday during the day and was wondering if there are any good places to stop for lunch along the drive, rather than in Galena proper. If it's worth it, a 20-30 min detour would be acceptable. Any recommendations would be much appreciated.

I posted upthread (a couple of years back) about "a fun and potentially repeatable lunch at the Crooked River Cafe on the lovely main Street of Pecatonica. We were a week early for the Winnebago County Fair, but it was made up for by a meal at the counter that was like eating at the wet bar in your uncle's den, if your uncle happened to have a pretty, intelligent and oppressed 16-year old Mexican-American girl apprentice cook who (in your Uncle's opinion) just couldn't seem to get it that that sandwich was on "whole wheat ... whole wheat ... NO! Whole Wheat! ... No, no, no! WHOLE WHEAT! OK, that's whole wheat. What the? Bacon! Make more bacon!" I felt for the old man, and the girl, in equal parts, as they seemed doomed to torment each other, but not intentionally, as if on the third-and-a-half circle of Heck. The hamburgers we ordered (actually patty melts) were perfection. Excellent, flavorful and properly seasoned meat, not too thick or thin, cooked just below medium (suppose they'd customize something more rare on request), a real treat. No fries, chips. Insane volumes of framed art on the walls, all available for purchase from a neighboring gallery."

Abraus, there's a Dog N Suds along the way, just north of Rockford:

Dog N Suds
1421 Harlem Road
Loves Park, IL
http://www.dognsuds.biz/

Thought I'd provide a couple data points re my recent trip to Galena.

1. Dogs N Suds - very poor. Great frosty mugs of root beer, but the "all beef hotdog" my wife ordered was literally off-white and served on a cold stale bun. She took one bite and said "this is gross." She asked the owner if it was indeed "all beef" as it certainly didn't taste like it. The owner went and pulled the "all beef" and the regular dogs from the FREEZER and showed them to my wife. Remarkably, the regular dogs were even whiter. That IS gross. Poor business form too as a clearly dissatisfied customer was sitting there and instead of offering to remedy the problem, the owner simply proved that she uses craptastic hot dogs. I had some big mac clone that was fine, but again showed no attention to detail. the food service slice of cheese was not even remotely melted. fries were bad, onion rings, ok, both food service stnds. The owner had the gall to ask how we liked our meal. I just said it was pretty bad and we wouldn't be returning. She didn't even ask what the issues were. Bizarre. They apparently have been open 6 months and there was no one in there at 12:30 on a Friday. I can't imagine they'll be around much longer with the poor quality of food/service.

2. Gobbie's pizza - Pretty mediocre, but certainly a good value. Wasn't bad, just not a pizza that I'd ever recommend to tourists (as it was recommended to me by a person at Eagle Ridge).

3. 111 Main - For lunch, best meal of the trip. Crisp pork tenderloin sandwich on a nice bun w/ garlic saratoga chips. Wife's soup was pretty blah, but it was largely due to the fact that it was described as a tomato soup and was really a black bean soup with tomatoes.

4. Family Affair Diner - on the way back in Freeport for lunch. Decent diner fair, mind-blowingly cheap, our tab for two entrees/salads/soups/dessert was $11! Ha. Nothing unique, but a good diner option en route.

In search of x-mas cheer we headed off to Galena this past Saturday.

Hit the MarketHouse restaurant for lunch, nice place with a good view of the main drag from an upstairs vantage point. Burger was pretty good, perfectly cooked, but places need to learn to season their meat before cooking. Reuben with house made corned beef was really good. Overall a decent cheap lunch option.

None of the other spots in Galena really interested me on the surface for dinner and I knew we were within easy striking distance of the SW corner of Wisconsin and its bounty of supper clubs.. Probably 20 minutes at most from Galena.... One could easily do a crawl of the 6-7 supper clubs all within 15-20 minutes of each other. I sampled Old Fashioneds from 2 supper clubs in Hazel Green, WI, and hit the Kall in Supper Club for dinner. (Posted pics of these drinks in the "something to drink" sections Old Fashinoed thread.))

Classic supper club, large bar packed with local folks having a good time. Relish tray with liver spread, Spotted Cow, and typical supper club fair. The broasted chicken was the star for sure, crisp crust, and a flavor packed, juice popping interior. This chicken was great.

broasted chicken:



Kall Inn Supper CLub
4089 Sandy Hook Road
Hazel Green, WI.

I was intrigued by Timmerman's Supper Club in East Dubuque when we passed it perched on the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi, but kept moving towards Wisconsin, next time perhaps

Timmermans' Supper Club
7777 Timmerman Drive
East Dubuque, IA.

http://www.timmermanssupperclub.com

I spent a weekend in Galena over the mild winter and enjoyed my first visit back since the annual 8th grade ropes course trip my school did to there. I took it back in 1996, with of course a visit to US Grant's old home included on the overnight field trip. This time around it wasn't spring but still really pretty and reminded me much of Deadwood. Even though I'm a city boy, I enjoy getting to see these old school towns where much of the past is still preserved today.


Where U.S Grant stayed at while in Galena just before he hit it big and went to the White House

I enjoyed the town as much as I remembered I would. Even back in 8th grade when I could of cared less about the historic charm of places like this I remember at least thinking how the houses were cool. Nothings changed and alot remains the same. There were a few food stops but there wasn't really anywhere I wanted to go and didn't so not as many places caught my eye. I had hoped to hit up East Dubuque for a prime rib one night but heavy snowfall foiled our plans for that. We stayed on Main Street and not too far from there was the Galena Brewing Company.


Main Street

Started in 2009, this place isn't old but once upon a time there was another Galena Brewing Company and as I learned at this spot, they were famous for their Red Stripe Beer. Yep as it turns out, the popular Jamaican lager enjoyed by many alongside a spliffy isn't even from the islands mon. It's from Galena, Illinois where it was brewed until the late 1800's and then the recipe was sold to a couple of British businessmen who brought it to and started brewing it in Jamaica. In fact due to it being the first Mineral rush city in the USA, Galena had nine breweries in the 1800's. A few of those breweries old buildings still stand today and you get can get tours thru GBC.


From the relics display case on hand at GBC

The lady was telling me about their Red Stripe history and showed me some of the old things from then that they still have on display such as the kegs for which it was named, they have a red stripe across them. Every summer they have a big reggae weekend and get some, from what I was told, well known acts to come in for their celebration of it. It'd be cool to be there since I really liked the space and thought this was the best place for a drink and snack around town. We went here a few times and the food ranged from really good (roasted bone marrow) to pretty good (stuffed 'shrooms) to bad (empanada) and the beer was very nice. I liked their amber ale the best. Great service and the $5 menu, which all the items I ate came from, was a nice pair to go with the beer. I had at least five orders of the bone marrow on my three visits. You cant ever get enough of that.


$5 Food Menu and their house brewed beer is a good way to go...

For a more upscale sit down place for dinner and such we both really enjoyed One Eleven Main. The name (it's address) might be corny but the seasonal menu served with locally influenced dishes tries to take the food most people are familiar with to an unfamiliar level. According to their website "we've forged special partnerships with local and regional farmers, artisans and food purveyors." We ended up eating here twice and because of that I was able to eat a few things off their winter menu as well as have a few specialty cocktails since it was a short walk back to where we were at. Nice.


Downtown Galena

The cocktail menu features the classics and also hand muddled/homemade options and sours n' such and housemade pitchers of punch. There's lots of spots like these popping up all over as we had just enjoyed a similar spot, Merchant (In Madison), the night before. They use many local Midwest distilled spirits including Templeton Rye (IA) North Shore Distillery (IL), Deaths Door (WI) and so on. The drinks were very nice and I've become a cocktail snob of late. Food wise I liked what we had. It was winter so I bet the summer menu is better but their housemade pasta selections were very good as are the cheese curds. I liked the pork ragu very much and the beef stroganoff alot. Both did what they said they were trying as a restaurant to do. The gnochhi not as much as those two, but still good. Also great is their "daily feature menu" which had a special pork, fish or beef dish that changed by day. I liked what I had off of there. I'd stop back when in town again and that I will do that next time I need a break from the concrete jungle of cement.


Noodle Selections (Pork Ragu, Beef Stroganoff)


Galena, IL

Galena Brewing Company
227 North Main Street
Galena, IL 61036
(815) 776-9917

One Eleven Main
111 North Main Street
Galena, IL 61036
(815) 777-8030

I was in Galena on Saturday, and I was a little upset with myself that I didn't research or prepare for it like I normally do. That, plus zero cell phone reception meant I was back 20 years ago where I had to get lucky finding good food. For some reason my girlfriend and I wanted pizza for lunch, so we checked out a few of the places Galena had to offer. After glancing at Procento's and Gobbie's, we decided on Cannova's. We split a sausage pizza (we wanted to save room for all the little things in Galena) and it was decent, but nothing special. Other items sounded interesting, so maybe another time.

Later on we had some terrific ice cream at the American Old Fashioned Ice Cream Parlor which is definitely going to put you in an Americana-kind of mood when you step in. They get a lot of negative reviews for their service, but I can only imagine the kind of demanding customers with their kids that never stop coming in as the ones who are complaining.

I'm a big popcorn fan and you'd think the Great American Popcorn Company would fit the bill. Loaded with every imagined popcorn flavor plus every possible bottle of pop/soda there is. But I thought their popcorn was nothing special and pretty expensive.

We ended up at Gobbie's in their outdoor area with my girlfriend having some drinks (I do not drink). They claim to have Chicago style pan and stuffed pizza. My first warning to this was looking at the menu and seeing Italian Beef with pepperocini peppers on it - no giardiniera anywhere. When we got up to leave, I looked over at some pan pizzas that didn't look like Chicago style deep dish or stuffed. I didn't try any, but didn't really want to.

Next time I go back, I am definitely going to do some more research, although if I'm there just for lunch, I'm sure a burger will be fine. But if I am there for dinner, maybe Fritz and Frites, Fried Green Tomatoes, Log Cabin, 111 Main, or drive over to Timmermann's in East Dubuque.

Cannova's Pizza
247 N Main St
Galena IL

American Old Fashioned Ice Cream Parlor
102 N Main St
Galena IL