Photo: Julia Kramer
Photo: Julia Kramer
Photo: Julia Kramer
Photo: Julia Kramer
Photo: Julia Kramer
There’s a fine line between a persistent TOC reader and an irked one. My primary occupation is professional eater (ahem, “Eat Out writer”), and a month ago, I had one very pissed-off Brookfield lady on my hands. The subject of her inquiry: Boulevard (3733 Grand Blvd, 708-387-7300), a recently opened neighborhood restaurant serving classic American fare. The nature of her complaint: its absence from the Eat Out section of Time Out. Never one to alienate our readers, I set out for the Chicagoland locale most associated with living creatures to eat some dead ones. But it wasn’t the perfectly serviceable chicken wrap at Boulevard that captured my attention: It was the charming streets of Brookfield, where vintage signs marked the path to antique finds and a helping of good old-fashioned history.
I felt compelled to begin my day at the famous Brookfield Zoo (3300 Golf Rd, 708-688-8000, czs.org, $12 for adults). Once I got over the awkwardness of being a single adult navigating a stroller parade, it dawned on me that the zoo is awesome. It’s easy to appreciate the human-like affectations of the orangutans (in the Tropic World pavilion), the strange boxy beaks of the trumpeter hornbills (in the Feathers and Scales center) and the majestic movements of fish like the cownose ray (in the Living Coast exhibit) as a full-fledged grown-up.
A short drive (or ambitious walk) to downtown Brookfield landed me at Kewpies (3434 Maple Ave, 708-387-9699), “the best lil’ hot dog and Italian lemonade stand in Brookfield.” It’s also—to my knowledge—the only hot dog and Italian lemonade stand in Brookfield, but who cares? This is a no-frills place where “everything” means mustard, onion, relish, a pickle, tomato and sport peppers, and where refreshing Italian ice gets topped with a maraschino cherry and lemon slice.
I ate my hot dog while looking at a few beautifully restored, late-19th-century Victorian houses and 1920s bungalows along Grand Boulevard. The houses sprang up thanks to the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad—now the Metra. Right across the street from the present-day Brookfield Metra stop sits the original Grossdale Railroad Station, built in 1889, which now houses the Brookfield Historical Society (8820½ Brookfield Ave, 708-485-3420). (Quick aside for history dorks only: The suburb was originally called Grossdale, after real-estate developer S.E. Gross, who built the town in the same year. In 1905, sick of living in a Midwestern Pottersville, residents voted to change the name to Brookfield. Salt Creek runs through the region—creek, brook, get it?)
The Historical Society is open a total of six hours a month (1–4pm the second and fourth Sundays, May–September), but treasures from the town’s past are on view daily at Wonderland Multivintage (3731 Grand Blvd, 708-387-0890). The huge collection of antique kids’ toys might paint the store as a family-only destination, but with a mass of vintage jewelry, beer signs and old tobacco tins, Wonderland, like Brookfield, is a playground for “adults,” too.
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