Sunday, June 03, 2007

Coop's, Princeville

Today was a day for exploring the backroads of Peoria County (and just a slight, slight bit of Fulton County). The first Saturday of every June is the Strawberry Festival out in Elmwood, which runs just north of Farmington. It's a pretty nice small-town shindig that draws seemingly every citizen to either visit or volunteer their efforts, especially given the fact that the town buried one of their own on Friday, a young Marine named Ben Desilets, who was struck down in Iraq.

After taking our cruise around the town square and eating strawberry shortcake (two helpings for me, of course), my wife, child, and mom headed up the road to Princeville, hope of Coop's, a little restaurant there on what seemed to be the main drag. It was right across the street from Casey's, so it's pretty much the center of town for this blogger.

Coop's is a cafe-like setting which is fairly rustic in appearance, both inside and out. The walls of the dining room drip with nostalgia, right down to the empty can of Standard Cream Separator Oil on a shelf high above us. Attached to the dining room and also accessible from the outside is The Whip, which is a little ice cream stand.

Today's specials were homemade tenderloins or pork burgers. My wife opted for the tenderloin, which she proclaimed was good. I got a taste, and it definitely tasted homemade. Had a good texture, and wasn't over-seasoned. Mom had a "Hawaiian Salad", which was an enormous helping of lettuce and toppings, served with a side of the house dressing, which was a hybrid of a sweet onion dressing and something else. The salad itself had grilled chicken, pineapple, and shaved coconut, along with a few other things I think. She really did like it, and for what it's worth, the lettuce, although it was only iceberg (sorry, lettuce snobs-no field greens), it was the kind that was cut up thin-shredded, maybe? Yeah, that sounds right. Before I reveal my meal, I want to take a second to talk about their salads. It seemed like every other table had salads, and they are just hoarkin' huge, and had lots of colorful toppings. At the quick glance I gave the salad portion of the menu, there had to have been like 10 or 12 different salads to choose from. Egads!!

And, finally, my meal was a big ole double cheeseburger. There was more that I could have chosen from, but it's what I want, and what I want is what I want. It was a tasty burger, lots of cheese, with my typical mayo, mustard, pickles and onions. It was everything I could ask for in a cheeseburger. The fries that came with the sandwiches were the crinkle cut variety, and we rather enjoyed them. Got a lot of 'em, too!!

Seeing as how I'm not a frequent traveler to Princeville, I couldn't tell you of the many other reasons to make a visit to the fine farming community. If you find your way out that direction, I would suggest a stop by Coop's for a sandwich, or one of those awesome salads!! They might even be worth a drive out there just for one of them!

Coop's-You made the HIT list!!! Thumbs up, and good luck under your new ownership (or was it just management?)!!

2 comments:

Jennifer said...

I live in Princeville and Coop's is good. I like the oriental salad. My daughter likes their "loaded baked potato" special. All their specials are really good.
As far as what else is around here.... hmmmm... the Rock Island trail, a couple of parks. Not really tourist draws, but it's a great place to live. (Good schools, affordable housing, really nice library, grocery store, Casey's and a couple of small restaurants.)

ritt02 said...

I'll be biking on the Rock Island Trail and thought Coop's would be a good place to grab some food. Since this blog post is 5 years old, can you tell me if Coop's is still in business? Also, what is the address? Thank you!