Korner House Elk Grove 9/23

As the 2009 Chicago riding season winds down, we’re faced with shorter days and earlier nightfall. With that in mind, we decided to start this month’s Wednesday Night Ride at 7:00PM instead of 7:30, and also decided we’d ride a route that was more city streets than woods.

With the start time set and the desire to ride through well-lit urban streets, all we needed was a destination. We wanted to try a place we’d never been before and saleman Kenn Hartmann stepped up with a great suggestion: Korner House Bar & Grill in Elk Grove Village Illinois.

I decided to stop there for lunch to check the place out before our ride and met the owner, Basil, and the manager, Chrissy, who’s been working there over 30 years. Korner House is a comfortable, biker-friendly place with great food and great atmosphere. After lunch, I rode back along our proposed route, in reverse, to check for road closures and dangerous conditions (and found just a couple.)

That evening, at the shop, we were delighted to have 75 riders show up for our ride! We left the shop in three groups and zig-zagged our way north through the western suburbs of Forest Park, River Forest and Schiller Park all the way to Irving Park Road.

One of the highlights of our ride was the ‘ghost town’ just south of O’Hare: blocks of commercial and residential buildings left vacant due to the airport expansion. Over the past few years, the City of Chicago has purchased nearly 500 homes & businesses in Bensenville for the O’Hare Modernization Program. Right now, the majority of the buildings are still standing, but abandoned, making for a very spooky scene.

When we arrived at the Korner House, we were greeted by Basil who set us up with a couple hundred tenderloin sliders and more hot wings than I care to count. The great service and friendly people made Korner House an outstanding destination for us and we’ll be sure to visit again in the future.

Korner House Bar & Grill
2736 East Higgins Rd
Elk Grove Village, IL 60007
(847) 296-4165‎

See you on October 28th for our last ride of the season.


If you’d like to follow the route we took to the Korner House, you can download the route sheet.

Leo’s Bar and Grill Romeoville 6/24

June 24th was a hot day, in the 90s, with a couple afternoon showers, but that didn’t prevent 45 riders from showing up for our Wednesday Night Ride to Leo’s Bar and Grill. It was a beautiful warm night as I led one group out at 7:40PM, with Tim leading another shortly after. We took our normal route south on Harlem Avenue, entering Riverside just over the Canadian National Railway tracks. We took it easy going through Riverside, past the historic water tower, over the Burlington Northern tracks, and along the Des Plaines river. Once we crossed the river and passed the Hofmann Tower, we cruised down Joliet Road through Lyons to old Route 66 (aka Joliet Road.)

Riding in the Chicago area means minimizing the amount of time spent on boring and congested urban streets (in Lyons, McCook and Hodgkins) and trying as quickly as possible to get onto the scenic roads (in Willow Springs, Orland Park and Lemont.) So we made our way from Joliet Road to 55th Street to LaGrange Road and then across the Mile Long Bridge to Archer Avenue (Illinois 171) to see what was new in Willow Springs. We took Archer Avenue to Flavin Road (also known as Willow Springs Road or 104th Avenue) and made a quick left. Up the hill and through the twisties, surrounded by the cool air of the Cook County Forest Preserves.

After a quick stop at 95th street, we took off with a short drag race, sprinting toward McCarthy Road (123rd Street.) But before that, we were able to slow down and do an “eyes right” to enjoy the reflection of the setting sun on Saganashkee Slough.

At McCarthy Road we headed west and made a quick detour onto the cool Wolf Road / Ford Road / Will Cook Road bypass. (If you’ve never done it, you should make a point to next time you’re in the area.) After the detour, we headed south on Will Cook Road, past some recently constructed mansions, through some whoops and a couple more twisty roads. We headed all the way south to 159th Street, past Uncle Richie’s in Lockport, over the Lockport Bridge and back onto Illinois Route 53 where we rejoined Historic Route 66 once again. Then, a quick jog on Romeo Road and we arrived at Leo’s Bar and Grill.

Unbeknownst to me, Tim decided he didn’t want to take the scenic route (ignoring the route sheet which I had so painstakingly prepared earlier in the day), and instead took his group west on 107th Street directly to our destination. So, instead of being the first group to arrive from Illinois Harley, we were welcomed by Tim and his group! Luckily, Tim had already ordered the pizzas and got the beverages rolling. Leo opened the seldom-seen East Room, exclusively for us, which was a good thing due to the Karaoke going on next door.

Leo’s Bar & Grill
201 East Romeo Road
Romeoville, IL 60446
(815) 886-5600

This was one of our best rides yet and I want to thank everyone who came out and rode with us. We’ll see you on the 4th Wednesday of the month for the next  Wednesday Night Ride.

Download a copy of our route sheet.