Herald and Review from Decatur, Illinois • Page 49

Decatur, Illinois, Sunday, September 1988 -Herald Review Travel- Section 'a Taster's Choices menu today offers two dining possibilities, one near, one far. The featured restaurants are the Bonanza Sirloin Pit in Decatur and the Dinner Horn Country Inn in Kansas City, Mo. The new theme for Lifestyle's reader-participation feature is "home cooking." Write to us about a favorite restaurant with food like mother used to make. Describe the atmosphere and what you ate. Be sure to include a telephone number where you can be reached during the day.

The restaurant must be in business in Illinois or any of the adjacent states Kentucky, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri or Indiana. If you are associated with a restaurant in any way, please write about another place. Once every quarter, the Herald Review awards a free dinner for two to a contributor to Taster's Choices or to My Way, Lifestyle's travel feature for readers. Address your letter to: Taster's Choices Herald Review Box 311 Decatur, III. 62525 i 1 I 1-9 To Taster's Choices: For several years I had admired from a distance The Dinner Horn Country Inn, a restaurant in Kansas City, that looked too expensive to approach.

On my birthday in April, my husband Al made lunch reservations there, and we were most pleasantly surprised. Lunch for two was $13.41, and we were especially delighted to learn that during the month of April, diners were offered "as many as you like" from the dessert table. Our waitress told us not to be shy it had been estimated that each diner averaged 3.6 desserts! My favorite was the large strawberry dipped in white and dark chocolate to create a three-colored treat. There was also strawberry shortcake, other kinds of cake, pie and cookies. But first, picture a large, Pennsylvania Dutch-style house on a hilltop.

The road leading up to it winds past a stream and oak and sycamore trees. Walk across the big, open porch (with a porch swing of course) and step into the two-story foyer. The owners, Bonnie and Dick Kellenberg, live upstairs. Their goal is to make you feel like a welcome guest at their dinner table. INCIDENTALLY, THE Dinner Horn got its name from a 19th Century painting by Winslow Homer of a farm wife standing on her porch There are three dining rooms, besides a gazebo and rose garden for garden parties.

The decor and waitress' costumes are Dutch THE MENU IS "wholesome American food," but plain it is not. The evening meal follows the Dutch custom of seven sweets and seven sours. These sweet and sour relishes are prepared in the Dinner Horn kitchen and change with the season. Dinner is a five-course meal: soup or salad, relishes, breadsticks and muffins, the main course, and dessert followed by Dutch chocolate coffee. Prices range from $10.95 for buttermilk fried chicken to $18.50 for the filet mignon or the Kansas City sirloin strip.

In addition to the regular menu, there is a choice of seafood special and another house special of the day. When we were there, they had swordfish or beef tip dish; diners at the next table said they were both delicious. My choice was boned breast of chicken filled with toasted almonds and smoked ham, served with a sweet and sour sauce. (I like to order something I don't get at home.) Al had the same. Their menu offers so much variety from day to day and season to season, I may never get to try them all unless I go more often than on my birthday.

Joyce Shiner Sullivan A tree-lined lane leads to the Dinner Horn Country 1 TEE CDUXnYO Ifessu City, snuoori periodically. Special days coming up at The Dinner Horn are its Oktoberfest Sept. 29 and Oct. 6. The restaurant will open at 7 p.m.

those days and offer all-you-can-eat German foods for $18 a person. Reservations are necessary and may be made by call-ine 816436-8700. The restaurant is located at 2820 N.W. Barry Road in Kansas City, and is open for lunch from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Tuesday-Friday, dinner from 5 to 10 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. Sunday hours are 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. The restaurant is closed Mondays.

Join Us For Some Fun Sept. 28 St. Louis Baseball Cardinals vs. Cubs We have a few seats left, (includes sack lunch) $32.00 Nov. 22 Fox Theatre Shop St.

Louis Centre (includes theatre tickets) M7.00 A minimum of 37 paid passengers will be required to take trip. All prices include insurance and escort. You can use your Bergn-er's Charge. mm mm TRAVEL HEADQUARTERS Hickory Point Mall 875-1178 I 1 i i JBERGNERS TRAVEL Inn mmmmm in Kansas City. Al and Joyce Shiner Til Be Home for Book now and airfares go skyhigh.

We think it will be soon get your tickets before it's too late! Round Trip from St. Louis: Phoenix Los Angeles Orlando Dallas New York Denver $158 $158 $158 $138 $138 $178 Restrictions Apply Call Your Airfare Experts At favel loppe 423-7534 101 Millikin Ct. Decatur Recipes: Wednesday Stop in or call: 429-2525 Outside Decatur 1-800-252-1583 304 S. Franklin Free Parking a -i -'ms sounding the horn for lunch. A nearly life-size reproduction is on one wall of the foyer.

Everything about the Dinner Horn is evidence of the planning and searching that were necessary to create the total effect For instance, a large room at one end of the house is officially called the "Country Tavern," but the owners call it the "family room." True, it has a bar at one end, but at the other end is the same piano their children (three, now grown) took piano lessons on. The extra-long couch in front of the fireplace was also used by the family. You know the song about "roasting chestnuts on an open fire" here, they really do. The Bonanza Sirloin cials Shirley describes (served 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Monday through Saturday), Bonanza offers meals ranging from cod for $3.99 to T-bone steak for $7.29. Dinners include Texas toast, potato and unlimited trips to the potato topping bar and the Freshtastiks Food Bar. Hours are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m.

to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday. No alcoholic beverages are served, and reservations are recommended for large groups. CalLthe Bonanza on First Drive at 423-0082 or the restaurant on Pershing Road at 877-3349. I vJfc- Pit's Freshtastiks Food Bar offers To Taster's Choices: When I think about the Bonanza Sirloin Pit, I remember that's just what it is: A bonanza of good eating.

My husband Max wants to go nowhere else for lunch. For the price, he says, you can't beat it. For $3.29, you can get grilled chopped steak, chicken fried steak or a hamburger, plus all you can eat from the Freshtastiks Food Bar. My husband always gets a chopped steak and Texas toast. I eat from the food bar and am quite full and content.

Baked potatoes are 60 cents, but who needs them with the delicious array of choices? Just compare what you get for $3.29 at the fast food factories. Compare the nutrition and the choices and the amounts served against an all-you-can eat feast including fruit, puddings, ice cream, unlimited refills of soft drinks or coffee (drinks are extra), cheese, lettuce with many salad-building options, a good variety of other salads, hot vegetables, soup, muffins, and my favorite potato skins (offered only when available). I'm a variety-type person and like variety not only in my meals but in my restaurant choices; I like to try new places and eat different types of foods. But I have to beg to go somewhere besides Bonanza in South Shores! My husband would be content with the same meal day in and day out. He is changing a bit, though, since we retired and he found that too much inactivity, big fatty meals, and coffee can ruin your blood pressure.

We are eating many more fresh vegetables and fruit, buying less canned food, trying to stay away from salt and sugar, and getting some calcium and potassium to help counteract some properties of our hypertensive medication. When it comes to Bonanza, we can eat the proper foods except Max can't control his sweet-tooth and has to have pudding with ice cream. I'll agree with Max. Bonanza is really and truly the best lunch for the money in town. Shirley West Johnson Decatur Get Involved! Joyce Shiner enjoyed her 59th birthday at The Dinner Horn as much as she and her husband Al like to travel.

Alaska was this summer's destination for the Shiners, she a home-maker and he a retired Navy pilot. The Dinner Horn Country Inn, while not a true inn (no rooms are rented), is perhaps best known for its baked, stuffed pork chop dinner for $14.25. The all-you-can eat desserts the Shiners sampled is offered more than salads. LAS VEGAS 3 OR 4 NIGHTS $219 FROM ST. LOUIS DAYTIME DEPARTURES ALL ABOARD AMTRAK FARES REDUCED NATIONWIDE FOR ZONE 1-2-3 $129 SPECIAL FARE RESTRICTIONS APPLY CALL FOR SPECIAL DISCOUNTED CRUISE RATES $375 WITH AIR AS LOW AS mm Village BRETTWOOD VILLAGE CALL 875-5640 OR OUTSIDE DECATUR 255-2255 (EXT.

TRIP) 8-6, IB -800- 3 IQOQISOQODDOQOPOOCIOOOODOOQ a E3 3 a B3D (ffljiMH Everyone Must Go! Make your best deal on low off season rates DECATUR'S FULL-SERVICE VACATION STORE Let the experienced travel professionals make your next "vacation" a pleasurable experience. EXTRA $50(0 off Only from Franklin Travel on 1986 trips with: AMERICAN EXPRESS CARNIVAL CRUISE LINES CLUB MED a a ATLAS TRAVEL offers you: Club Med, Cartan, Thomson Vacations, Carnival, NCL El Cruises, Royal Caribbean, all at the best prices anywhere. Quality vacations, best prices, personalized service. Shirley West Johnson and hus band Max are i both retired, she from Illinois Power Co. and he from Caterpillar Inc.

They frequent the Bonanza Sirloin Pit at 371 W. First Drive. There's another Decatur Bonanza at 1QB7 Per- hin0 Road. Shirley Johnson Also free flight bag while they last Book pay deposit by September 30th Exclusively from Franklin Travel: Worldwide customer care for you at over 1400 locations. r- mo uiyiiia are usually myner.

hi You need to book Florida, Hawaii, California, as k1 early as possible. Call Atlas Travel this week! Fl fSS a "wwm all major iccaocioc ri CREDIT CARDS ACCEPTED TOLL-FREE 1-800-445-1668 mim 239 s. Main, Oecatur Open Weekdays 8:00 to 5:00, Saturday 8:30 to 1:30 ooooqoodqoooqdqG Itevel Agency Representative Both franchises are owned by Jerry Gritton of Macon and carry identical menus. In addition to the luncheon spe- SAT. 9-3.