Seven Reasons To Love Northbrook

It's one thing to feel hometown pride, but do you ever feel hometown love? There are plenty of great things about Northbrook that we take for granted, so it's nice to be reminded once in a while why we love our town. We've got seven Patch picks that we think are the best reasons to feel passionate about Northbrook.

John Hughes
The 1980s were born in Northbrook. Filmmaker John Hughes may not have been born here in Northbrook, but the fact that he moved here with his family at 12 years old had indelible effect on him and, later, all cinema. The college dropout and one time Chicago ad-man translated a gift for comedic writing and an ear for adolescent speech into a career in film. His first movie, Sixteen Candles, directed when he was just 34 years old, launched a string of blockbuster successes that became eminently quotable instant classics. In films characterized by actual North Shore locations, such as Northbrook's own Glenbrook North High School—and set in the fictional Shermer, IL, a nod to Northbrook’s original name of Shermerville—Hughes played on teenage stereotypes that were somehow also deeply realized. The princess, the jock, the criminal, the basket case, the brain—it isn't hyperbole to say that Hughes created cultural touchstones that influence films even today. Sadly, he passed away in 2009, though his universally identifiable characters continue to convert new audiences.

Northbrook Days
Northbrook has been throwing itself a memorable bash every summer for more than 85 years. The first festival was held in 1925. Back then, the Village Green was known as Barrenscheen's Grove, and it would be almost 20 years before the land was purchased by the Park District. The festival began as a celebration of the fact that the town had changed its name from Shermerville, and was deemed such a success that it's been held every year since. Northbrook Days has a history of funneling funds back into civic organizations, among them the library, the Park District, the Historical Society, the YMCA and more than a dozen others. The festival has seen a number of changes over the years: in the 1940's, it was called 'Victory Days,' and the entertainment has morphed from barbershop quartets to bachelor auctions. Still, anyone who grew up in Northbrook likely has a memory of a hot August outdoor party with rides, carnival food and every neighbor they knew in Northbrook gathered together for one common cause.

Sarah Stegner's Prairie Grass Cafe
This local outpost of Stegner's culinary empire is definitive proof that excellent cuisine can thrive in the suburbs. Reservations at the Zagat-rated eatery are highly sought after. It's no wonder: Wilmette native Sarah Stegner, along with her partner George Bumbaris and her husband Rohit Nambiar, have tended as carefully as they've tended the products of their kitchens. Since 2004, they've been employing their simple approach to cooking to great local—and regional—acclaim. "We have many customers that drive up to Northbrook from the city," Stegner writes on her website. The secret? "The highest quality ingredients, seafood, and cuts of meat," all as fresh and locally sourced as possible.

Cove School
More than 63 years ago, local child psychiatrist-neurologist Dr. Alfred A. Strauss and his research assistant, Dr. Laura Lehtinen Rogan, became founders of the first school in America exclusively targeted to educating children with learning disabilities. Though the school hasn't always been here in town, it's existed in its current incarnation on Lee Road since 1996, and is the strongest it's ever been. Considered one of the premiere educational facilities in it's particular field even today, educates grades K-11, calling itself a "pathway to progress," that teaches the disabled to "learn how to learn." For it's personalized and targeted programs that focus on not only academics but social and emotional skills, The Cove is recognized as a national leader in education.

Sunset Foods and Ron Bernardi
Not only is a fixture of downtown Northbrook, but you’ll see the store’s old-fashioned cart turn up at every village festivity and the colorfully painted car parked outside hasn’t missed a local parade.  Sunset Food’s Ron Bernardi was recently by the Northbrook Civic Foundation’s Foundation Award, an honor bestowed only 13 times in the foundation's 41-year history. Calling Bernardi a "treasure," Village President Sandra Frum read from a list of nearly 80 causes to which Bernardi has donated. She then went on to note Bernardi's other humanitarian efforts, such as helping vulnerable locals through the recession by employing them at Sunset Foods and helping them find work elsewhere. Despite the fact that Bernardi wasn't in attendance, the assembled crowd rose to give him a standing ovation.

Northbrook Public Library
The encompasses more than 85,000 square feet and took more than a year to build. Yet another Northbrook institution that has seen it's share of changes over the years, the NPL began s a single room above a shop in 1919. Past incarnations of the library were also impressive and cutting-edge: a phonograph record collection was added to the library in 1969. The needs of Northbrook and it's love for learning expanded faster than the library could, and in 1998, construction began on the present building. The library was profoundly cosmetically altered to include walls of windows, an expanded children's area, a gift shop, more workstations, and five group study rooms. Once again, Northbrook's Public Library was at the forefront of innovation, being one of the first libraries in the nation to offer free public wireless internet access.

Techny Park and Prairie
The land itself is as old as anything, but has only existed in its current form since 2006. With a total land area of 107.82 acres, the list of park features goes on and on and on: four baseball diamonds with six batting cages, playgrounds, multiple trails, a sledding hill, four picnic areas and a none-hole golf course. One of the most notable aspects of the park is the award-winning "Trail Through Time," a trail that wends its way through tall prairie grasses and a gazebo surrounded by rose bushes, complete with a picturesque view of Techny Towers. The park is a perfect example of the ability of Northbrook residents to pull together for a cause. Sixty percent of the park was approved to be purchased by the Park District in an overwhelmingly positive vote on a public referendum, and the remaining forty percent was gifted to the Park District. In turn, Techny Park and Prairie has become one of Northbrook's greatest gifts to itself and its residents.