LOCAL FESTIVITIES

  The Ice Cream Shack Quick History:  Every town has its own rundown local ice cream shop in the middle of the shady part of town, and here is my review of ours. It always opens towards the end of march and closes the end of September and they have innovative flavors, decent portions, and fair prices. My experience: It's an ice cream place and it's hard to mess up. But if you're one of the people who order Reeses, cookie dough, or oreo at every ice cream place, it's time to grow up and order some of these unique flavors that make this place worth it in my opinion. My all time favorite is the chocolate covered cherry, which tastes exactly as it sounds and has a real rich and not fakey cherry flavor that is really rare in sweets like ice cream. A very close second is their soft serve lemon ice cream, a selective taste but those who get it will get it. It's very soft and creamy, and extremely refreshing. I personally don't like ice cream flavors that make you feel ...

Good Tequila's Mexican Grill Quick History: Good Tequila's has been a staple in the local Peoria area since it opened in 1998 and has been going strong for as long as I can remember. It serves authentic Mexican food and fresh ingredients with a decent amount of indoor and outdoor seating.  My experience: I don't have a single negative thing to say about this restaurant. The food is great, I personally always get the fajita quesadilla (basically a quesadilla with a bunch a veggies added in) so I guess I can't necessarily vouch for the rest of it. The chips and salsa are hard to dislike, and something that is unbeatable at not just this restaurant, but from my experience, Mexican restaurants in general, is that the service is always super fast. Our food is always out within 15 minutes. Usually, the food tastes fresh as well so I don't think this has anything to do with it being frozen either. The prices are in the mid range but the portions are usually pretty large so...

  Bake and Brew Panadería Quick History: Bake and Brew Panadería is a Mexican themed and women-owned coffee shop and café located in northern Peoria in the Grand Prairie Mall. It is one of the only remaining food themed stores left in the mall (might be the only at this point). It's only been open for a couple of years. My experience: I am always worried when I hear of local businesses opening in either of our malls in Northern Peoria because they never seem to last long. I've been to this place several times, and my experience has been generally positive. Like pretty much every coffee spot nowadays, the coffee is a bit out of my price range to be able to enjoyed in my normal routine like I believe coffee should be, but I believe the best parts of this place are actually in what it offers otherwise. They have a ton of baked goods, and they offer these deals where they sell discounted sweets if they made it a day or two ago, some even being $1 which is a steal to me. Many Mexica...

                                                                                             Quick history:  Apparently, The Original Pancake House started in Portland, Oregon in 1953. I thoroughly read their About Us page on their website, and did some other digging in other places around Google, and am unsure how that led them to open another restaurant in the Peoria area around Grand Prairie in 2019. This does not seem to be a chain from what I've seen. Thus, this is a mystery that will have to go unsolved. Anyway, this is a local breakfast restaurant that opens 7am-2pm daily and is known for their sweet pancakes and rich coffee. My personal experience:  Personally, I've always considered breakfast ...

Quick history:  This is a Mediterranean style restaurant just down the block from Bradley off of Western Avenue is known for their shawarma wraps (mainly consisting of beef, chicken, or falafel). It's only been open for a couple of months to my knowledge, only since 2025. My personal experience:  I decided to go here with my parents since my mom is a huge fan of Southeast Asian and Middle Eastern food, and there are certain parts of this type of cuisine that I am constantly seeing on my timeline on Twitter and For You page on TikTok that looks incredible such as shawarma that I really wanted to try. And like I've said, we are always wanting to support local businesses. I really like the inside interior, there aren't a lot of places to sit but it's a nice casual sit down place and I like the simplicity. The menu basically has 5 things, besides the shawarmas its basically just kebabs, which I also wouldn't mind trying. I wouldn't say that the prices were cheap bec...