Riverside, the Chicago Portage, and Quincy Street Distillery

Chicago is laid out on a grid, as are most of its suburbs. But look at a map of the western burbs and Riverside stands out, a grid without corners. Instead of straight lines, Riverside’s streets are gently curved, like the Des Plaines River that borders the town on the south and west, and gives it its name.

Riverside was an early example of a planned community, designed in 1869 by Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted, who most famously designed New York’s Central Park. It was intended as a suburb, connected by commuter rail to Chicago's downtown. Today most of the town is a National Historic District.

Quincy Street Distillery, 39 East Quincy St., Riverside, Illinois 

One of the very few straight streets in Riverside is Quincy, where you will find Quincy Street Distillery, a small artisan distiller near an art glass studio and the local arts center. Quincy Street gives tours and does tastings, by appointment, four days a week.

Quincy Street makes a large variety of whiskeys, gins, and other spirits.

A visit to a small distillery can be pretty quick, so it’s nice if there are other interesting things to do in the same area. Riverside provides that, in the historic town itself and its neighbor to the south, Lyons, where there is a site very important to Chicago history.

A statue commemorating 17th century explorers Pere Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet.

Chicago is where it is because of its eponymous river, which originally emptied into Lake Michigan. Early European explorers learned from the natives that a short portage from the Chicago River’s south end could put one into the Mississippi River system, effectively connecting the Great Lakes and Mississippi systems. Eventually that portage trail became a canal, then a much bigger canal. Part of the original trail is still visible in its natural state at the Chicago Portage National Historic Site.

And if that isn't enough for you, Brookfield Zoo is also nearby.