REMEMBERING THE GOOD PLACES TO EAT IN HOFFMAN ESTATES

Our guest contributor this week is Pat Barch, the Hoffman Estates Historian.  This column originally appeared in the June 2014 issue of the Hoffman Estates Citizen, the village’s newsletter.  The column appears here, courtesy of the Village of Hoffman Estates.

With the closing of Burger King on Higgins and Roselle Rd, I’m reminded of so many of the restaurants we’ve had in our downtown area in the vicinity of Higgins, Roselle and Golf.  Please help with some you may remember by e-mailing me the places you ate at. 

You’ll have to forgive me if I also include some places in Schaumburg, in the Higgins, Roselle & Golf  part of town we seem to be half in  Schaumburg and half in Hoffman Estates.  Some time you’re not sure what town you’re in.

As I look at my list I realize how many are gone.  Do you remember Derby Street on the southeast corner of Golf and Roselle Rd.  How about Cals Roast Beef on Higgins Rd. just west of Spring Mill Rd. They used to have a huge steer out in front.  It later became Arby’s.  Who remembers The Ground Round? That location has seen many different restaurants. At one time we had Naugles.  It had really good Mexican food.  That same location had a really nice restaurant called Spring Garden.  It had every kind of food you could think of from breakfasts to dinners and ice cream sundaes and sodas.  Do you know what’s there now?  It’s the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant on the west side of Roselle just north of the Walgreens at Roselle and Higgins.  I think the first one was Ground Round followed by the others.

Another location was originally a small grocery store but became the Amber-Rose Inn, later to become Caesar’s Pizza, one of the best loved pizzas in Schaumburg and Hoffman Estates.  It was torn down and the most recent building is a doctors building (on the north side of Higgins Rd. just east of the intersection of Higgins and Golf).  You’ll find Dunkin Dounuts and a drive up coffee shop in this area.  That’s Schaumburg territory.

Other fun places to eat that are now gone were up and down Golf Rd.  I’m sure you haven’t forgotten Barnaby’s nor Dover Straits.  They’re some of the most recent to go.  These have been long gone.  Do you remember any of them?  Lums with hot dogs steamed in beer, Steak and Shake that became Entenmanns Bakery (that’s gone too), the Black Pearl, Arthur Treacher’s Fish & Chips or Baker’s Square.

If you’ve lived here a long time and grew up with these restaurants, you’ll probably remember Hippo’s.  It was located in Schaumburg at Plum Grove Rd and Higgins.  It was here for many years but we have a McDonalds on that spot now.  Before Hippo’s built their restaurant, they started out as a hot dog wagon or truck at the Shell station that was located at the intersection of Higgins and Route 53 when there was a 4 way stop, no traffic lights, no Woodfield either.

One thing for sure, we never had a hard time finding a place to eat.

I hope you’re planning on coming to our Museum program on Sept. 27^th from 1 till 2:30 pm in the village hall.  We’re calling it “Growing Up in Hoffman Estates or What I didn’t tell my Mom”.  We want to hear all the naughty things you did as a kid in Hoffman Estates during the 50s, 60s, 70s and more recently. Bring a friend who was your cohort.   We’ll have birthday cake for our 55^th anniversary and share lots of good stories, ones that will curl you mother’s hair.   E-mail me at eagle2064@comcast.net if you can come.

Pat Barch
Hoffman Estates Village Historian
eagle2064@comcast.net