Bill Flick

1 week ago | bnd.com | Bill Flick

Question: It was 54 years ago this month that a Safari Pizza restaurant in Normal was sold, to then become an Italian-based eatery whose new owners used the Italian word for "go forward; come in" as its business name. Do you know that restaurant today? Answer: It's Avanti's, its name derived from the Italian word "Avante." These days, since launched in June 1971, Avanti's has two popular restaurants in Bloomington-Normal.

1 week ago | bnd.com | Bill Flick

Question: Along East Oakland Avenue in Bloomington, just east of Mercer, has been the location for a grocery store for more than 60 years. Can you name all of them? Answer: Since 1990, it's been a Jewel-Osco. Before that, from the 1970s until 1987, it was an Eastgate IGA. And the IGA replaced a locally owned establishment, Frank's Food Fair. Video: Water safety, drowning prevention emphasized by Bloomington-Normal coalitionWater safety, drowning prevention emphasized by Bloomington-Normal coalition.

1 week ago | bnd.com | Bill Flick

Question: Not that long ago, if not with cash, almost everyone wrote a check to pay for their groceries. How much has that declined since the dawn of card readers and payment terminals in the last decade or so? Answer: Next time you see someone pay by check, you're seeing something that has become all but extinct. "I probably get one check writer every four shifts, or one a week," says one checker at the Hy-Vee store in Bloomington.

1 week ago | pantagraph.com | Bill Flick

FLICK LITE: Our latest listings, as offered by the readers and your own resident Lite Boy ... Latest big buzzMonticello is the seat of Piatt County, east of Clinton, a postcard town of nicely rehabbed storefronts, cozy cafés and a great small-town charm, nestled next to the 1,500-acre beauty that is Allerton Park. It also has an old, worn, shuttered Hardee’s restaurant. It’s about to be seen around the world. They’re filming a Hollywood movie there.

1 week ago | bnd.com | Bill Flick

Question: Next March will make the 10th anniversary of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump flying into Central Illinois Regional Airport in Bloomington for a campaign rally inside a hangar there and while here, ordering for lunch from the nearby McDonald's. Do you know what he ordered? Answer: According to an aide at nearby Synergy Flight Center where Trump was appearing: two Big Macs, two Filet-O-Fish, no fries and a chocolate milk shake. "That's what he always orders," said the aide.