The Perfect Place

One of my intentions on this blog is to highlight local places that I/we love/frequent in the area – which pretty much comes down to restaurants and shopping! We love living in McHenry County and want people to know that it is a fabulous place to live with wonderful offerings.

My favorite shop in the area and beyond is The Perfect Pear in downtown Crystal Lake. Everyone that knows me knows I’m obsessed with decorating and this shop hands down satisfies my fix.

The shop opened in fall 2008 and is owned by Sara Burke. Sara and her mother Wanda Bennet, both with decorating backgrounds, provide the design genius that you see in the wonderfully appointed shop - I’ve actually shopped there so often that I’ve become friends with Sara and Wanda – just wonderfully friendly and really have the touch in terms of interior design know-how and have been very helpful when I shoot all my decorating questions at them.

The shop offers an eclectic mix of shabby/chic/French style with offerings of candles, painted furniture and other decorative accents and what I think are very reasonable prices. I sometimes struggle to know what goes well with what and honestly, all you need to do is set foot in this store and it’s all figured out for you! It’s a great place to find the perfect gift, but I find myself there on a regular basis with the purpose of finding things for decorating our house. I’ve even got my Mom hooked!

The Perfect Pear is located in this cute little building (see above) on Grant Street (one street over from Williams Street, in Crystal Lake’s downtown).

It’s such a great shop that I wanted to “plug” it on my blog. If you are in the area, you should really plan on making a stop – you won’t be disappointed!

I believe the shop will have a website shortly, so stay tuned and I’ll post the information.

The Perfect Pear:

Location: 87 Grant Street, Crystal Lake, IL 60014

Hours: 10:00am – 5:00pm Friday and Saturday, or by appointment.

Phone: 847-209-7879.

Email: burke-s@sbcglobal.net

Café 20 – Marengo, IL

I seem to have this fixation with Marengo, IL. Larry and I always drive through it on our way to either Galena, IL or Madison, WI. We’re back roads kind of people in terms driving – we love to enjoy the slowness of meandering to our destination and enjoying the landscape vs. seeing nothing on the highway. An added bonus is being able to stop in a small town for a bite to eat or to check out a store.

Marengo is a tiny town - and I always seem to be drawn to it. Unfortunately it has seen better days and it is definitely sleepy, but I just look at some of the older buildings and think what it must have looked like years ago as a bustling farm community that I’m sure was one of the places to go to for area residents. I just think it’s got potential to thrive again. On top of that people do seem to care and are trying to make improvements: it’s part of the Illinois Main Street Trust program, there’s a seasonal farmer’s market and several restaurants that I think are worth the a stop – most notably Café 20 (on Route 20) and the Flatlander Market (more on that in a later post). In addition, both the city and the economic development commission are working hard to get the name out there on their town.

Larry and I have been to Café 20 (http://www.cafe20marengo.com/) quite a few times. First, years ago when it was under different ownership and most recently in January – I believe the current owner took over not to long ago.

The outside of Café 20 looks like the building may have been a former fast food/diner joint before its current incarnation, but when you go inside it’s positively charming: a new bar in the corner, counter space a la diner, the wood-fired open hearth oven, tables and booths. The décor, I’d say is “cozy Italian.”




Larry and I love to get a booth because booths are always better for conversation – you can actually hear the person you’re with and vs. being at an open table trying to yell over the next table.

Under the former owner, the restaurant was just OK, but under the new owner I think it’s just great – it just seems that an effort is being made to offer interesting and eclectic options vs. bland-run-of-the-mill-so-everyone-will-eat-it-so-we-don’t-have-to-try options. Café 20 seems to get it.

We’ve had their pizza, veal marsala, spaghetti, fish fry etc. – all very good. As an added bonus, both Larry and I were thrilled that they offered Pinot Noir and Hacker-Pschorr Dunkle Weisse – oddly enough we seem to have a hard time find restaurants who have offer these, especially the beer.

So on our most recent visit, you can imagine we were downright giddy when they said “yes, we do offer them” – we were just beaming. Ok, I suppose it was pretty sad that we were so excited, but heck, we take out joy from wherever we can find it! : )

So if you are in the area, I recommend that you stop in and give Café 20 a shot – I don’t think you will be disappointed.

Ladies Night Out on the Square – December 3rd

For the past 4 years Mom and I have taken part in the Ladies Night Out on the Woodstock Square in Woodstock, IL. Woodstock, for the non-locals reading this, is where they filmed the movie Groundhog Day - completely cute town with so much charm. Ladies Night Out basically it’s a night out just for women to shop, eat and enjoy themselves and presumably do a LOT of shopping. The merchants typically have specials, and appetizers and wine tastings etc. We’d been going every year except for last year when I believe the area was just pummeled with snow and cold – so Ladies Night Out went out the window!

The event always seems to draw a nice crowd, but I swear this year was a banner year – there were a ton of people on the square. It was really nice to see everyone just having a nice time.

As an added bonus several of the stores in Crystal Lake had open houses that night, including my favorite, The Perfect Pear (more on that in the next post), so Mom and I bolted to downtown Crystal Lake first, then headed to Woodstock for some shopping and dinner and then back to Crystal Lake to do a little more shopping before everything closed.

So we headed to Woodstock, parked and shopped in high gear because we were starved.

We went to dinner at Le Petite Creperie (www.lapetitecreperie.net). We've actually gone there a couple of times for this night - it's this great french bistro right on the square - I think the owners even have a vineyard in the area - fabulous food. Mom had swordfish and I had Coq a vin - so good!

One of my favorite spots on the square is Cobblestones on the Square (www.cobblestonesonthesquare.com)- a bevy of womderful finds: ice cream, candy, gourmet food, housewares, wine, candles, clothes etc. Love it!

After dinner we stolled around a little more, but then headed back to Crystal Lake to do a little more shopping - a whirlwind night and we were probably a littl eworse for the wear but so much fun!