Sitting about 40 miles due west of downtown Chicago, the suburb of Geneva pulls off a neat trick.
It feels nothing like a suburb of Chicago.
Along with neighbors St. Charles, Batavia and Aurora, it most certainly is one. But Geneva’s cozy, rolling charm makes the town of 22,000 feel more like a gem you’d stumble upon in the middle of Wisconsin or Iowa than what we typically think of as a big-city suburb. Think fewer box stores and less traffic, and more quaint Midwestern utopia.
And for that reason Geneva is well worth a day trip. Connected to Chicago by railroad since the mid-1800s, modern-day Geneva is about an hour by car or about 1 hour and 20 minutes by Metra from downtown Chicago.
The place: Geneva, a suburb that feels like a quaint little town.
The main attraction: Clean air and small-town charm that’s mighty close to home.
Where it is: About 40 miles west of downtown Chicago, via Interstate Highway 88.
What there is to do: Plenty. Geneva is a lovely little town, so the first thing to do is to park the car and walk those pristine streets. Most of the action sits along West State Street (which is also Illinois Route 38, part of the historic Lincoln Highway) and South Third Street, and both are worth exploring by foot for shopping, well-preserved architecture, and food and drink.
Both stretches can get quite lively. At 8:30 on a Friday night, locals were out in force, mostly in search of dinner from one of downtown Geneva’s many well-regarded restaurants, though the activity kept up as the evening wore on, with live music echoing from the old brick buildings refashioned into modern spaces. There was plenty of foot traffic to keep Geneva from being too sleepy of a suburb, and many restaurants were nearly full. Third Street, which is particularly quaint with its row of shops and trees, is loaded with bakeries and ice cream shops for post-dinner (or midafternoon) treats.
Shopping options are ample on both Third and State streets, and have the sort of local flair found in the most charming stretches of suburbia. The range is wide, from clothing to jewelry to The Little Traveler gift shop (404 S. Third St., www.littletraveler.com).
Architectural preservation is a subtle highlight, including historic buildings still in operation, such as Geneva Bank and Trust, which is housed in what appears to be an old gas station, and EvenFlow Music and Spirits, a live-music venue and restaurant, which was built in the old State Bank of Geneva.
One of the town’s gems is Island Park (www.genevaparks.org), an island that sits in the Fox River and is a center for communal activities in summer (such as a concert series), but it’s an ideal place for a quiet walk or a bike ride year-round. (The 40-mile Fox River Trail runs through the island.) Bring your own bike, or they can be rented at several locations near the river, such as Mill Race Cyclery (11 E. State St., www.millrace.com).
From early April through early September, the Kane County Cougars give baseball fans a ready-made excuse to visit Geneva. The Class A affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks claims to be “creating a Triple A experience with a Single A team!” At the very least, you are sure to see some future major leaguers in a family-friendly environment where tickets begin at $9 and off-the-wall promotions and theme nights are common.
Baseball isn’t an option for winter visitors, but the first week of December sees the annual Christmas festival (www.genevachamber.com), which starts with the town’s Christmas tree lighting and features roasted chestnuts, strolling Christmas carolers, a live Nativity scene and free carriage rides through the weekend. Five homes decked out for the holiday are open for tours.
Eating and drinking: Geneva boasts quite a food scene, which makes finding three quality meals no problem.
The obvious highlight is Bien Trucha (410 W. State St., www.bientrucha.com), which has consistently been rated by Zagat as one of the Chicago area’s best Mexican restaurants. But Bien Trucha is far from fussy — the average dish costs about $11 on a menu that skews toward tacos (the house special is a grilled skirt steak taco featuring chorizo, Chihuahua cheese and roasted tomatillo salsa) and tortas. The cocktails are also worthy of attention, especially the creamy ahuacatl margarita, which is made with avocado.
Other well-regarded spots include Niche (14 S. Third St., www.nichegeneva.com) and Barrel + Rye (477 S. Third St., www.barrelandrye.com) for dinner, and Buttermilk (7 W. State St., www.buttermilkgeneva.com), which serves breakfast and lunch
Any quality day trip deserves a little splurge, and Geneva offers many options, including Graham’s Fine Chocolates & Ice Cream (302 S. Third St., www.grahamschocolate.com) and All Chocolate Kitchen (33 S. Third St., www.allchocolatekitchen.com), where the delights include homemade gelato.
One of my favorite stops was Penrose Brewing (509 Stevens St., www.penrosebrewing.com), whose beer I’d admired for a year before I finally visited the brewery and its taproom. With a focus on Belgian-inspired beers, I happily sipped a flight of four beers that I’d never seen in bottles or at other bars before.
When scouting locations, Penrose settled on Geneva partly because of its small-town culture, said brewer and co-owner Tom Korder.
“We didn’t want to be stuck between an Applebee’s and TGI Fridays,” Korder said. “We wanted to be around like-minded people.”
His business partner, Eric Hobbs, who grew up in Geneva, said he was attracted back home partly because the culture has evolved to embrace an enterprise like Penrose.
“Downtown has always been well-maintained and historic,” Hobbs said. “This difference is we didn’t have the restaurants like we do now five or 10 years ago.”
What surprised me: I was expecting Geneva to be a quaint suburb — not a quaint suburb that seemed more like a quaint little town with its own unique charm and character.
If you choose to stay the night: The Herrington Inn & Spa (15 S. River Lane, www.herringtoninn.com) was built in an old creamery converted to a very comfortable hotel overlooking the Fox River in the heart of downtown. It’s worth getting a room on the river, which is almost literally on the river. The starting rate of $169 includes breakfast, turndown service with milk and a cookie, and proximity to that river, which is so close you can smell it (and it smells lovely).
Twitter @joshbnoel
