Tucked away in northeast Illinois is the sleepy river town of McHenry, Illinois located on the picturesque Fox River. One of our favorite places to venture for breakfast is Windhill Pancake Parlor a block away from the river. It's one of those wonderful family places, filled with antiques, collectibles, teacup chandeliers and a bank teller's cage for a checkout.
Looks pretty standard and even this century with a new digital sign.
But let me say, this place has a long history of celebrating holidays.
***Major*** celebrating holidays.
In the vestibule next to the candy machines---Look who greets you with a severed
head on a tray. He looks real...and like he knows a secret.
If you want to know the history about Windhill, look
here.
First of all, the food is fabulous...they serve breakfast, lunch and dinner, and we have never been disappointed in thirty some years. From pancakes to Fish Frys and Fish boils, all in the midwest tradition of hearty farm food. Fresh and tasty!
Escorted back toward the scarier part of the 'parlor', we passed a whimsical ladder of pumpkins beckoning you on.
OOOOOHHHHH!
Zombie window...and spiders everywhere! Brains and creatures hanging from the ceilings.
A cast of 69 employees and volunteers decorate the entire restaurant. And it is different every year.
Two deep windows at the back of the parlor are staged ---spooky-scarey!
Creative Mondays
One in a skull boneyard theme.
We were there in the middle of a week day so thankfully not all the motion sensors were on.
This signature "Windhill" mirror, was inhabited by Dracula...and a bloody message.
Everything is almost full-size.
My Picture of the Zombie wall was out of focus---or was it???
The beverage bar was a hoot!
There's cute too---along with the Holly Hobby plates, some sweet scarecrows.
Bats or are they flying monkeys? Mixed in the Wizard of Oz corner? And of course a Wicked Witch!
Even during non-holidays, this place is adorable.
Lights everywhere, pumpkins, pumpkins pumpkins!
C
The front window suitable for younger folk, smiling jack-o-lanterns and kitties.
The mantel...with jester halloween scarf. So colorful and cuteness!
Rats and bats...and Boo! sign.
Under the table was a motion sensitive rat in a potato chip bag that wiggled, my pic didn't turn out---so sorry...he was a hoot!
All year-round is the Choo-Choo that delivers ice-cream treats at the back of the ice-cream parlor. This is so much fun for kids of all ages.
More spiders in the Oz corner!
Windhill is full of memorabilia of days gone by on a daily basis, along with great home cooking and the most fabulous pancakes.
The Dorothy table.
This was last friday---everyone needs a countdown to Halloween!
This pumpkin guy was just so dang happy, I have to make one.
"Good-bye"--we hope to bring the Grand next week!
Hope you enjoyed the tour...there was tons more----you almost have to spend the day...looking and our late breakfast was delicious.
Thanks always for visiting.
I will try and respond to every comment and answer every question.
All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own, I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions or posts. Please do not use photos without linking back to this blog without my permission. Thank you for your cooperation, Sandi Magle
Sandi
