Overnight Stay: Springfield, Illinois

Welcome to the weekend!

Today we’re off to Springfield, the capital of Illinois. If the city is known for one thing, it’s that Abraham Lincoln lived there from 1837 until 1861, and it’s where you’ll find his tomb, his home, and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. If the city is known for another thing, it’s that it’s located along Route 66, which turns 100 this year. If you’re driving the route for the anniversary, you’ll want to spend a little time exploring Springfield, which features a signature dish (the horseshoe), as well as corn dogs, doughnuts, cocktails, custard, smashburgers, grilled oysters, and much more. Today’s Overnight Stay issue features recommendations for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and drinks, and is reserved for paid subscribers.

We also just posted our Field Guide to Kansas City — it’s designed for your phone and features all our picks for the city organized into a robust three-day itinerary. All our guides are included in a paid subscription or available for purchase on our website.

And before we log off for the weekend, we wanted to share our Weekend Reading list, with stories about pitmaster John Lewis, Maine’s Aragosta restaurant, and the rise of the pawpaw.

Thanks for reading!

— Amy Cavanaugh & Kenney Marlatt
Editors, American Weekender

SPRINGFIELD, ILL. — If you’re thinking about driving Route 66 from its start in Chicago, hit the road early — you’ll want to make it to Charlie Parker’s Diner before it closes at 2 p.m. for the tail end of the lunch rush. There, you can try the local delicacy, the horseshoe. It’s an open-faced sandwich with a slice or two of Texas toast as a base, which is topped with any variety of meat and a pile of crispy fries, then smothered in cheese sauce. The horseshoe hasn’t really made its way out of Springfield, but in Springfield, you’ll find them everywhere. Charlie Parker’s, a diner where you can grab a stool at the counter to get a peek into the kitchen, is a local favorite.

You can get your horseshoe many ways at Charlie Parker’s. If you happen to arrive in time for breakfast, there is a breakfast shoe, which is topped with an egg; ham, bacon, or sausage; fries or hashbrowns; and ladlefuls of country gravy or cheese sauce. (Or both if you are the adventurous sort.) There are corned beef hash, pancake, and waffle variations as well. At lunch, the meat options seem endless: a hamburger, ham, bacon, sausage, turkey, chicken breast, chicken fingers, country fried steak, walleye, pork tenderloin, or buffalo chicken. There is also a chili cheeseburger shoe and a Philly shoe, and if you want to sample this dish but want a smaller portion, you order – very cutely — a pony shoe.

We have two shoes to recommend. First, the ham shoe, with grilled, thick slices creating a combination reminiscent of a croque monsieur. Meanwhile, the Buffalo chicken shoe might seem unexpected, but the spiciness of the Buffalo fried chicken breast cuts through the rich cheese sauce.

Springfield is also known for corn dogs, as Cozy Dog Drive-In is a Route 66 favorite and one of the places that claims invention of the snack. Cozy Dog opened in 1949 and moved to the location it has today in 1996. Inside, all that history is layered, with memorabilia like toy trucks and magnets everywhere. Try the Cozy Dog, which is a mild hot dog encased in a golden brown jacket. There are mustard and ketchup bottles on the tables to squiggle on top. It’s nothing fancy, but a fine road trip snack.

Springfield offers more than nostalgic bites though. Our guide features picks for cortados, smash burgers, frozen custard, cocktails, coastal Italian dishes, and more. Let’s dig in.