PEORIA MAGAZINE July 2022

“If you love music and want to sit outside, have a beer and a sandwich and some ice cream and be entertained before the sun goes down – those are all things people like,” Gutierrez says. “As a musician, you get a good response, with people looking at you and listening. It makes you want to play more for them.” “I love playing at Touch of Grey,” said Alison Hanna, a powerhouse Peoria singer and songwriter who fronts the popular Alison Hanna Band. She also has worked behind the counter in the narrow, three-booth café since it opened. “Best place I ever worked,” Hanna says. “Every time I go in, I don’t feel like I’m working. Customers are laid back and chill, the environment is great, and Miles is the best boss you could ask for. It feels like family there.” Which is exactly what Miles strives to accomplish, no matter how trying times might get. And they’ve been plenty tough. Miles said people told him he was crazy to try to open a café during a pandemic. He did it anyway, but the day after Touch of Grey opened, the state of Illinois banned indoor dining. Miles adapted and made it through the winter filling carryout orders. When the weather warmed in 2021,

live music brought scores of people – in cars, on bicycles or simply walk-ins. An outdoor grill enabled expansion of the menu. Business stayed strong after weather forced the end of the live-music season, but screeched to a halt following a winter fire. Over the next six weeks, Miles was buoyed by the community’s encour agement to reopen. There was never a question that would happen, but Miles wanted tomake sure his staff remained intact. He continued employees’ weekly paychecks throughout the shutdown. “I try to treat everybody like family, and they treat me like family,” Miles said. “It’s cool to see it work.” Miles has one sister, Charissa, but comes from a large extended family. His father, Denny, is one of seven kids, his mother Barb one of four. Family holidays can bring together 30 or 40 relatives. He also has an 18-year-old daughter, Cassidy, named after the Grateful Dead tune, and a 13-year-old son, Dylan, named for you know who. Miles is driven by the power of music. “Humans have heartbeats, and music is the heartbeat of the world,” he says. “It’s something that brings people together, makes you smile and makes you cry all at the same time. It’s the

universal language everybody can understand.” Miles jokes that “I don’t have the voice of an angel.” But he did play trumpet in the Washington High School band. Not long after graduation, Miles took off to see the country. He followed the Grateful Dead on tour for a couple of years in themid-1990s and continued to work odd jobs. After trying out California for a year and a half, Miles returned to Peoria in 2000 and started Miles & Miles Productions, booking concerts as an independent for 15 years until he partnered for a time with Jay Goldberg Events. A heart attack and open-heart surgery shut him down in 2019. As he returned tohealth,Miles decided to open his own business. He and his girlfriend, Erica Balzell, moved to West Peoria and began to look for a spot for Touch of Grey. Miles ultimately would like more space so the live music could move indoorswhen theweather goes bad. “We want to stay in West Peoria,” he said. “It’s such a great community.”

Kirk Wessler is a former newspaper

sports editor who has turned his attention in semi-retirement to a new passion as a singer/ songwriter

JULY 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE 71