Dine in Stockholm

on
The Cinnamon roll, frosted and warm on serving. 5/11/24 dwm
 Based on a short segment we saw on a TV program a couple years ago, we drove to Rockford, Illinois yesterday for breakfast.

 The destination was the Stockholm Inn.

 It was worth the drive, we had a great time, and enjoyed a delicious breakfast. 

 The show I referenced is John McGivern's Main Streets. It picked up where his show called Around the Corner, left off by taking his show introducing relatable and unique features of small and mid-size communities to a bigger stage.

 
Rockford was featured in season one of Main Streets, which is shown on PBS stations in the Midwest.
 
 The Stockholm Inn started in 1940 as the Brad-Lynn restaurant that served smorgasbord dinners on Tuesday and Thursday nights.  According to the restaurant's history, Alf Carlson sold the place in 1964 and it was run by several owners during the next four years. Gus and Maxine Peterson bought it in 1968 and named it the Stockholm Inn.

There's an diner-style counter in the back.
Jim and Vera Osborn bought in 1970, keeping the doors open until 1976 when John and Elayne Bilka took over and built up the business to the point it moved to its current larger location in 1996.  When the Bilkas retired in 2001, they sold to a local group of investors who called themselves the Lingonberry Group.

The restaurant features Swedish pancakes for breakfast and is well-known for its cinnamon rolls (top photo). We ordered both.

The roll came out of the kitchen first. It's a square that's 3-inches wide and 2-inches high with melting frosting running down all four sides. After getting a couple pictures, we took the first bite, YUM!

A short stack of Swedish pancakes. 5/11/24 dwm
 We ate most of the roll before the Swedish pancakes found their place in front of us.

 It glistened because the cake is more egg than flour, making it a protein flapjack. It was the first time I had one. It was good and quite filling.

 I took a bite before taking a bite, then decided to give it some syrup. The cake was so good, that it, the roll, and the glass of chocolate milk filled me up fast.

 The restaurant is big. Nearly every seat was taken when we walked in. There were two dozen slips of paper on the front desk with reservations plus another dozen people waiting for a table.

In the main dining room. 5/11/24 dwm
Since it was just the two of us, we quickly had a table. The reservations seemed to be primarily for groups
with more than 4 people. There are two rooms on either side of the main dining room and an old-fashioned diner counter in the back near the kitchen. (I suspect it's from the original store but I don't know.)

They open at 7 every day, serving lunch and dinner in addition to breakfast on all but Sunday when breakfast/brunch is the only attraction.

While the restaurant and Rockford has strong Swedish roots the restaurant celebrates everything Scandinavian, so Norway, Finland, and Denmark are included in the decor. In a room next to our table, a group of Norwegians were having a meeting (most wearing sweaters with the flag of Norway).
 
We had a great time and a wonderful breakfast.  We'll be back, maybe with company as text messages and pictures of the food were sent to both sides of the family.

When I was a kid, our family drove through Rockford when we went to visit both sets of grandparents plus aunts and uncles and their families. One of my favorite places to stop was called the Last Straw. It was an ice cream parlor and restaurant and a frequent stop for dinner on our way home late on Sunday. If the Stockholm Inn had been around, I'm sure mom and dad would have loved it.

A member of the "Lingonberry Group" and member of the band 'Cheap Trick' Rick Nielson.is pictured inside the front door. 5/11/2024 dwm

The cinnamon roll delivered in a pool of frosting. 5/11/2024 dwm photo

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