Restaurant of the Week: Parkview Inn | Local Business
5 min readEditor’s note: This is a weekly Pantagraph series featuring local restaurants and bars. Know someone we should talk to? Email Olivia Jacobs at [email protected].
BLOOMINGTON — This week’s pick for Restaurant of the Week is Parkview Inn, 1003 S. Morris Ave., Bloomington.
Parkview Inn is a local family restaurant and bar currently owned by Rick McCormick, who purchased it from his parents, Dick and Linda McCormick, in March 2010. Dick and Linda owned it for 17 years, but Parkview Inn has been a restaurant and bar since 1928.
The Parkview Inn restaurant, which was rebuilt after being destroyed by fire in October 2016, reopened in May 2019 at 1003 S. Morris Ave., across from Bloomington’s Miller Park.
“Parkview has always been a meeting place for people. You can come in for breakfast, lunch or dinner and get a good meal and visit with family and friends,” Rick McCormick said. “We have a huge two-story window looking out towards Miller Park so you can enjoy all four seasons from inside the restaurant or sitting outside on the patio during the warmer months, and if you’re over 21 you can have a drink at the bar or play the video gaming machines.”
The original Parkview Inn burned down in October 2016 and it took McCormick over two years to rebuild it. The restaurant and bar areas used to be two separate spaces in the old building, but now they are both in one open room.
Parkview is not only the oldest restaurant in Bloomington located on the same site, but is also one of the oldest diners on the original Route 66 highway in Illinois.
Restaurant of the Week: Fort Jesse Cafe
“It’s a family-friendly place for people to enjoy,” McCormick said. “When people come in, they are more than just customers. I enjoy talking to customers and getting to know them. I’ve known some for more years than I can count.”
Parkview Inn has a full-service bar including draft beers, mixed drinks and wine. They feature local beers on tap and add drink specials during the holidays.
“Our broasted chicken is the best in town. Our hand-pounded breaded pork tenderloins are a huge seller,” McCormick said. “We are also very well-known for our homemade pies that we make fresh daily and sell tons during the holidays. We feature daily food specials and everyone loves the breakfast.”
The eight annual Medici Craft Beer and Jazz Street Fair will be held Saturday from 4 to 10 p.m. on North Street in uptown Normal.
My family loves the Working Man’s and country-fried steak platters, and the breakfast horseshoe. For breakfast I like to order the short stack with a side of hash browns and sausage links with a glass of orange juice. I also love the cheeseburger and cheddar cheese balls from the lunch and dinner menus.
Parkview Inn kitchen hours are 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday through Saturday; and 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sunday. The bar is open 6 a.m. to 1 a.m. Monday through Thursday; 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. Friday through Saturday; and 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sunday.
Neon signs of past and present in Central Illinois
The Tropics in Lincoln, once a mainstay of Route 66 travelers, drew travelers with its theme.
A reproduction neon sign is shown in the Route 66 Hall of Fame and Museum, Pontiac.
A neon sign will be repaired as part of the plans to restore the Princess Theatre.
Kaylee Ballinger, 10, left, and Kelsey Schmidt, 12, ride their bicycles past the neon Palms Grill cafe sign April 24, 2007, in Atlanta.
An International Harvester neon clock in OEM Tractor Parts, Chenoa.
Super Sign Service employees Joe Remington, left, and Dale Gray, work on placing the neon tubes inside the steel letters BHS, outside the north entrance to Bloomington High School.
The neon signs for Mona’s and Capponi’s Italian Restaurants in Toluca.
Two custom neon signs adorn the front entrance of Arcadia: America’s Playable Arcade Museum in downtown McLean on Dec. 21, 2012.
Chad Kletz of Super Sign Service replaces the neon letter L in the The Castle Theatre sign at 209 E. Washington St., Bloomington, while working with fellow sign man Joe Remington on Dec. 31, 2014. The neon sign had burned out recently and was repaired in the company’s Bloomington shop.
Workers from Prairie Signs Incorporated use a construction crane to hold a new sign in place at Home Sweet Home Ministries, Bloomington, on Jan. 24, 2013. The old neon sign sits on a trailer.
Daddios, 527 N. Main St., Bloomington
Lost items sit beneath the neon lights of the Gibson City’s Harvest Moon Drive-In concession stand June 19, 2008.
Gibson City’s Harvest Moon Drive-In owner Mike Harroun has change and a plastic bag for a customer as a God Bless America neon sign hangs on the little pay station building to the drive-in June 19, 2008.
Normal Theatre, 209 W. North St., Normal
Retro-series clocks with neon lighting are sold at Personality, 504 Guido Circle, Bloomington, on Oct. 28, 2003.
Cadillac Jack’s Cantina and Grill; 1507 S. Main St., Bloomington
A neon sign beckons customers to visit Outpost Books, 618 N. Main St., Bloomington.
A worker applies a new coat of paint to the bright red neon sign that blazes atop the tower of the State Farm Insurance building on Oct. 10, 2013, in downtown Bloomington.
The now-closed CVS store, 201 N. Center St., in downtown Bloomington.
