Central Illinois is filled with restaurant and bar options offering great food, local flavor and group space within staggering distance of campus.
Donnie’s Homespun Pizza opened as a small takeout shop in Decatur in 2009. After a move and 2011 expansion, Donnie’s Homespun added a dining room, bar and stage featuring hot new local and national live music adjacent to Millikin University campus. In 2012, Donnie’s added a much larger location in Central Springfield. Known for its creative specialty pizzas and always-hopping entertainment scene, Donnie’s Decatur can welcome groups as large as 70 inside or 130 with the patio. Donnie’s Springfield can host as many as 1,000.
Great coffee, classic cocktails and a quality menu, all located adjacent to Bradley University campus in Peoria. One World Cafe is renowned for all three. The cafe offers a catering service for off-site events, or planners can host banquets at its special events venue, The Packard. Located in a historic building within a mile of the University of Illinois College of Medicine campus, The Packard offers The Alexandria Room, capable of hosting 150, and a recently renovated ballroom that can welcome 320.
Fat Jack’s, a half-mile south of Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, is always a party. Sporting a New Orleans flavor, Fat Jack’s hosts live jazz and lists hurricanes, gumbo and muffaletta sandwiches among its menu items. Combined, the establishment’s two private event rooms can host groups as large as 300.
