PEORIA MAGAZINE July 2022

A P U B L I C A T I O N O F W T V P

M A G A Z I N E

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L E G E N D S O F T H E P E O R I A A R E A

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COVER STORIES 44 A Pearl of a Person – Dr. Rick Pearl By Mike Bailey 48 Manning the point, from basketball floor to NCAA big time Chris Reynolds By Kirk Wessler 52 The Whole is Greater than the Sum of its Parts – Doug and Vicky Stewart By Lisa Coon 56 ‘Children Deserve the Best’ – Steve Thompson By Lisa Coon 60 From Anonymous Administrator

SPOTLIGHTS 14 Perfectly Princeton By Scott Fishel 34 An Eye on Peoria By Amy Talcott 36 Surpassing 100 and Still Going Strong By Monica Vest Wheeler 68 Peoria, ‘The Place to Go’ for Motorcycle Racing By Nick Vlahos

ON THE COVER: Local Legends, Monica Hendrickson, Chris Reynolds, Doug and Vicky Stewart, Steve Thompson and sitting, Rick Pearl

to Media Celebrity – Monica Hendrickson By Phil Luciano

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FEATURES 10 Seed and Soil:

30 Twenty Something: Gen Z More About Purpose than Pay By CeCe Hill 64 Peoria Retro: Political Clout Gave Peoria its Ag Lab By Chris Kaergard 70 Playing in Peoria:

80 WordCount:

Famed Sportswriter Tries Hand at Poetry By Phil Luciano

Bridging the Urban/Rural Divide By Rob Sharkey

18 Dish and Drink:

82 WordCount:

Beer, Whiskey, Community By Phil Luciano

On ‘Controversial’ Books – Where the Peoria Public Library Stands By Jennifer Davis

22 Dish and Drink:

A Bar Like No Other By Phil Luciano

Neighborhood Café Has Just the Right Touch By Kirk Wessler

86 WordCount:

24 Dish and Drink:

Healing with Words By Laurie Pillman

LaGondola Restaurant Chain Celebrates 40th Anniversary By Steve Tarter

76 Mom and Pop:

88 EconCorner:

I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for … By Bob Grimson

An Interview With Dr. Joshua Lewer 90 People, Places & Parties

28 Dish and Drink: Cocktail Class –

The Honorable Mr. Basile By Dustin Crawford

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COMMENTARY 92 How to Find Opportunities in Unusual Times By Dee Brown 95 Enjoy the Journey By Amy Burkett 100 One Last Thing: ‘Hey Chap! How’s it Going?’ By Phil Luciano 103 Toon Town By Dan Ackley AND MORE 7 Letter from the Editor 72 ArtsPartners Calendar 97 Classifieds 98 In Brief 104 Thank You, Advertisers

in this issue

July 2022 contributors: Daniel Ackley, Dee Brown, Amy Burkett, Lisa Coon, Dustin Crawford, Jennifer Davis, Scott Fishel, Bob Grimson, CeCe Hill, Chris Kaergard, Dr. Joshua Lewer, Phil Luciano, Laurie Pillman, Rob Sharkey, Amy Talcott, Steve Tarter, Nick Vlahos, Kirk Wessler, Monica Vest Wheeler FOLLOW@PEORIAMAGAZINES: To subscribe or renew, visit peoriamagazines.com/subscribe.

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MONTHLY ISSUE 072022 ISSN: 947

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E D I T O R I A L EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Mike Bailey mbailey@peoriamagazines.com PUBLISHER Lesley Matuszak lesley.matuszak@wtvp.org SENIOR COMMUNICATIONS EXECUTIVE Phil Luciano phil.luciano@wtvp.org WTVP DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AND COMMUNITY RELATIONS Julie Sanders julie.sanders@wtvp.org A D V E R T I S I N G PRESIDENT AND CEO OF WTVP Lesley Matuszak lesley.matuszak@wtvp.org SENIOR CORPORATE SUPPORT MANAGER Angie Spears sales@peoriamagazines.com CORPORATE SUPPORT MANAGER Kristina Gamez sales@peoriamagazines.com DIRECTOR OF PHILANTHROPY Tom Zimmerman sales@peoriamagazines.com C R E A T I V E STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Ron Johnson

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L E T T E R F R O M T H E E D I T O R

ILLUMINATING OUR LEGENDS, AS THEY LIFT US ALL

W elcome to Peoria Mag azine’s Local Legends issue, dedicated to the people who have long made things go — and continue to — in our respective communities in ways large and small, up front and behind the scenes. This year’s honorees may not be household names, each and every one, but such is the extent of their achievements and contributions across a wide array of disciplines that they should be pretty well known to many central Illinoisans. “Legend” is a weighty title, of course, and inevitably readers want to know what the process is for such elevation. I’d like to write that there’s a large committee of esteemed Nobel-like laureates, wearing their monocles and medallions, who sit down for countless hours of debate over a voluminous list of potential candidates fromwhich five or so are ultimately plucked. Or that we here at PeoriaMagazine have developed an intricate algorithm into which we feed endless amounts of data before it analyzes all of it and spits out the winners. Were it so. Of course, we startwith a list of names based on our collective experience of decades and decades living andworking and mingling with countless people in central Illinois, and of coursewe discuss them before arriving at a consensus. But the truth is that our Legends sort of choose themselves, in the sense that their contributions to the community — in the time they spend, the talents they share, the results they get — speak for themselves, ultimately making our job pretty darn easy. Indeed, Peoria Magazine has put together an annual Legends issue for many years now. If this year’s finalists raised any eyebrows,

it was only because some of themhadn’t been profiled before. That is certainly the case for Doug and Vicky Stewart, Dr. Rick Pearl, Steve Thompson, Chris Reynolds andMonica Hendrickson. Collectively they have made their marks in education and public service, medicine and public health, athletics and the military. They range in age from 39 to 77. Their motivations are wide and varied, some coming from a place of religious conviction and social justice, others from concerns for family and their futures. They tend to be givers, intent on paying their good fortunes forward. Often, they share a pervasive optimism. The late actress Lauren Bacall was quoted as saying that “legends are all to do with the past and nothing to do with the present.” We would beg to differ, as none of our Legends consider themselves done. To a person they are still working tomake ours a better place. We actually prefer a comment from Tecumseh, the legendary-in-his-own right Shawnee warrior and chief. “When the legends die,” he is reported to have said, “the dreams end. There is no more greatness.” Indeed, our Legends g ive us something to aspire to – we profile a few others in this issue, from Dr. Tom Wyman at Illinois Eye Center to the late Sen. Everett Dirksen – and they give us confidence as to what is possible. That has value in any community. It may seem like something of a departure, but much of the talk around town as we were going to press with the July issue of Peoria Magazine was the news that Caterpillar Inc. is moving its headquarters fromDeerfield, Illinois to the Dallas, Texas area. Once upon a time, for a long time, Cat was

headquartered in Peoria, of course, so naturally the announcement pushed some discussion buttons. We’d just say that often it is healthier to focus on what you have rather than dwelling on what you don’t. Where Caterpillar is concerned, the Peoria area still has quite a lot. “We have more than 17,000 employees in Illinois (12,000 employees in the Peoria area),” company spokeswoman Kate Kenny said in response to questions. “This announcement impacts 230 positions based in Deerfield. Illinois remains the largest concentration of Caterpillar employees anywhere in the world.” Meanwhile, it is instructive to remember that Caterpillar built a global earthmoving empire from a central Illinois base. You might even call that a legendary feat. Empires can emerge from the unlikeliest of places. The likes of Caterpillar in Peoria, and State Farm in Bloomington, and John Deere in Moline, to name a few, long ago proved that it is possible. Things change, of course – the only constant – but may that knowledge give some other local legend in the making, lurking somewhere out there, the confidence to growwhere he or she is planted, right here in central Illinois. Enjoy this month’s Peoria Magazine, everybody.

Mike Bailey mbailey@peoriamagazines.com

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S E E D A N D S O I L

BRIDGING THE URBAN/RURAL DIVIDE City dwellers need to know where their food originates, and farmers need to get beyond their fencerows

BY ROB SHARKEY

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I do a segment on SharkFarmer TV where I go out on the streets of downtown Nashville and ask people how much they know about where their food comes from. I know, it is not an original idea. David Letterman and Jay Leno did the same for years. Whereas they are looking to make fun of people, I am not. I know that if I go out and humiliate people about their lack of knowledge in agriculture, I will have a guaranteed audience. Folks love seeing what people don’t know, because it’s an easy way to feel better about themselves. I didn’t want that type of show. There is enough mean stuff out there. The audience for this particular show is heavily agricultural. Basically, I am reaching farmers and ranchers as well as ag professionals and rural lifestyle-type people. If only about 1% of the population of the U.S. actually farms, then my chances of stumping people on the streets of a busy city are fairly high. What I wanted from this segment was for it to open the lines of communication between farmers and non-farmers so it can be more of a two-way street. I wanted to point out how urban people could learn a bit more about rural folks, and that rural can learn more about urban. Plus, it had to be entertaining. No problem … The first lesson I learned is how many people don’t want to be filmed. I sometimes forget about the fear that overcomes some people as they stare into the lens of a camera. The second lesson was that people were well aware of how the “man on the street” interviews were basically trying to make fun of them. However, with some pleading and salesmanship, we did get some takers. I always ask what the people being interviewed do for a living, in an attempt to showmy heavily agricultural audience thatwedon’t knowmuchabout what they do. Then I would proceed to ask them some questions and show them pictures of farm equipment to

Many people think that grain bins are for holding water or milk. One guy thought a silage chopper was built for the upcoming zombie apocalypse. There are endless wrong answers to questions that farmers see as “common sense.” I do like that we are showing people in ag how far removed our urban friends are from how food is made. My biggest goal for farmers is to show them this isn’t a one-sided conversation. Even if it’s just virtually, farmers and ranchers need to venture past their fencerows. As much as we in ag can teach others, we must also be open to learning. From f ine arts to complicated science, there is always something we can learn, and in turn understand each other better. This world of ours is very happy to divide people into groups and to adopt an all-or-nothing attitude when it comes to where people’s loyalties lie. One big division that is pushed on society is rural and urban.

ONLY ABOUT 1% OF THE U.S. POPULATION FARMS

I can 100% tell you, talking to non agriculture people on the streets of a city has only shown me how much alike we are I know if I flip my light switch, that a light bulb will come on. I know that the electricity comes from a power plant. I also know that if I would be shown pictures of power turbine parts, I wouldn’t know what they were. I remember this when I ask people what a combine is.

see if they knew what it was. Here’s the tricky part. In order for the segment to grab attention, it has to be entertaining. That’s where I had to poke fun at the situation, not the person. Honestly, this isn’t hard. If you simply recognize that you are interviewing an intelligent person who simply doesn’t know the subject matter, the bit kind of writes itself. What people say is pretty damn funny. We had a lady call a hay rake a “plant tickler.” A young lady who saw a picture of a sprayer said it looked “like a tractor with a crane. It must be a cracktor.”

Rob Sharkey , aka “The Shark Farmer,” tills the land at his fifth-generation farm in the Bradford area, where he lives with wife Emily. He hosts “A Shot of Ag” on WTVP PBS and a podcast heard by millions, among other media endeavors

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Morton Chamber of Commerce wants to say thank you to our Gold Members for their continued support!

If interested in joining the Morton Chamber of Commerce, please reach out to us at info@mortonillinois.org or by calling 309-263-2491. 12 JULY 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE

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C O M M U N I T Y S P O T L I G H T

PERFECTLY PRINCETON Historic preservation is front and center in a town with its eyes on the future

BY SCOTT F ISHEL PHOTOS BY RON JOHNSON

F rom the rush of transcontinen tal traffic at Main Street and Interstate 80 to the peaceful Soldiers and Sailors Memorial at the south end of Princeton’s primary thoroughfare, this town is a portrait in contrasts. Deeply rooted in the early history of Illinois, the town of 7,800 about an hour north of Peoria has parlayed its rich past into a future filled with energy and confidence. And growth. Even as BureauCounty shed residents in the past decade, the 2020 Census showed a modest uptick in Princeton, the county seat. There are few empty storefronts amid a boom in renovation and historic preservation. Even during the challenges of the last two years, Princeton hardly missed a beat.

“We didn’t lose a single business during the pandemic,” saidMayor Joel Quiram. “I was constantly impressed by the in genuity and creativity of our businesses during that very difficult time.” HISTORY RUNS DEEP Princeton’s history goes back near ly 200 years. Settlers fromNewEngland and other parts out east established an outpost called Greenfield in the early 1830s. Legend has it that the village was rechristened Princeton after the name was drawn from a hat. And yes, it is connected to an early trustee’s fond memories of his New Jersey roots. Owen Lovejoy looms large in the town’s past. The home of this well known abolitionist, politician and friend of Abraham Lincoln was a crit ical stop on the fabled Underground

Railroad. No one knows how many es caped slaves passed through Lovejoy’s home in the years before the Civil War, but the moral conviction and courage of the man himself is undisputed. The Lovejoy Homestead, located on the eastern edge of town, is a National Historic Landmark operated by the City of Princeton. The annual Home stead Festival reflects the enduring influence of this early resident. “Be Like Lovejoy,” suggests a colorful mural on a downtown building. Local historians are also quick to tell of a rousing political speech by Lincoln at Bryan Woods on July 4, 1856. A plaque marks the spot in what is now a quiet neighborhood. Meanwhile, a couple of covered bridges also beckon visitors.

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The Red Covered Bridge runs over Big Bureau Creek, north of Princeton

The one-time home of the well-known abolitionist and friend of Abraham Lincoln is a national historic site

Jyl Morse, a third-generation owner of Hoffman’s Patterns of the Past, works in her shop on Main Street

A BUSTLING MAIN DRAG Impressive as those historic creden tials are, they are merely a foundation for the living, breathing, tax-generating buildings crowding for attention along Main Street, the primary commercial district stretching over some 2.5 miles. Browsers and buyers find clothing stores, boutiques, restaurants, pubs and antique shops. There’s a record store with seemingly no end of vintage vinyl, day spa, gift shops, a jeweler, and the legendary Myrtle’s Pies and Café along an accessible, pedestrian-friendly throughfare. At the north endofMainStreet, across from a 1917 grain elevator converted to apartments, is the Amtrak station. Travelers can catch eight daily trains to Chicago and points east, and west to Galesburg, Quincy, and ultimately,

Los Angeles. More than 40,000 ride the rails in and out of the depot every year. Embedded in the sidewalk in front of the town’s only movie house, the Apollo, is the Princeton Walk of Fame. Four former Princetonians are honored with a star: Doobie Brothers drummer Keith Knudsen, actor and Oscar nom inee Richard Widmark, CBS journalist Nick Young and soap opera actress Kathryn Hays. In the summer months, a swath of Main is blocked off for a series of street concerts. Grace Theater is home to Festival 56, an annual theatrical series that brings in promising actors from across the country. Many of them stay with local families while in town. Even during the depths of the pandemic, record sales tax revenue

filled the city coffers as local residents committedmore than ever to shopping local, said City Clerk Pete Nelson. “The growth in this city is amazing,” said Jyl Morse, third-generation proprietor of Hoffman’s Patterns of the Past. Her gift shop and china pattern matching service are known worldwide. She praises the local entrepreneurs who continue to push a welcoming, youthful image that draws visitors from across the region. The community draws a steady stream of visitors – from Peoria, the Quad Cities, the west Chicago sub urbs — pining for an escape, unique shopping and dining. “Part of being successful is constantly evolving and responding to people’s needs,” said Gary Bruce, a third-gener

JULY 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE 15

their youth, said the mayor. The in centives are affordable housing, good schools and quick and easy access to jobs through traditional commuting or remote work, he said. Meanwhile, some are coming back home to retire. A RENOVATION BOOM Among those would-be retirees were Michael Stutzke and his wife Sue, but their planned ride into the sunset changed when Michael’s attention and imagination were captured by the old Knox Hotel on Main Street. That was five years ago. Including the Knox, his Four Flags LLC now has renovated a total of eight historical properties. All have quickly gained tenants and taken their place in the thriving retail mix. Stutzke said even though many mu l t i -gene r a t i on a l bu s i ne s s owners still thrive in this economic environment, tomorrow is in the hands of a younger crowd. “That’s the future of Princeton,” he said. “For a community like this to survive, it needs young entrepreneurs, and Princeton has plenty.” HEADED IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION Not everything is happening on Main Street . Pr inceton’s largest employer is a massive Ace Hardware di str ibut ion warehouse in the industrial park just off I-80. It has a seasonal workforce of up to 550. L.W. Schneider manufactures firearm components and employs about 400. On the south end of town is the un assuming facade of MTM Recognition, formerly the site of Jostens. You would

never guess that diamond-encrusted championship sports rings – includ ing for the 1985 Super Bowl champs Chicago Bears, all of the Chicago Bulls’ titles and the 2005 Chicago White Sox World Series team — trophies and other high-end bling is crafted there. OSF Saint Clair Medical Center, for merly Perry Memorial Hospital, also is a significant employer. Out on the eastern outskirts of town is Hornbaker Gardens, a nursery and de facto botanical garden and arbore tum that draws avid gardeners from all over the Midwest to one of the largest selections of hosta found anywhere, as well as newlyweds about to tie the knot at its popular wedding venue. “Princeton has a quaint feeling that makes it feel like home,” said Jenica Cole, executive director of the Princeton Area Chamber of Commerce. “It’s definitely headed in the right direction.”

Scott Fishel is a senior communications executive with WTVP

ation jeweler and watchmaker and the proprietor of Bruce Jewelers. Superior service also is a key ingredient that gives an advantage to his business and many others in Princeton. There is evidence that Princeton natives are returning to the town of drummer for the rock band The Doobie Brothers. Others include actor Richard Widmark, CBS Journalist Nick Young, and soap opera star Kathryn Hays. Above, the Ace distribution warehouse, Princeton’s largest employer The Princeton Walk of Fame honors stars from Princeton that includes Keith Knudsen,

Learn more about Princeton City of Princeton : www.princeton-il.com Princeton Chamber of Commerce : www.princetonchamber-il.com Princeton Tourism : www.visitprinceton-il.com Heritage Corridor Convention & Visitors Bureau : www.heritagecorridorcvb.com

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D I S H A N D D R I N K

BEER, WHISKEY, COMMUNITY Princeton’s Barrel Society has it all, plus vintage music, movies and a colorful character behind the bar

BY PHIL LUCI ANO PHOTOS BY RON JOHNSON

P rinceton’s Barrel Society is more fun than a barrel of monkeys, and then some. Any day at the saloon, visitors can watch classic comedy or horror films (sound off) on the widescreen TV as vinyl (mostly metal and punk) blares from the turntable. Meantime, the walls rivet your attention via a visual whirl of paintings and screen-prints (floating kegs, meandering skulls and other colorful psychedelia), suggesting an otherworldly feel. And if you’re hungry, there’s a good chance a catered food event or Chicago food truck might be serving up delicacies that day. Oh yeah – you can also get something to drink. The beverage offerings include 350 whiskies, 110 craft beers and about 20 specialty cocktails. If that’s not enough, the staff is whipping up new cocktail recipes all the time. “What we do is different than 99.9 percent of businesses within a 50-mile radius,” said owner Nick Gorogianis, 37. “It’s just fun. I don’t want people to sit here and be on their phones. It’s about music and movies and atmosphere as much as the booze.” The sensorial swirl percolates amid the generations-old but oft lively storefronts of Princeton, the

Like many of his customers, Gorogianis comes fromout of town. He grewup in the DuPage County village of Bloomingdalebeforeheadingdownstate to attend Monmouth College. Friends there took him to their hometown of Princeton, and he fell in love. “It has genuine people,” he said. “And the town is beautiful.” After graduating college in 2007, Gorogianis worked in public relations and construction. But he kept finding himself thinking of Princeton. In 2018, he made his move. On Main Street, he bought a brick building – ruggedly weathered, with plenty of height and space – constructed in 1896 as a pencil factory. It later spent seven decades as a men’s clothing store before becoming a woman’s boutique. Gorogianis had another vision. “I had to do a ton of remodeling and renovation,” he said. The intense labor included adding an entire bar and back bar, plus redoing the ductwork and plumbing. Later, he added the high-end Bottle Shop liquor store in a rear room, along with a patio out back. As he stocked the joint with hard-to find beers and top-notch whiskeys, he came up with the name Barrel Society, which carries a distinct meaning.

Barrel Society is located at 930 N Main Street

7,800-resident seat of ag-centric Bureau County. Amid a commercial district popping with boutiques and shops, Barrel Society flashes an inviting smile that carries both small-town friendliness and big-city polish. “We get people from Chicago. We get people from all over,” Gorogianis said. “We hear from people that there’s nothing elsewhere like this atmosphere.”

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Nick Gorogianis, owner of Barrel Society

on metal and punk records – and just records. That’s not because Gorogianis is a music purist, just a pragmatist. “We play only vinyl because I have a 5,000-record collection and I want to use them,” he said, grinning. He also is responsible for the ubiquitous artwork. A doodler as a kid, he has become a collector. But he did help create the logo of the place: a shimmering handprint inside a triangle. As for its meaning, Gorogianis smiled sheepishly. “It’s supposed to be kind of creepy and a little spooky,” he said. “We might watch some spookymovies and listen to some metal music, but we’re the nicest people on Earth.” The grinning, gregarious Gorogianis draws a steady and growing stream of visitors into the bar – and elsewhere in Princeton. Mayor Joel Quiram lauds Gorogianis as a whiz with social media, where his good nature and bold

humor have been evident in photos and videos spotlighting him in lederhosen, suspenders and fanciful garb. “Nick is an outstanding marketer of his business,” Quiram said. “He not only markets his business, but other businesses too, like Blue Jay Way Records … and Myrtle’s Pies across the street. He brings a lot of people to town. He means a lot to Princeton. “It’s really such a fabulous success story, and in such a short time.” Gorog ianis looks forward to continued success in his adopted hometown. For now, his main goal involves simply conducting another day of camaraderie at Barrel Society. “I love it,” he said.

“I wanted a way to incorporate beer and whiskey,” he said. “And I wanted to touch on the importance of family and community.” In the middle of farm country, the place gleams with urban sophistication. But there is a homespun amiability, thanks to a friendly and helpful staff headed by barkeeps Jesse Deskeere and Dale Hale. Also in the convivial mix are Gorogianis and girlfriend Gwendolen Baxter, who live above the pub. During business hours, Gorogianis repeatedly rushes to drop a needle

Phil Luciano is a senior writer/columnist for Peoria Magazine and content contributor to public television station WTVP

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D ave Roggy is never quite sure how to describe his place of business. “I don’t even know how to tell ya,” he is apt to respond. “A junkyard meets a bar meets an old corn crib.” That, and a whole lot more. On thewalls of the open-air operation, you’ll find hood ornaments, gas caps, license plates, tractor seats, hubcaps, exhaust pipes, headlamps, exhaust pipes and just about any vehicular accoutrement imaginable, a chockablock collection that altogether comes off as an explosion of highway pop art. Meantime, in the gravel-and-grass parking areas, you’ll find motorcycles and minivans, moms with strollers and grandmothers with walkers, vehicles and visitors of all sorts. “We get babies,” said co-owner Troy Thompson. “We get people of all ages.” Welcome to Psycho Silo, an all-ages experience that is one part gearhead museum, one part adult playhouse, one part concert venue. Newcomers are entranced by its novelty, but repeat guests always find something to hold their interest. “There’s always good people, good food, a lot of bikes,” said Leroy Winchel of Hennepin. “They have a lot of car shows. “A lot of different things happen out here.” Actually, a lot of nothing happened there for the longest time. Fifty-five miles north of Peoria, Langley is an unincorporated blip of

D I S H A N D D R I N K

a burg that never grew to more than a few houses, generations ago. The community claimed one instance of fame – or, rather, infamy – in 1914 when bandits struck a train in nearbyManlius but were cornered by a 200-man posse at Langley. After a shootout that left one lawmen dead, the thieveswere captured. At the time, Langley hosted a grain elevator that served a freight line. Though trains still rumble by, the elevator shuttered in the 1950s. During his childhood in nearby Princeton, Thompson marveled at the old elevator, which he calls a silo. He saw it not as left for dead but as a potential center post for an elaborate tree house, a dream that eventually started to come to fruition in 2012 when Thompson, now 50, owned an art studio in Princeton. He bought the elevator and the surrounding 20 acres, at the time a mass thicket of brush near U.S. Route 6 and Illinois Route 40. Thompson’s grand vision of an outdoor bar carried just a modest investment. His idea: From the elevator, build a wide bar with room for plenty of tables and chairs, kind of like a backyard deck on steroids. With no roof or full walls, he couldn’t keep the site open all seasons, soMay through September it would be. The added benefit was no costs to heat or cool the place. Thompson then put his artistic flair to use in designing many of the surroundings. Care to take a load off? There’s a bench over there, fashioned from a tailgate. Or jump atop that chair, made from a tractor seat.

A BAR LIKE NO OTHER

Psycho Silo Saloon borders on indescribable … and irresistible

BY PHIL LUCI ANO PHOTOS BY RON JOHNSON

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“We kind of called it a little clubhouse,” Thompson said. “If it didn’t work out as a bar, we’d at least have a cool place to hang out.” But it did work out as a bar, from the moment Psycho Silo opened in 2015. The laid-back feel and attitude, along with the garage-wall look and nighttime country and rock shows, lured in curiosity-seekers. Soon, word crackled through watering holes and other spots throughout the area: “Have you heard about Psycho Silo?” “We called it a biker bar initially,” said Roggy, 53, who owned a body shop in Princeton when he joined Thompson in creating Psycho Silo. “I would say it morphed into kind of an adult Disneyland.” That’s not to say kids don’t dash about the wide property, especially in early afternoon. As for grown-up patrons, many sport white hair. “My mom comes out every weekend,” Roggy said. “She’s 80. She comes outwith her girlfriends, and they’ll have lunch.” The food operation is manned by Thompson’s parents, Rick and Sue. Orders move fast, as do the drinks – in part because it’s cashonly (though there’s an ATM on site). Most beers and drinks go for amere $3, another reason patrons come back. Another is to check out décor theymight’vemissed thefirst timeor two. “You can tell when newbies come, because they’re all looking up, and they’re wandering around,” Roggy said.

“They’ve got their cameras out. They don’t know what to make of it.” That description fit Laura Oggero, 50, on a recent Friday. She motored up from East Peoria to take her initial glimpse of the place. “I’d seen a lot of pictures on Facebook. It looked really cool, so I decided to check it out,” she said, sipping on a Miller Lite as her head turned to and fro amid the surroundings. “I’ll definitely be back.” Faces old andnew invariablymake fast friends and add to a rousing din, even when an early-afternoon head count is just a dozen or so. The camaraderie comes by design, as the bar has no TVs. You can either look around or chat. Most visitors do both. There’s often something new to see. From the original deck, Thompson and Roggy have extended the layout repeatedly. An auxiliary deck is shaded by a vintage single-engine plane bought from a salvage yard in Rockford. On another deck, beers are served from a bar fashioned from a school bus hauled in from Nebraska. There’s plenty more in storage, a semi-trailer load waiting for the next expansion and exhibition over the plentiful acreage. Meantime, Thompson and Roggy often function as docents, pointing out doodads and their histories. “You can never see it (all) in one trip,” Roggy said. “You could walk through three times and see different things.”

Sometimes, Roggy will turn salesman, if the need arises. “It’s kind of like a swap meet,” he said with a smile before pointing toward a gas can festooning a wall. “A guy needed a gas cap, off that one gas tank. I sold it to him for, like, 25 bucks. He put his bike back on the road that way.” Stories like that have been shared, further spreading the word of Psycho Silo. Many visitors – including a huge portion of the thousands of bikes that fill the place for concert nights – zoom in from out of state. Business has boomed to the point Thompson and Roggy have quit their day jobs to focus on Psycho Silo. ‘I DON’T KNOW HOW TO TELL YA…A JUNKYARD MEETS A BAR MEETS AN OLD CORN CRIB’ Dave Roggy Thompson credits the site itself as part of the draw. Psycho Silo is close to Interstate 80 and accessible by other routes. But once there, you feel as if in far-flung oasis. “It’s easy to get to,” Thompson said, “but we’re in the middle of nowhere.”

Phil Luciano is a senior writer/columnist for Peoria Magazine and content contributor to public television station WTVP

JULY 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE 23

Dick LaHood, center, is flanked by son Richard Jr. and grandson Michael. They own and operate LaGondola’s and Leonardo’s

D I S H A N D D R I N K

LAGONDOLA restaurant chain celebrates

40th anniversary A businessman’s businessman, owner Dick LaHood never took a break from starting new ventures

BY STEVE TARTER PHOTOS BY RON JOHNSON

24 JULY 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE

Y ou might say Dick LaHood is a true entrepreneur, one of those guys with a real nose for business. At 82, the Peoria native continues to preside over a restaurant company that now includes 12 LaGondola Spaghetti Houses — 11 throughout central Illinois and one in Quincy. LaGondola’s history ref lects the energy of its founder. LaHood owned and operated 30 different businesses — from laundromats to teen nightclubs, most located in the Peoria area — in the 25-year period before LaGondola arrived on the scene. LaHood opened six LaGondola outlets in 1982. In 1983, he started five more. In 1984, an additional four restaurants came online. “I opened 15 stores without borrowing a penny,” he said. LaHood’s formula is simple: Every store does its own baking and makes its own sauce. Is the sauce the same at all the locations? “Ninety-eight percent the same,” assures John LaHood, 36, Dick’s grandson and manager of the LaGondola restaurant in Peoria, an outlet that still bears the Leonardo’s sign, the eatery Dick LaHood opened at the War Memorial Drive location in 1976. That’s another part of the LaHood for mula: hiring family members whenever possible. A third LaHood generation now runs the LaGondola restaurant in Creve Coeur, an outlet opened 40 years ago by LaHood, his wife Patty, her sister Judy, and her husband Bobby Weaver. “All the LaGondolas were placed in existing buildings and all were entirely dependent upon the wonderful family managers who went on to make them so successful,” said LaHood. LaHood’s business history dates back to a time when pizza places and laundromats were scarce in Peoria. “I was 16 when my father died. I went into business with my brothers in 1956,” he said. The LaHoods opened individual laundromats in Peoria, Galesburg and Clinton, Iowa. Five years after the brothers opened their fourth laundromat, there were some 40 operating in the Peoria area, said

LaHood. “The business just exploded,” he said. Harry LaHood, one of Dick’s brothers, was an electrician who stayed in the laundromat business for 60 years until his death in 2018, said LaHood. Meanwhile, Dick LaHood opened teen nightclubs, the Kandy Kane and Static Attic. Later came the College Carousel and Tut’s Tomb, both located near Bradley University. Sometimes those operations caused problems for Bradley and the city, recalled LaHood, laughing at the memory. The recent closing of the Avanti’s restaurant on Main Street near Bradley brings to mind yet another LaHood enterprise, the pizzeria that opened directly across the street fromAvanti’s at the corner ofMainandUniversity in 1966. Never one to stand still, LaHood opened other restaurants in Peoria, including Caesar’s, Leonardo’s and the Vineyard, all in the 1970s. Seeing the growing interest in fast food in the 1980s, LaHood decided to make spaghetti competitive in that arena. “Fast food felt like the future. To compete with the burgers and fried chicken, my idea was home-cooked food and spaghetti — served quickly,” he said. LaHood’s goal when he opened LaGondola was to feed a family of four for $2.90. That allowed for a half-gallon of spaghetti and sauce with the hope that the customer might also purchase some garlic bread, he said. Two years after launching the LaGondola line, the spaghetti house was sued by Avanti’s restaurant over the use of “gondola” as the name for a sandwich that Avanti’s claimed it had trademarked. “I’ve always been friends with Albert,” said LaHood, referring to Avanti’s owner Albert Zeller. “When he sued me, we had coffee together and I told him, ‘I know this is only business,’” LaHood said. Ultimately, the outcome of the litigation was that LaGondola could not sell a “gondola” sandwich. Rather, they sell a torpedo, “which can sink a

gondola anytime,” joked LaHood. “For three years, the story of this lawsuit was on the television news and in the newspaper. The truth is, it was the best advertising we could ever have hoped for,” he said. Richard LaHood Jr., 53, who runs LaGondola’s day-to-day operations, said deal ing with the pandemic brought its challenges — as it did for so many businesses.

LAHOOD’S GOAL WHEN HE OPENED LAGONDOLA WAS TO FEED A FAMILY OF FOUR FOR $2.90

“COVID’s still tough but we’ve done our best not to change anything,” he said. “I’ve been working with my dad for 30 years now and we’re still an old school restaurant. Each outlet is a bakery as much as a restaurant. It takes a lot of labor.” Finding that labor has been a tough go, post-pandemic. Earlier this year, La Gondola closed its outlet inMt. Zion, just southofDecatur, becauseof a lackof staff. “Never in a million years would we have imagined closing a thriving location due to the inability to fully staff both stores (in the Decatur area), and to accommodate the level of demand with the quality and service we strive for,” the restaurant noted on a Facebook post, urging the public to continue supporting small businesses. Alas, setbacks – and surmounting them– are nothing new to Dick LaHood, who recalled interest rates of over 20 percent in the early ‘80s. “God gifted me with two families — my own and my LaGondola family,” he said.

Steve Tarter is a Peoria Magazine contributor who was born in England, raised in Boston, moved to Peoria to attend Bradley University and decided to stay. He has spent a career in journalism and public relations

JULY 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE 25

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JULY 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE 27

THE HONORABLE MR. BASILE

L ong hours in the dirt and sun from tending gardens and sowing hopes and seeds are starting to pay off through the hot days of July. Summer is here and Illinois in July holds nothing back regarding temperature and humidity. To combat these foes, we bring the garden to your glass with this vegetal and refreshing sipper for the shade in the afternoon. Finding the right bitters for your palate not only enhances those flavors within the drink but also adds a lingering follow after each sip as they evaporate off the back of the tongue and sit behind your nose. These flavors often cascade after each other and are my favorite part of a drink, taking my mind to different places andmemories as the drink evolves from the nose to the finish. Play around with the bitters if you have the opportunity. I’m using three for this cocktail: celery, cucumber and Rizzo (rosemary, grapefruit, and peppercorn by Crude bitters). First, the TOOLS . Youwill needa cocktail shaker, ameasuring jigger, a hawthorne strainer and a champagne coupe. Prepare a coupe in the freezer or with ice water to chill the glass. Next, the INGREDIENTS . To the shaker add: • 1 dash celery bitters • .5 oz. simple syrup • .75 oz. fresh lemon juice • .25 oz. Lillet Blanc • .33 oz. Benedictine • 1.5 oz. Basil Brandy Finally, the PROCESS : Fill the shaker with ice and shake hard for 10-15 seconds. It’s hot out there so shake hard to make this drink colder than ice! Crack open your shaker and strain into the empty coupe using the hawthorne strainer. Take a fresh mint leaf and give it a good smack – one that makes those nearby glance up expecting to see something scandalous. This smack brings the fragrant oils to the surface and lends to the drink’s nose. Lay the leaf atop the surface of your drink and enjoy the bouquet of herbaceous flowers and spices as you sip into the evening. Feel free to get creative with this one: peppercorn and rosemary added to your simple syrup when you bring it to boil and then strain out, nasturtium garnish, some tomato juice to make it bloody and add body. Mr. Basile has a lot of moods. Try to find them all. A note about the Basil Brandy : I use Saint George Aqua Perfecta Basil Eau de Vie, a quality liquormadewithCalifornia grape brandy infused with several varieties of basil including Thai and then distilled again. If you can’t find this brandy or would like to try your hand at your ownflavors, feel free topour some unaged grape brandy into an airtight jar with fresh basil and refrigerate for a day. Strain out the basil and enjoy. Cheers! • 2 dashes cucumber bitters • 5 drops Rizzo bitters

D I S H A N D D R I N K

COCKTAIL CLASS Welcome back to Mixology 101

About our mixologist: Dustin Crawford is co-owner – with partner Kip Rodier – of the 33 Room in Peoria Heights. Prior to that, the U.S. Marine Corps veteran traveled the world before returning home to work his magic behind the bar at various central Illinois establishments

28 JULY 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE

GROWING OUR COMMUNITY. BUILDING OUR WORKFORCE. Changing Lives.

JULY 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE 29 icc.edu

T W E N T Y S O M E T H I N G

GEN Z IS MORE ABOUT PURPOSE THAN PAY But they won’t stick around if there’s no return on their investments

BY CECE HILL PHOTOS BY RON JOHNSON

W hen I set out to write this story, I wanted to write a piece about transitioning out of formal education and into theworkforce, while addressing the absence of guide rails and the presence of a pandemic. But when I sat down with a few young professionals in central Illinois, they told me a different story. The pandemic, their youth, seemed to be inconsequential compared to the lessons they were proactively teaching themselves every day. Given the “Local Legends” theme of this month’s magazine, it was impossible not to consider these 20-somethings as young adults in the midst of building their own legacies. In learning about their past experiences and future plans, I found three things they all had in common: THEY FOSTER AND EMBRACE COMMUNITY. When discussing the beginnings of their careers, whether that be at Steak ‘n Shake or mowing lawns, they each mentionedmembers of their community who assisted in providing opportunities and supporting them throughout their professional development. They relied on community connections to give them a starting place and, from there, they embraced these relationships,

passing on the favor by supporting the growth of others. Community was not defined by their town or company, but by the people within their individual circles and the collaborative culture they created together. Jill Paska, a remote content writer based in central Illinois, specifically emphasized the way her community impacted, not just the first step in her career, but every step beyond that. She shared that she would not have had her initial job at Noodles & Company were it not for her community, proceeding to walk me through how that job led to more leadership, which led to more opportunities. Combined with her education at Mizzou, this created a clear career path. “One step leads to another, and now I’m using my degree in a way I really enjoy,” she explained. As 20-somethings, it ’s easy to imagine ourselves hobbling between stepping stones, trying to avoid the rushing water beneath us. But by using their communities as a guide, these 20-somethings have been able to stay balanced without standing still. In fact, when asked one word to describe what they loved about their community and current positions, they used words like team, collaboration and culture. Carlton Slaughter, who was born and

raised in Bloomington, left for college, and came back to pursue his career in recruiting and customer engagement, described community as a sense of stability. He further explained that with stability, we are able to be more focused and creative — that we fall prey to fewer distractions when we have people around to catch us when we fall. THEY FOCUS ON THEIR Paska described passion as something fluid. “It comes and goes,” she said. Slaughter shared that, at 18, he was more passionate about career elevation whereas now, he cares mostly about uplifting his teamand customers. “I can be impactful and supportive regardless of what my position is,” he said. In discussing what he loves about his workplace and how he intends to grow within it, Noah Kesselmayer, a Morton-based engineer, always went back to contributing to his environment. Working in research and development, he is passionate about the impact that his innovation has on the rest of his team. “It’s a lot of ‘how do we solve this problem out in the field with the construction crews?’” he said when describing what he loves about his job. All of the individuals I spoke with IMPACT, NOT THEIR INDIVIDUAL GOALS.

30 JULY 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE