![]() ![]() Even simpler things like a wedge salad with housemade bleu cheese dressing were far better than expected. Our Barnwood introduction featured local walleye over a sweet potato/chorizo hash, a beautiful beet salad with microgreens and just enough seasoning, fresh crab cakes, some beautiful lamb chops and sides of vegetables that were perfectly cooked. Again, we were skeptical, since most places “for kids” tend to feed everyone like kids-burgers, pizza, chicken fingers-but found that this was a very different animal (sorry). It’s called Barnwood, and its emphasis is sophisticated, local, farm-to-fork fare. We attended two separate events for Great Wolf-one was an evening out at the Social Table where we hung out with the head chef for Great Wolf and were introduced to their most recent dining concept, featured in the Gurnee location and a few others. It features eight restaurants, a few bars scattered around, including inside the waterpark area, special services for exhausted parents/aunts/uncles/grandparents, and more than enough activities for anyone to be able to find something to do. With a hefty $65-million budget, Great Wolf Lodge, whose headquarters are in Madison, Wis., where the chain began and right here in Chicago, gutted Key Lime Cove and expanded it, creating an huge resort (80,000 square feet of water park alone!) that, surprisingly, actually feels like a real, self-contained resort on some level. You can see this present in everything from room design to food, and it piqued our curiosity more than a little. It seems, at least in having toured the very recently opened Gurnee Great Wolf, that the goal at Great Wolf is still to give kids a fantastic playland experience with everything they could ever imagine, but to also include ample opportunities for the adults to enjoy themselves, too. It turns out, the difference between Great Wolf and some of its competitors is huge, at least when it comes to focus. What exactly was it that made this more than a one-time joy ride for the kids? I decided to find out. Until, at least for me, I started talking to my friends and family who had kids, and they kept mentioning the chain over and over. We’d heard that the far north suburb of Gurnee was converting its previous indoor waterpark, Key Lime Cove, to a Great Wolf Lodge and, aside from thoughts of being the fun aunt/uncle and making our nephews and nieces really really happy for a day or two, hadn’t given it much thought besides. Yes, it can be a tempting idea when you’re freezing to death in the bitter cold of a Chicago winter, but you might find yourself asking what there is for adults to do after a few dips in the pool and trips down the slides. Great Wolf Lodge in Gurnee, on the former site of Key Lime Cove.Īn indoor water park may not immediately call to you. ![]()
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