We just finished up the year of eating sandwiches last week and so it’s time for a brand new food tour here at MBIP! But before that begins, we’re going to have a palate cleanser at The Coffee Hub and then reveal what the next food tour is going to be...
There’s a knock at the door and I think I know who it is...hey, this isn't who I expected at all, it’s Ben and Jerry, the ice cream guys. Well, it’s kind of fitting you’ve shown up (keep reading and you'll find out why), but you’re kind of making a mess out there in the hallway. You want to clean that crap up and we’ll try this again.
Okay, this is more like it! It’s MBIP pal, Contributing Writer and MBIP Wheelman, Scott Turley! Scott’s going to be driving us on our quick road trip to Lacon, so let’s hit the road!
And the road is hit and here go off into that somewhat wild blue yonder. It’s a quick trip to Lacon as we noted on this MBIP post, but the one bad thing for me is that you have to go over this bridge and I’m somewhat bridgephobic. After a quick white-knuckle cruise over the bridge, here we are in the friendly town of Lacon, Illinois! This is a town of just 1900, but there’s lots to do here including bowling, shopping, taverns, visiting the museum, pizza, antiques and of course...
The Coffee Hub! I love the building that this is in and they share it with The Pizza Peel! As the sign says, this is much more than a coffee shop and you’ll soon see the evidence of that inside. Sadly, neither Scott or I are named Brent, so no free ice cream for us! Oh well, let’s go in and see what’s happening inside.
Scott led the way in and there’s two familiar faces at the table over there, it’s Mike and Julie, the owners of The Coffee Hub and two of the nicest people in the world! They really get to know all of the customers and greet most people by name as they come in to the Coffee Hub. Julie used to own, Julie’s Corner Store here in Lacon, but she’s moved on to other ventures in life including, Focused Healthy Living,” and you can read all about that on her facecrack page and her website. The building that housed Julie’s Corner store is currently for sale. It’s a real cool and historic building here in Lacon, check out photos of it right here from this post. If you have any interest, feel free to call Julie at: 309-232-8167 or you can email her at Julie's email. Okay, before the palate cleansing begins, let’s take a little look around in here, it’s been a while since I’ve been here!
I love the wooden front counter and Mike built that himself! Just like the sign said, this is much more than a coffee shop, but of course there’s lots of styles of coffee to be had in here and there’s the daily specials. The Coffee Hub is open seven days a week. In addition to the coffee, you can get breakfast in here and there’s all kinds of sandwiches and homemade soup for lunch or dinner. And look, there’s pie and that’s made from scratch too! They also have a giganzo selection of vintage soda and there’s a freezer full of Uncle Bob’s ice cream. Hmmm, Ice cream seems to be a recurring theme here today.
Julie’s Corner Store may be closed, but the homemade fudge lives on here at The Coffee Hub. The Fudge Elves have moved in here and it’s made fresh daily! Oh, fudge!
One cool thing they have here is an Artist of the Month, where they spotlight a different local artist or photographer. This month’s featured photographer is Kevin Mileur who I’ve played dueling photographer with at The Sunbeam Building! His photos are really fantastic and they’re all for sale at friendly prices. You can see more of his work at his facecrack page.
Here’s a shot from the back of the store and these girls were nice enough to pose for the MBIP Camera! There’s a comfortable lounge area with a nice painting and a fireplace on the wall back here. Update: That's not a painting after all, it's a photo by Pizza Peel owner, Travis Guthman! Check out more of his work right here!
Sebert was enjoying some coffee in here and he said he stops in almost every day. He's retired from Caterpillar and a really nice guy! Jerry’s another regular and Mike said he’s one of the best painters in the area. There’s the front counter again and I think it’s time to begin the cleansing of the palate portion of the blog.
Rebecca is going to be making the palate cleanser and the palate cleanser is going to be...
Homemade ice cream sandwiches! I think this is a first on the blog, I've never had an ice cream sandwich on here and this one is a homemade one! I figured since we’re wrapping up a year of sandwiches, this would be a perfect palate cleanser for the next food tour! These sandwiches are made with Uncle Bob’s homemade ice cream and the ice cream is sandwiched between two chilled chocolate chip cookies. They look so good and what a sweet summer treat!
I got chocolate and Scott vanilla. It looks delicious and downright decadent! Julie took the MBIP Camera as Scott and I wolfed these sweet sandwiches down! So we now present...
The Julie Cam!
Make sure you have plenty of napkins when you eat these because they can be a little messy! But the mess is worth it because these are the best ice cream sandwiches I’ve ever had in my life. Scott agreed and we didn’t even get a brain freeze while eating them! Sweet! Thanks for taking the photos, Julie! Next you’ll find out why ice cream sandwiches were the perfect palate cleanser for this edition!
Here’s the final shot and time to reveal the next MBIP Food Tour! Starting next week we’ll be doing ten weeks of ice cream! That will finish the summer out and take us into October. I’ve got some fun ideas for this tour and if you have any suggestions for an ice cream stop, leave them here or on facecrack! Thanks to Scott for driving and hanging out and to Julie, Mike and Rebecca for the fanatastic ice cream sandwiches and a fun afternoon at The Coffee Hub in Lacon! We’ll see you all tomorrow!
---------------
318 5th Street
Lacon, Illinois
309-554-9057
---------------
Related Posts: Palate Cleanser @ Emack & Bolio’s, Chili’s and One Eleven Coffee.