Jim and Nancy do not disclose the fact that they will review a restaurant before they attend, ensuring their reviews are unbiased and uninfluenced by their position with the Sun Day.
You may or may not find this hard to believe, but every so often the Dining Duo needs a “mental health day.” If there ever were two people in need of a mental health adjustment, it’s us two idiots. Our favorite diversion is to drive up north to the land of cheese, and contribute to the Ho-Chunk Indian tribe at the casino in Wisconsin Dells. This trip is punctuated by various scenic stops along the way. Our first stop is fueling up our bodies at the Cracker Barrel Restaurant in Rockford.
Cracker Barrel Restaurant
730 N. Lyford Road
Rockford 61107
(815) 226-1944
crackerbarrel.com
Directions: Take Rte. 47 South to I-90 West to US20/State Street exit, turn left on State Street, then left on Lyford Road to restaurant.
Estimated Travel Time: 33 minutes
Walking in the door, you enter their “Country Store,” which you have to walk through to get to the hostess stand. Ingenious!!! The store is jam packed with items geared to both young children and adults. Grandparents especially enjoy shopping here to find unique items for their grandkids. There are also a lot of seasonal items scattered about. Nancy lost control one time and bought a battery-operated fuzzy white dog with a Santa’s hat. When you touch its paw, he twitches spasmodically and sings a James Brown song. Best Christmas decoration ever, nothing says Christmas like James Brown! Her shopping basket with gifts for the grandkids usually winds up costing more than our meal.
After running this gauntlet, we made it to the hostess stand and were escorted to our table. The dećor all around us was right out of an “American Pickers” episode. Vintage family photos and chewing tobacco ads hung everywhere.
Now on to the good stuff. Nancy always orders the same thing, because change is evil. My old timer gets the Old Timer’s Breakfast ($8.99). This consists of two eggs, grits, your choice of turkey sausage, bacon, or sausage patties, plus fried apples or hashbrown casserole. This breakfast also comes with buttermilk biscuits, sawmill gravy, and jelly. Nancy chose the bacon and hashbrown casserole. She passed the grits to me, and she wanted their sourdough toast with apple butter instead of the biscuits and gravy. This is her favorite breakfast, because of the hashbrown casserole and the grilled sourdough toast.
Dining Duo Tip: Ask for your sourdough bread to be grilled: it’s awesome!
Jim usually orders the one entree on a menu that contains everything imaginable. He went with the Sunrise Sampler ($9.19) today. This was two eggs, grits, fried apples, hashbrown casserole, plus a sampling of bacon, sausage patty, and country ham. Jim passed the fried apples to me, and substituted sugar ham for the country ham (it’s less salty). He also went with the grilled sourdough toast instead of the biscuits and gravy. This is his “go to” meal, which he said was delicious.
Rockford is closer than you think. It’s only 33 minutes away, like going to Woodfield. The breakfasts here are consistently good, and the country store is packed with items you don’t see everyday. It would be nice to have a Cracker Barrel at the intersection of Route 47 and I-90. We’re just saying…
The price for our first stop on our “Mental Health Day” was $25.52. The cost for our second stop at Ho-Chunk Casino was . . . (wait for it) . . . Don’t ask! On our way home, our third stop was to the Mousehouse Cheesehaus for cheese and sausage.
FYI: This restaurant is handicap accessible.
Dining Duo Correction: In a previous article on Checkers II, we stated that it was not handicap accessible. One of our readers, Gene, informed us they do have two handicapped parking spaces, and a ramped entrance in the rear parking lot.
He Said: Grits prove, if you put enough butter and salt on anything, you can eat it.
She Said: Don’t pass up the grilled sourdough toast. I am not a toast eater, but I love it here!
Have comments or restaurant suggestions for the Dining Duo? Send them an email at thediningduo@gmail.com
