Things to do this weekend

[elephtheria47]

Thought we could get this ball rolling. Some things that come to mind to do this weekend:

Craft beer: Ironwood (closest to campus), Four Fathers, Figure 8 all in valpo. Hunters in Chesterton or 18th street in Gary who is #1 new brewery in Indiana

Wineries: Anderson in valpo, Butler in Chesterton, Shady Creek in Michigan city or the wine trails across Michigan state line

Food: suzies cafe, Jimmys cafe, or Viking chili bowl for breakfast. Tonys has great pizza but is cash only. Shoes pizzeria for wings. Surefire on calumet for bbq. Yats for Cajun and or Creole. Burgerhaus for burgers. Stacks for all around good food. Dish, Parea, Tommys, Sage, or the Valley for a little more fine dining. La cabana for mexican food. Uptown cafe for coffee.

Things to do: the shops downtown, taltree arboretum, the dunes, memorial opera house's version of les miserable, coffee creek, shopping in merrillville, Michael Jackson's house in Gary or the John dillenger museum in crown point, Albanese candy factory, Chicagoland popcorn (over 200 flavors), Blue chip casino or the other casinos a little further away in Lake County, day trips to chicago

I'm sure I'm missing a lot but this is what quickly comes to mind. Enjoy the area!

[a3uge]

Personally, I like going into the Walmart to watch people walk by.

[classof2014]

For those thrill seekers just take a stroll down Broadway in Gary around 10 at night!

[agibson]

Craft beer: Ironwood (closest to campus), Four Fathers, Figure 8 all in valpo. Hunters in Chesterton or 18th street in Gary who is #1 new brewery in Indiana

I've not tried them yet, but there's also these guys:
http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-devils-trumpet-brewing-co-merrillville
http://thedevilstrumpet.com/

[agibson]

Food: suzies cafe, Jimmys cafe, or Viking chili bowl for breakfast. Tonys has great pizza but is cash only. Shoes pizzeria for wings. Surefire on calumet for bbq. Yats for Cajun and or Creole. Burgerhaus for burgers. Stacks for all around good food. Dish, Parea, Tommys, Sage, or the Valley for a little more fine dining. La cabana for mexican food. Uptown cafe for coffee.

Vaps for very tasty, fresh, Balkan-style hot sandwiches.  Barada Kabob near campus for, well, kebabs - with a great local university vibe.

Uptown's good for sandwiches, soups, salads, and gelato too.  Blackbird would make many peoples' list for coffee and such (and pie?).

Industrial Revolution for a really cool, high-concept, atmosphere and decorations, good burgers, good beer selection (even if no printed beer _list_), other stick-to-your-ribs type midwestern food.

Gelsosomo's for quality thin crust pizza.  The only vegetarian pizza I order unsolicited.

I suppose we'd be remiss not to mention Kelsey's as the local steakhouse with enormous cow advertisement.

We could talk about a lot of other restaurant options, but I've been liking Valley and Dish lately on the finer-dining side.

Probably should mention Pikk's for an upscale bar scene and fine-diningish type food.

If we're going all the way to Chesterton, I don't know Sage, but have heard great things about Octave Grill.

For out of towners, we might clarify that most of the Valpo options fall into maybe three main areas (we could add one or two others):

-)Downtown (say, Franklin and Lincolnway).  The neighborhood's visually dominated by the Courthouse.  Lots of dining options, some shopping, some tourism.  Nice mid-small-town downtown vibe.

-)East side of town shopping complex (say, Laporte and Silhavy).  Main strip mall area these days.  Big box stores.  Lots of fast casual type dining options.

-)North side of town (say, Calumet and Vale Park).  Another older strip mall area with some quality restaurants, and other options.

[agibson]

Craft beer: Ironwood (closest to campus), Four Fathers, Figure 8 all in valpo. Hunters in Chesterton or 18th street in Gary who is #1 new brewery in Indiana

I've not tried them yet, but there's also these guys:
http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-devils-trumpet-brewing-co-merrillville
http://thedevilstrumpet.com/

Oh, and I should give a shout out to Figure 8 as the family friendliest of these options, if you have kids with you.

House-made root beer.  Valpo Velvet ice cream in it if you want.  (A separate downtown enterprise worth a stop for ice cream, if you do that kind of thing in the snow.  Also has sandwiches, etc.)

Pinball.

Many of the brewery-only establishments (e.g. no restaurant) don't allow kids.

One could also consider a pilgrimage to 3 Floyds, if you're into craft beer.

[wh]

For those looking for convenience over adventure, everything is at your fingertips. Within 1 mile of campus there are 6 hotels, 35 restaurants 4 coffee shops, 4 pharmacies, 12 show movie theater, major shopping center, Target and Walmart. Entire shopping, lodging, eatery area is upscale and basically crime free.

[a3uge]

Since this will turn into a list of every Valpo establishment ever, how about a list of places to avoid:

* Broadway: Greasier than taco bell. Go to Jimmy's Cafe instead.
* Buffalo Wild Wings: For some reason it's always a huge wait and the service is slow and the wings taste different. Wings are ordered in quantities of shirt sizes, small, medium, large, and XL. Too stupid. Go to Wings Etc and pick up a tanker instead.
* Trails Inn Liquor: Rude, obnoxious staff that literally insults customers. Most people in Valpo are very friendly, but they've seemed to have cornered the market on jerks. Go to Buzz's Valpo Liquor instead and pick up some goodies from the discount shopping cart.
* Burrito Shop:  May seem like a decent Qdoba/Chipotle alternative, but it's pretty gross for even my standards (and I eat weekly at Taco Bell). Go to El Amigo for a Burrito to go instead.
* Any Mexican restaurant that isn't El Salto
* Any pizza delivery not Hungry Howie's (unless Valpo has Toppers now)
* Home Depot: Go to Menards instead.

And here are some of my favorite local establishments:

* Dynasty Buffet
* King Gyros

[chef]

Burrito Shop?? I think that's long gone. It might be a Dickey's BBQ. La Cabana is now the best Mexican restaurant in town.

[humbleopinion]

Let's not forget about Greek's Pizza.  Alumni may remember when it was located on campus.

[agibson]

Let's not forget about Greek's Pizza.  Alumni may remember when it was located on campus.

On campus!  Where?

[agibson]

Since this will turn into a list of every Valpo establishment ever, how about a list of places to avoid:

* Broadway: Greasier than taco bell. Go to Jimmy's Cafe instead.
* Buffalo Wild Wings: For some reason it's always a huge wait and the service is slow and the wings taste different. Wings are ordered in quantities of shirt sizes, small, medium, large, and XL. Too stupid. Go to Wings Etc and pick up a tanker instead.
* Trails Inn Liquor: Rude, obnoxious staff that literally insults customers. Most people in Valpo are very friendly, but they've seemed to have cornered the market on jerks. Go to Buzz's Valpo Liquor instead and pick up some goodies from the discount shopping cart.
* Burrito Shop:  May seem like a decent Qdoba/Chipotle alternative, but it's pretty gross for even my standards (and I eat weekly at Taco Bell). Go to El Amigo for a Burrito to go instead.
* Any Mexican restaurant that isn't El Salto
* Any pizza delivery not Hungry Howie's (unless Valpo has Toppers now)
* Home Depot: Go to Menards instead.

* Dynasty Buffet
* King Gyros

Good fun for me to hear people's preferences!  I've not had any particular problem at Trail-Inn or their Calumet location (they're the same business, right?), but I might have to try Buzz sometime.

I've enjoyed Wings Etc so I'll second that one.  It's been a while since I've been to El Amigo  - will have to try it again sometime.  And, I suppose one of these days I'll get to Dynasty.

I like La Cabana fine, and I like Casa del Mar (relatively new, downtown) fine as well.  Both probably at least as well as El Salto.  Is Serranos new?  Pretty close to El Amigo.  Haven't been there.

[covufan]

Let's not forget about Greek's Pizza.  Alumni may remember when it was located on campus.

On campus!  Where?

If memory serves, it was on College Ave, between Brown and Union.

[setshot]

I'd recommend the following:

Blue Goose
Old Style
Northside Grill
The Corrale (The Fuzz use to hang out here,me too)

These are all great places, or am I behind the times?

[bbtds]

Let's not forget about Greek's Pizza.  Alumni may remember when it was located on campus.

On campus!  Where?

Greeks was in the same location as where Maria Elenas was located not far from the law school. Greeks was very popular when "old" campus was still humming with activity.

[talksalot]

Greeks was in Garfield in the 70s and 80s where there now a closed-Gabriela's sign... they are now next to Figure-8 on Indiana by the new Central Park.

Best Mexican:  Serrano's ... only been open a few months.... on Calumet across the street from Philips Ace (and El Amigo's)...Great Burrito's~!

Don't forget, Ben's Soft Pretzels... Open Friday and Saturday nights 'til 9  [from the advertising script]... closed on Sundays.

and... Adding Phil B's (Roosevelt Road, just south of Evans)  and LePeeps for Breakfast junkies... north of town on Calumet.

Facebook:  Valparaiso Restaurant Reviews    very active !!

[crusader05]

The following link is something I found on the University page.

Not quite up-to-date, looks like it's probably done at the beginning of each year

http://www.valpo.edu/counseling/oade/experiencevalpo.php

[agibson]

I'd recommend the following:

Blue Goose
Old Style
Northside Grill
The Corrale (The Fuzz use to hang out here,me too)

These are all great places, or am I behind the times?

Two still are open, at least!

And, I guess I had heard about Greek's in the Maria Elena's slot.  Somehow I was trying to picture it closer to the current center of campus, and having a hard time.

[frontrowfan]

also some really unique dinning...Bon Femme, Don Quixote and my personal fave  Pestos on the North end of town.   Most visitors to Valpo could appreciate the unique dinning atmosphere of downtown Valpo.   What I really appreciate is no charge for parking, safe walking environment on Campus and for the most part in Valpo.   Just wished hung Horizon League Banners downtown as they did another time when we hosted.  Also wish there was a little more media coverage

[talksalot]

Talked about the Red Banners ...only had a few days notice (last time, we clinched earlier!)... and the "Red Ribbon Campaign" kick off was last night... too much staff time to put them up for just a few days.... the banners were created UNDATED for just just happenings... wait'll next year!

[agibson]

Just wished hung Horizon League Banners downtown as they did another time when we hosted.

I wonder where this is?

[tweet]572585700085903360[/tweet]

I was hoping there were a bunch of them.

[elephtheria47]

I knew i'd forget a lot of great suggestions!! Bens Pretzels is awesome!! Would agree with Blackbird Cafe as well. Have not made it to Serrano's yet. The banners look nice, I noticed a couple of trucks this morning so I thought they may be putting them up today. Getting excited for the weekend - - planning on stopping by Ironwood for a few drinks before the games!

[HC]

Last time they were all over Lincolnway west of the roundabout

[gamelord]

Since this will turn into a list of every Valpo establishment ever, how about a list of places to avoid:

* Broadway: Greasier than taco bell. Go to Jimmy's Cafe instead.
* Buffalo Wild Wings: For some reason it's always a huge wait and the service is slow and the wings taste different. Wings are ordered in quantities of shirt sizes, small, medium, large, and XL. Too stupid. Go to Wings Etc and pick up a tanker instead.
* Trails Inn Liquor: Rude, obnoxious staff that literally insults customers. Most people in Valpo are very friendly, but they've seemed to have cornered the market on jerks. Go to Buzz's Valpo Liquor instead and pick up some goodies from the discount shopping cart.
* Burrito Shop:  May seem like a decent Qdoba/Chipotle alternative, but it's pretty gross for even my standards (and I eat weekly at Taco Bell). Go to El Amigo for a Burrito to go instead.
* Any Mexican restaurant that isn't El Salto
* Any pizza delivery not Hungry Howie's (unless Valpo has Toppers now)
* Home Depot: Go to Menards instead.

And here are some of my favorite local establishments:

* Dynasty Buffet
* King Gyros

Kinda funny as I have the reverse effect at the liquor stores mentioned. I went to Buzz's about a decade ago when I was 30. They litterally wanted 3 photo id's to sell me anything. after emptying out my wallet of drivers license, photo college I
id, ss card and 4 credit cards then finally decided to sell after still being hesitant. I've been to Trail Inn several times and never had a problem.

Also I've noticed several positive things about Jimmys Cafe from multiple sources, but I had a bad experience the only time I went there. Had some time to kill and me and a buddy went there for breakfast around 1990. He ordered biscuits and gravy and the biscuits were covered in mold throughout. There was no way they couldn't have noticed it. We were so shocked but didn't make a fuss about it. Just paid the bill and left without eating. Glad tho that this sounds like an isolated incident.

I do agree about the King Gyros. That is the best Gyro place in nw indiana by far. It's hard for me to pick a favorite pizza place anymore. I'm still heartbroken over Giggle's closing a few years ago. I miss that the most.

[78crusader]

Has anyone mentioned dinner at Bon Femme?

Paul