Taco John’s – Bradley, IL

20 12 2008
  • 484 S. Kennedy Drive
  • Bradley, IL 60915
  • (815) 939-3064
  • Website
  • Menu
Taco Johns on Kennedy Drive in Bradley, IL

Taco John's on Kennedy Drive in Bradley, IL

There aren’t many chain restaurants that I miss, but Taco John’s is one of them.  Everyone always thought I was crazy for preferring Taco John’s over Taco Bell, but I loved Taco John’s. 

When I was growing up, they used to give free tacos for A’s on your report card.  You’d bring in the report card, they’d give you a taco then mark the report card so you couldn’t try to use it again.  As stupid as it sounds, it was always an incentive to get A’s.  We knew if we did, we get a trip for tacos.

Once we got too old for that, we would always hit up the store on Tuesday for “Taco Tuesday”  All tacos were half price and my mom could feed two growing boys for half price.  Not a bad deal.

Taco John’s kind of fell out of my life until I moved to Peoria.  I worked in one of Peoria’s suburbs and right down the street was a Taco John.  I know this is going to surprise most people, but folks working in small town television news make about the same as fast food employees who don’t have thousands of dollars in student loans to pay off, so anytime I could pick up a cheap meal, I did.  Every Tuesday, you could find me at the Taco John’s where I could get six hardshell tacos for under $4. Read the rest of this entry »





El Oasis – Tony’s Party Store

12 08 2008
  • 6100 S. Cedar St.
  • Lansing, MI 48911
  • (517) 882-2311
  • No Known Website
  • No Menu Online
Three chicken tacos from El Oasis inside Tonys Party Store in Lansing.

Three chicken tacos from El Oasis inside Tony's Party Store in Lansing.

We don’t usually do Mexican.  I can handle tacos and I make them at home all the time, but other than that, I’m not really into a lot of the traditional Mexican food.  My girlfriend’s not a huge fan either, but she does like more than I do.  We’ve both read at Runs With Spatula, about the little taco stand inside Tony’s Party Store on Cedar.  We made our weekly shopping trip to Wal-Mart (review HERE) and Horrock’s (review HERE) and wanted to stop somewhere for lunch.  We had milk this time, so stopping for a sit down meal wasn’t an option.  El Oasis is close to home and not that far off the Interstate, so that’s what we decided on.

El Oasis used to have a trailer in the parking lot of Tony’s, but this year, they moved inside.  Their space is really small right when you walk in the door.  The menu is plastered on the plexi glass separating you from the cashier and below it as well.  I knew I just wanted a taco, but that proved to be not an easy choice.  El Oasis has a wide variety of meat ranging from the usual ground beef and chicken to tongue and tripe.  The menu said all tacos were made with cilantro and onions.  It didn’t say anything about tomatoes and cheese, but that was there also.  The tortilla is a corn tortilla.  I ordered three tacos which were a $1.50 each.  I’m gonna hold off for a second on what I thought….you’ll see why in a second. Read the rest of this entry »





Chuck’s Cajun Fest – Burbank, IL

9 08 2008
The pulled pork and mac n cheese from Chucks Southern Comforts Cafe as served at Chucks Cajun Fest

The pulled pork and mac 'n cheese from Chuck's Southern Comforts Cafe as served at Chuck's Cajun Fest

A few weeks ago, I was in the Chicago area for a soccer game at Toyota Park.  While I was looking for places to eat, I came across Chuck’s Southern Comfort Cafe (review HERE).  I sent the website to my girlfriend since her parents live right down the road and when she saw the website, she thought I was sending it to her because of the ad for Chuck’s Cajun Fest which was on the front page.  We just happened to be heading to Chicago that weekend for a wedding and a stop in Chicago usually means a stop at her parents house as well.

We slept in Saturday morning since the fest didn’t start until noon.  It was nothing too fancy.  The event took place in the parking lot of St. Albert’s Church in Burbank, IL.  There weren’t a whole lot of people there when we got there but they just opened up for the day.  Read the rest of this entry »