- Ah, summertime you're gonna be out and about, so you're gonna wanna have some places where you can stop to eat, drink, and be merry.

- And I think we're gonna show you some places that you may have never seen before.

You gotta see this.

(upbeat music) What's more all American than a hotdog?

- Oh, good eatin' in the summertime especially.

let's go to Galesburg where the oldest restaurant is a hotdog stand and walking in there, it's like going into a time machine.

- My name's Jesus Valdez, and this is my mom, Rhea.

This is my daughter Bree, my son Manny, we're the Valdez family.

And this is three generations here working together.

(cheerful music) - When Jesus Valdez took over Coney Island two decades ago, he knew the recipe for success.

Well, make that two recipes.

One would be the secret formula for the Coney sauce that has brought in countless eager customers for more than a century.

The other would be the throwback atmosphere that looks virtually the same as opening day in 1921.

That old-time approach keeps people packing the place.

- And you see families bringing in their young ones and generation, generation and it just keeps on being tradition for some families to come in here and have Coney dogs.

- Valdez now 48 years old, had been managing a bar and grill when he bought the business 20 years ago.

Coney Island is the oldest eatery in Galesburg.

Like many of its kind, it was started by a pair of Greek brothers.

To dress their dogs, they leaned on their homeland's traditional salsa keema, a spicy tomato-based meat sauce, and the layouts for all those eateries look similar in Brooklyn or Galesburg.

- They all had the same setup with the grill in the front window and the long bar like this.

- His grill and 40-foot bar are originals as are many of the decorations dotting the walls and ceiling including signs for sodas, breads and gasoline, plus a pinball machine and gramophone,.

It's like a wondrous time machine to visitors, especially newbies.

- Yeah, it is a lot of stuff.

And, and well, they, they take pictures.

They like looking around and looking at different things.

- The decor also includes some of the few scant changes at Coney Island thanks to the generosity of faithful customers.

- The reason why we have so much stuff is cuz people donate things to us and say, Hey, this will look better in here than it would in our basement.

So over the years it's been building up more and more.

- Valdez enjoys interaction with patrons.

Word of mouth brings in newcomers such as those from nearby Knox College.

Others find it by Google.

- You get to meet a lot of people.

You meet people from all around the world.

- Others have been coming for years and years.

Roby Souther routinely drives 30 minutes from his home in Kirkwood for the Coney dogs.

As an HVAC repairman, he first discovered the place when in town for a work project in the 1980s.

- I came here and I got hooked on it.

This is unique flavor, good satisfying meal for a working guy, or I'm retired now, but I still want to have one every chance I get.

- Souther knows of no Coney Dog competition in the area.

- You find them on the East Coast.

There's some places like that.

I'm not sure if I know any place around that does it around here besides these guys.

- Credit that to the heart of Coney Island, the sauce that gets slathered to top the basic $3 Coney Dog.

The secret sauce recipe is on a tattered scrap of paper which is signed by all seven owners over the past 102 years.

- We have it put away, we have it safe.

We don't, we don't keep it just laying around, but that's what we're known for is the Coney Sauce.

- Uniqueness is a big reason why Coney Island sells as many as 1000 hotdogs a day.

- A lot of people claim they know the recipe and they come in here and say, oh, I have the recipe for the Coney Island Sauce.

And they start measuring some ingredients and it's not nothing compared to what we, how we make it.

- Valdez thinks there's no other recipe like it.

- I even spent hours and hours online, you know, looking up different Coney Island recipes and I've never seen one online that's even close to ours at all.

- There's one other secret to the eatery's continued success.

Just as when Coney Island started, it is run by a family including Valdez daughter Maria, son Manny, and mom Maria.

The latter is responsible for one of the rare additions to the Coney Island menu.

During a workday break a few years back, she and the family ate tamales that she had made from a family recipe.

Customers noticed and requested the tamales, which eventually were added to the offerings.

- We only did it once a year for us.

They will see that we had tamales, we were eating tamales and they wanted some tamales.

So that's how it started.

Little by little a dozen and then two dozen, three, four a lot of, so I have to make a lot of them sometimes.

- Meantime, the menu gets occasional small tweaks.

For instance, a new edition is the Mud Puppy, a dog topped with a thick cheese sauce originally created as a chip dip.

- The Mud Puppy's a chili cheesy sauce.

It's very cheesy.

If you like cheese, I tell 'em ,you'll love it.

- It's been a solid seller.

And though the menu is important, Valdez points elsewhere for the continued success of Coney Island.

- What Really makes this place survive and go is the community, is the customers, you know, without them guys this place wouldn't be here for a hundred years.

(cheerful music) (upbeat music) - Hi, I'm Phil Luciano and welcome to delicious Worth Township for another episode of 8-Track Time Machine.

And today with the Time Machine, we've got a special focus.

We're going to dig up some food songs from the 8-track era.

And if you're thinking, Hmm, food songs, yum, yum, and what kind of songs might those be?

And you might think, for example, oh how about Poundcake by Van Halen?

I gotta tell you, remember, the 8-track era is around the mid sixties to the very early eighties.

So Poundcake would be outside that range, okay?

But that doesn't mean for the special food episode we can't pay a visit on Van Halen because here is a sweet, sweet song from their debut album.

- ♪ I got something for you ♪ I'm your ice cream man ♪ stop me when I'm passin' by Give me some treble.

♪ I'm your ice cream man ♪ stop me when I'm passin' by ♪ See all my flavors and - Ah yes, got puddin' pie banana and dixie cups.

You don't hear lyrics like that too often in songs.

And probably David Lee Roth was thinking of something other than food when he sang it, you know that.

But you might not know this.

In Van Halen's heyday, David Lee Roth sometimes seemed more about the flash than about the music.

You know, he was the front man extraordinaire, leaping around Dave TV, and all that kind of stuff.

But before he joined Van Halen, Roth was really into old-time Blues.

And one of his favorite artists was a Chicago Blues man named John Brim, who in 1953 wrote this song.

- ♪ I'm your ice cream man ♪stop me when I'm passin' by - As a young musician, Roth played that song all the time.

And so when it came for the debut Van Halen album, he insisted they include Ice Cream Man.

And it became a fan favorite.

In fact, fans ate it up so much, Roth came up with his own guitar.

It looked kind of like a dreamsicle, but in typical Dave fashion, it was a Dave Sickle.

That's quite the history for a little old food song.

And as Dave would say, it's guaranteed to satisfy.

- Now we're headed to Bloomington to Epiphany Farms.

They have their own farm-to-table operation.

- Oh yeah, and it's their own farm and their own tables.

Check this out.

(gentle guitar music) - It's just so cool to like get this sphere of Lakeway that can be turned into something that's just, you know, so complex and delicious.

- Whether it's talking about making wine or describing where his hens lay their eggs.

- These are my egg mobiles.

- McClain County Farmer and Chef Ken Myszka, has a unique way of looking at the world and he's passionate about the food and restaurants many of us take for granted.

In 2007, he had an epiphany.

- This is actually how I started.

So when I was working in Las Vegas at Caesars Palace, we were buying these from a farm in the Midwest.

And I'm like, these seem so easy to grow.

I was like, I bet I can grow these.

And so I got rid of my computer desk, I put in grow lights.

I started growing micro-greens and then selling them to Caesars Palace.

And that's when all of a sudden this light bulb went off.

I was like, man, I was like, I could do this with everything.

Why don't we just grow all this stuff?

It makes so much more sense.

- That inspiration has grown into Epiphany Farms, a 70-acre estate in Downs that may be one of the most diverse farms in Illinois.

12 acres of gardens growing 300 varieties of vegetables that you won't find in stores.

Fruit and nut trees, hogs and chickens for meat, hens for eggs, beehives for honey, vineyards, goats and more.

What does Ken do with all that food?

Well in part, he supplies his four Bloomington restaurants Epiphany Farms Restaurant, Anju Above, Harmony Korean Barbecue, and a speakeasy, Bakery and Pickle.

- We buy about $1.2 million worth of food as a hospitality group.

And we're raising, you know, around $350,000 worth of product.

And then that's sold to our restaurant.

Our dream is to get to about 50% someday.

- Ken says a restaurant isn't a place of rest but restoration to restore our health with substance and nutrients.

He says he witnessed a disconnect in the food system and wanted to start a social change.

- I wanted to move back home and try to connect the community to the land as much as possible and connect our menus to the seasonality and the local production of the region.

- The Wall Street Journal described Epiphany Farms as Farm to Table 2.0.

It's also becoming an agritourism destination featuring an event facility for weddings, parties, and fundraisers, a huge rental house and a popular place for tours and field trips.

- When we have more organic matter, we have more water retention in the soil.

We have more nutrient accessibility.

- Ken isn't trying to build his own empire.

He wants to teach others to have a positive impact on the environment.

- On this farm, we have a lot of micro climates.

We can increase organic matter.

We can increase water retention.

We can increase biodiversity, have more beneficial insects.

We have more beneficial pollinators.

There's a lot of things we can do on our site and then we can ask that as a showcase and an inspiration for other people to adopt some of these practices.

- None of these good intentions will support the farm, restaurants and 200 employees if the food isn't good.

- These are bone in.

We got about a 16-ounce cut here.

So you can see great marbling.

- At the Epiphany Farms Restaurant, Chef Stu Hummel shows us the work that goes into creating a signature dish.

- Knowing where the product comes from, and knowing that we have this (indistinct) and knowing we can support the community and giving nutritionally-dense food to people that support us is why we're here and paramount to our success.

There you have it.

We have our 16-ounce bone-in pork chop, potato graton, lace farm veg, a little roasting juice around the outside.

Available at Epiphany farms seven days a week.

Come join us.

(gentle music continues) (upbeat music) - Welcome back to our special food episode of 8- Track Time Machine.

Our next food song is Sugar Sugar.

This was a 1969 single off the Saturday morning cartoon show, the Archie Show.

Now The Archies was a studio band made up of a lot of no-name guys.

Ron Dante was the lead singer.

He went on to do pretty much nothing in terms of his name, but he did nine, he produced nine albums for Barry Manilow.

Pretty good career.

- ♪ sugar ah honey honey ♪ you are my candy girl, ♪ and you got me wanting you - And one of the writers was Andy Kim, who later went on to number one with the rocking song, Rock Me Gently.

All of that swirl of personnel turned out to be pretty magical because Sugar Sugar went all the way to number one.

It spent four weeks there and it dislodged from that top position none other than the Rolling Stones, who were at the top with Honky Tonk Woman.

Sugar Sugar spent 22 weeks on the charts in 1969, the biggest selling single of the year.

In fact, it's now known as the biggest single of the Bubblegum Pop Era, which was the late sixties to the very early seventies.

And it sold maybe about a million units, pretty darn good.

Plus you could get a single on the back of cereal boxes, especially Super Sugar Crisp.

Nowadays Sugar Sugar is considered the archetype of bubblegum pop leading to songs like, I think I Love You by The Partridge Family and Saturday Night by the Bay City Rollers.

In fact, some music critics say that without songs like Sugar Sugar, there would not be later boy bands like say, New Kids on the Block.

That's a pretty good legacy for a bunch of no names who put that song together and maybe the sweetest legacy from any song of the Bubblegum Era.

(upbeat music) - I'm getting a little thirsty.

Maybe we should head over to Utica and The Little Soda Pop Shop.

- They've got over 350 sodas.

Some are weird, some are wacky, all are worth a taste.

- Thirsty for barf or maybe you're hankering' for a delicious bloody nose.

How about a pimple pop?

Then head to Utica and The Little Soda Pop Shop.

That's where they have the labels of all these weird and wild sodas.

Some might tickle your funny bone while others might turn your stomach.

- We have turkey and gravy, we have barf, we have coffee, we have enchilada, bacon, bacon with chocolate, bacon with maple.

So we have a variety.

- But don't judge a book by its cover or a soda by its label.

Just ask Jean who has tried almost every one of the 350-plus varieties in her shop.

- There isn't really any that I have totally disliked, even our gross sodas.

I mean, some of them are very good.

The bloody nose, for instance, you would think, Ooh, I don't want you know, bloody nose and pimple pop.

Bloody nose is a wild cherry, pimple pop is a marshmallow soda.

Both are very good.

- Such are the treasures found amid the burgeoning world of craft soda.

Jean and her husband first got into retail treats with their Little Land of Candy and More in Chillicothe, which sold some quirky sodas.

In 2019, they decided to branch out.

They found an ideal slot between a candy shop and a cupcake bakery.

It's the only shop in Central Illinois with the sole focus on soda.

- So we're like, Hey, we'll bring the sodas over.

Soda, candy, cupcakes made a great combination.

- Located next to Starved Rock State Park, tourists roam around looking for something eye-catching and they get an eyeful here at The Little Soda Pop Shop.

- They're like, oh my gosh, look at all these sodas.

You know, I've not seen all these sodas before.

- Sodas at the shop run from $2.95 for most bottles to up to $8 for some of the half-gallon jugs.

Young customers gravitate towards the outrageous labels, those from the disgusting like slime liquor to quizzical like fungal fruit to the very intimidating reaper roulette and the aforementioned barf soda, it sounds scary because you don't know what's inside.

- It is made of beets, but that is the only soda that does not have a flavor listed.

- Great chunky flavor.

- Otherwise, the clientele includes a good number of grownups.

Some regulars come in for mass-produced brands like Squirt or Dr. Pepper.

Why?

Like all sodas at the shop, they're sold in glass bottles.

- A glass bottle just tastes better.

- Other adults thrive on connoisseur-like selections.

- Those soda people that like soda like the variety of different flavors and you know, something that they can try different than what they have had before.

- Some like flights, you might have heard of flights of breweries where craft beer fans try small samples of multiple beers.

At The Little Soda Pop Shop, tourists often create custom flights to take to their hotels.

- People will get, you know, like a four-pack or six-pack.

Oh, let's go, you know, back to the room and try these.

- Meanwhile, some adults lean towards nostalgia.

Sometimes that means the label such as this Farrah Faucet Cream soda which mirrors her famous 1970s poster.

- I got Farrah cuz I slept next to this poster.

- It's like bringing back their childhood.

You know, it's like they take that first sip and it's like ah, I remember when.

- We decided to try a handful of the wackier brands, the best of the lot, bloody nose.

- Ooh - It smells good.

That smells like cherry.

- That's one darn good soda.

- I love a good bloody nose.

- If bloody noses were like this, I'd punch myself in the nose every day.

- I could help you if you want.

- Nice to have friends.

- It is.

And barf, well, it wasn't that bad.

All right, barf, here we go.

- That's kind of good.

Kind of like a, like a fruit.

Not like a sweetie, like a, like a guava.

I don't even know what guava tastes like.

- He's never even had fruit in his whole life or vegetables.

But ranch dressing, oof.

You'll get all your fixins is the tagline there.

- Oh my gosh, does that smell disgusting?

Smell it.

- It's, it's a light ranch.

No, not ranchy bouquet, okay.

- It doesn't taste as bad as it smells.

- I expected much worse.

It's actually refreshing.

- It's not refreshing, it's not horrible.

Oh, the stink though.

Holy smokes, that was awful to smell.

Don't smell it, drink it, don't smell it.

- Just drink it, here's what we've learned here today.

Sometimes things have gross labels but they don't taste gross, so don't judge a book or a soda by its cover.

Cheers.

(upbeat music) - Welcome back to our Food Special on 8-Track Time Machine.

Let's have a few licks of the Candyman.

Now for a sweet and upbeat song, you'd be surprised to know that this was hated.

Hated by some of the principal people involved in creating it, especially Sammy Davis Jr.

It was written for the 1971 film, Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory.

And it was sung in the movie by Aubrey Woods.

He's the actor who played Bill the candy store owner.

- ♪ who can take a sunrise sprinkle it with dew ♪ ♪ cover it in chocolate and a miracle or two ♪ ♪ the Candyman the Candyman can ♪ - That sound okay?

Anthony Newly didn't think so.

He was the guy who wrote the words for the song and he thought that the way it was done for the movie, it wasn't slick or commercial enough for his taste.

In fact, he thought it could be a smash, maybe even Oscar worthy.

So he got in a big fight with the filmmakers who finally agreed to let him do his own version.

And then the producers for Sammy Davis Jr., they showed it to Sammy cuz they wanted him to do a version - ♪ soak it in the sun and make a groovy lemon pie ♪ ♪ the Candyman Candyman can ♪ you know the Candyman can 'cause he mixes it with love ♪ ♪ to make the world taste good - So Sammy agreed reluctantly and he put it on his Sammy Davis Jr. Now album.

But he hated the song.

He thought it was too saccharin, too shallow, and he just kind of worked his way through it and said, ah, I'm done with it.

Further, it became known as one of Sammy's signature tunes and it got nominated for a Grammy.

And you know the rest of this.

Sammy became known as the Candyman.

For all the hate that that song had around it, that's not a bad success story because you know the Candyman makes everything he bakes satisfying and delicious.

(upbeat music) - My roasted mushroom crostini is an elegant appetizer that will wow your guests.

Crostini sounds fancy, but it's super easy to make.

All you need is a crusty baguette.

For the topping, I like to use a mixture of sliced cremini, button, oyster and shiitake mushrooms.

But before we roast them, we need to coat them.

I'm adding olive oil, minced garlic, Ooh, get all that in there.

I love garlic, salt, pepper, fresh thyme.

I'll mix that up until it's good and coated.

The flavors of all these mushrooms really compliment each other for a wonderful earthy flavor.

Place the mushroom mixture into a sheet pan and spread them out evenly.

We'll roast the mushrooms in a 400-degree oven for about 12 to 14 minutes.

Now for the spread, I've already drained my ricotta mixture for about 15 minutes.

I'm adding some minced garlic about one clove, some sliced fresh basil.

Oh, the smell of basil and garlic together.

I just love it.

And stirring it really enhances both of their flavors.

The bread slices just came out from under the broiler.

I brush them with some olive oil and they're nice and golden brown.

Before we top them, I need to mix the arugula with the roasted mushrooms.

Let's give that a good mix.

Now I'm going to spread the ricotta cheese mixture right onto the crostini.

I'm gonna do a couple, well look at how creamy that is.

Now I'll top them with the mushrooms and arugula.

(light music) Look at how beautiful.

And now for the final touch, a little bit of grated Parmesan.

These are creamy, crunchy, and so tasty.

Serve these at your next gathering and watch them disappear.

(light music continues) (upbeat music) - Welcome back for the last time to our special edition, our special food edition of 8- Track Time Machine.

And this is a call to the galley because we're gonna go to Cheeseburger in Paradise, the 1978 hit by Jimmy Buffett.

It was on his Son of a Son of a Sailor Album.

And you can like this song for a lot of reasons.

Maybe you just like cheeseburgers or maybe you can appreciate the fact that the song's about a guy who was on a diet too, as Buffett sang, amend his carnivorous habit until he just got sick of it and got his hands on a huge hunk of meat.

To the latter, Buffett said that this song was inspired from some true-life events.

He and his buddies were on his boat in the Caribbean Sea, right?

And so they're out there and some, there's some sort of malfunction with the boat.

And so they can't really go fast they can't get much of anywhere, so they're a little bit marooned in the middle of of the Caribbean Sea.

All is okay, but they're running out of food.

And the food supply gets lower and lower and lower and they're not starving.

But all I have are cans of food and maybe some jars of peanut butter.

And in that almost starvation, really hungry mood, Buffett starts getting inspired to start writing a food song, okay?

And he is got most of it together until finally they get the boat fixed and they get to safe harbor and they get on shore and it's boom, they light out to a burger joint and it's these big cheeseburgers and Buffett's like, aha.

That's the focus.

That's the centerpiece of this song.

- ♪ cheeseburger in paradise, ♪ heaven on earth with an onion slice ♪ ♪ not too particular not too precise ♪ ♪ I'm just a cheeseburger in paradise ♪ - Also in the original, Buffet sings Cheeseburger in Paradise.

But in later versions, the live versions he sings, Cheeseburger is Paradise.

- ♪ cheeseburger is paradise - And when you think about that, if you're a burger fan, you really can't argue cuz cheeseburgers are paradise.

- Toot toot.

- I think we're all on board for this past episode.

It was amazing.

I think we were on the right track.

- It was a great trip to some fine eats and drinks, and you never know where we'll be next time when we take another trip on.

- You Gotta See This!

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues)