I was in town last night for the drum corps show (go Phantom Regiment! Turandot!) and great gravy there's even more vacant retail space than there was when I was there a year ago. I wasn't even in the really bad parts! I just took Riverside Blvd from the tollway to Main, and that's mostly just, like, Loves Park, I think! The whole way down there were empty husks of big-box. I noticed their grocery chain, Hilander, is no longer. "There can be only one...store!" Well, apparently there can't even be that many. I hope we didn't lose Logli, too. Between Logli, Magna, and Hilander, Rockford had the weirdest grocery store names.

Even the mighty engine of Rock River Valley commerce that is Beef-A-Roo seems to be feeling the heat. It looks like they've cut their menu back a bit, and their large malts don't seem large as they used to be. Now, instead of absurdly and dangerously big, they're just absurdly big.

Poor town. I wish it could be more than what it is. It has an odd charm about it.

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Belvidere is perking up with the Chrysler plant adding shifts. But Rockford is in pretty bad shape. I took the kids to Magic Waters a few weeks back, and that place was empty on a hot Saturday afternoon. It is a park district facility.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

Unless you work at Chrysler, or Sundstrand, there is no reason to go live in Rockford.

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Heard a little Beef-a-Roo talk during transition

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I stopped at a The Waffle House near Beer a Roo for breakfast after camping with the scouts at Rock Cut.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

camps, you ever see a Waffle House in Rockford or is the old man imagining things again?

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Ain't no Waffle Houses in Rockford. Maybe a nice Swedish pancake house.

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The Stockholm Inn makes the best Swedish pancakes in the world, I'm convinced of this.

It definitely goes on the list of "+" for Rockford.

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Better than Ann Sather?

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Stockholm Inn makes you buy the friggin' lingonberries on the side.

Good food but that's a real tightwad owner. Surprised they're not charging for water.

Not even close. Anne Sather is over-clap,clap-rated.


Only masochists choose to eat lingonberries.

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Well geez, you don't put that many on. Really what you try to go for is just a little bit of the juice and a few berries. But you can't have Swedish pancakes without lingonberries.

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Fealz is correct, the lingonberries are extra, I looked it up. But he's kinda wrong in his conclusion:


Tre Kronor: Two pancakes with lingonberries - $5.25
Ann Sather: Two pancakes with lingonberries - $7.95
Stockholm Inn: 2 pancakes with side of lingonberries - $5.35


Besides like I said, only weirdos choose to eat lingonberries. I'd rather get the 2 pancakes ala carte and only pay $3.85.

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The lingonberries cost 40% of what the pancakes themselves cost? What do they do, ship each serving over from Sweden?

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They cost so much because the chef has to hand pick them out of another person's vomit. That's how they get that oh-so-unique taste.

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No Waffle House in Rockford.

Our fine dining was Ryan's Buffet on E. State.

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Is there even a Waffle house north of the Ohio river?

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We all have private ails. The troublemakers are they who need public cures for their private ails.- Eric Hoffer

If there is then it's a fucking shame, that place needs to be wiped off the face of the earth.

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team Mully & Hanley
team Meatpants

In Evansville, Indiana, there is what appears to be a Waffle House, but the H O U S E in the trademark sign actually reads "S T E A K." It is a, or perhaps the, Waffle Steak.

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Evansville may be north of the Ohio, but it doesn't want to be.

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We all have private ails. The troublemakers are they who need public cures for their private ails.- Eric Hoffer

Many a Waffle House are in that state one has to go through in order to get to Kentucky.... (i'd mention the states name but it gives me the heebeejeebee's).

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Pancakes

Flapjacks

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We all have private ails. The troublemakers are they who need public cures for their private ails.- Eric Hoffer

CSSSCD....that's how I like 'em

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There is a Waffle House in "downtown" Bloomington, IN. Busy with drunkards at night then cops & townies in the morning.

I wonder if I can ever find Finn and Jake at a Waffle House?

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Only Waffle Houses in Illinois are in Glen Carbon and Collinsville. Ate at the Collinsville one recently.

I paid $11 the other day at Stockholm for pancakes, berries, sausage and coffee. Seemed too much for the little I had. There was a place a little northeast offering World Famous Swedish Pancakes. Will try it next time when by Rockford.

I bought all my xerox machines from Glen Carbon.

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Curious, Mrs. Scorehead & I were in Rockford for the show too. I marched in Madison back in the day. You?

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CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan