Courier Cafe (Urbana)

Tonight, my girlfriend and I went out to the Courier Cafe in downtown Urbana. Having been there before, I knew that it was a good place to go for a relatively cheap meal (which is why I capitulated rather quickly). Courier Cafe is one of the older restaurants in downtown Urbana, having been open since 1980. As such, it has outlasted many other downtown Urbana businesses, and enshrined their memory in the names of its burgers.

Speaking of burgers, they are the primary reason I go to the Courier Cafe. Burgers are around $5-6, and are 1/3 of a pound. The burgers also tend to be higher quality than the standard pub fare, considering people go there for food, instead of ordering a burger as an afterthought.

On this night I opted for the Darcy's burger, which is a burger with mushrooms and bleu cheese. The burger comes on a plate with all of the other assorted toppings, including onions, tomatoes, lettuce, and pickles, off to the side, so you can add them to taste. The burger comes well done unless you specify otherwise. The meat itself is relatively juicy for being a grilled burger, and the bun tastes more like it came from a genuine bakery, instead of a store-brand 8 pack of buns, which often ends up being the case in burger restaurants.

Another thing Courier is known for is its old-style sweet drinks, such as its phosphates and New York egg creme drinks. These are sugary soda-type drinks with flavored syrup, with the egg creme being a phosphate with an egg cracked into it and creme added. Courier also has a variety of ice cream desserts.

Courier's wine and beer menu is not very extensive, but they have had Rogue Dead Guy on draft for $4 the last few times I have gone, which is cheaper than most bars in the area. In addition, their bottled beers are relatively cheap, and the wine by the glass is inexpensive as well. Though the menu is not extensive, there is a good enough variety to please most individuals.

For two people with burgers, drinks, and one order of fries, the total bill ended up being $18.84. This is much lower than one would pay for an equivalent meal anywhere else, even a place like Murphy's (which has a similar food menu, though lower quality food). Courier is a perfect spot for a cheap date, where your date won't know you're being cheap unless you let her see the check.

Crane Alley (Urbana)

Since this is the first post on this blog, which will be about restaurants (and bars) in the Urbana-Champaign area, I thought it would be good to start out with an entry on what is my favorite food and drink establishment in Urbana.

Crane Alley, located at 115 West Main Street in Urbana, is a bar and restaurant, though most of the floor space is devoted to the bar and pool tables. When I was there just last week, it was only my second chance to sit down and have a meal (the first being my 21st birthday).

My girlfriend and myself got there about 15 minutes early, and we elected to start off with an appetizer: Crane Alley's signature beet chips. Every table around us got this appetizer, since it is one of the dishes that Crane Alley is most known for. The beet chips come with a bowl of a goat cheese dip (which has cream cheese mixed in). The dip is somewhat rich and heavy, and helps to bulk up what might otherwise be a rather light appetizer.

The sandwiches at Crane Alley run up to around $10, and the main courses a bit higher than that. My girlfriend got a portabella mushroom burger, which was one of the daily specials, and of course had no meat. However, it was bulky enough to offset that and not be as light and unfilling as a lot of vegetarian food ends up being. I got a beer-battered fish sandwich, which was crispy and fairly large (way too much fish for the bun), along with the sweet potato fries (another thing Crane Alley is known for). One of the complaints I usually have about fried fish sandwiches is how greasy they are, but luckily this sandwich didn't fall into that trap.

As one would expect from a bar, there is a pretty good drink selection. However, Crane Alley goes beyond the call of duty, and has more than ten beers on draft at any one time, with the majority of them coming from different microbreweries (the selection is constantly being rotated). In addition, there is an obscenely large selection of bottled beers (more than what the Blind Pig offers), and a wide selection of hard liquor and mixed drinks. Of my total bill of $50, around $20 of that was from drinks.

The primary lure that Crane Alley has is its wide selection of beers and drinks, which can be ordered alongside a selection of appetizers or food (something some local competitors do not offer). In addition, it has weekly special dishes and daily specials, and special beer and food pairings on set dates (tickets must usually be purchased). I would highly recommend anyone in the area or at the university make the effort to stop here at least once.

[Image courtesy of http://www.crane-alley.com/]