(mimicking wolf howl) - Werewolves of Peoria.

- Well, not werewolves, but definitely wolves.

- And armadillos and all sorts of stuff.

- "You Gotta See This!"

(upbeat music) - So these wolves, do we get to pet 'em?

- Um, I don't think that's a great idea, but they are so cute, and they're little pups.

I can't wait to show you Wildlife Prairie Park's newest members.

(soft foghorn) (soft suspenseful music) We're today at the wolf enclosure at Wildlife Prairie Park.

- I'm a animal curator out here and I've been out here for about 10 years.

So since I've been here, we haven't had young wolves, really.

So it's very exciting to have this new wolf pack here.

We do still have McKenzie, who's 16, but we didn't want to introduce them together.

That typically doesn't do, go over well with wolves, so.

Around the end of the year, we got these four wolves.

The three black ones are the males, and I believe they were from a separate litter than the female, that's the silver one.

So she's really easy to tell apart.

Her name is Luna, and the other ones are August, Cypress, and Sumac.

I will say that Luna, even though she's the only female, she's definitely the alpha, and like, if we give some big meat chunks out there and she's got one, these guys don't bother her with it.

- [Julie] This pack of gray wolves has just arrived at Wildlife Prairie Park from a Minnesota wolf breeder.

And at nine months old, weighing in at about 100 pounds each, they can sometimes be wolves in sheep's clothing.

- [Anna] I honestly didn't know how their demeanor was going to be.

I didn't know if they were gonna be standoffish or super playful, and they were not standoffish at all.

And so it was really rewarding to just have them like come check you out right away and interact with you.

We just have to keep in mind that they are wolves, no matter how much they kind of jump and play like dogs.

- [Julie] It's doggone easy to see how our favorite house pets are related to these wild animals.

The Wildlife Prairie Park staff has spotted this furry four-pack digging holes in the enclosure, playing tug of war with sticks, and rolling in some really smelly stuff.

That definitely sounds like a puppy at my house.

But there are significant differences.

- They just have different instincts.

Even if they were raised in captivity, they just react differently.

You know, when dogs play with you, it's a little more gentle.

If they try to rough house with you, they'll treat you as another wolf.

Just those instincts, really.

Yeah, they look very similar to, I don't know what you'd say, a husky or a German shepherd or a mix, but it's just those natural instincts they have and they'll always just kinda-- - That's great.

- Come on, babies.

- Look a little different.

- I'ma get outta the way.

- Come on, get some.

- [Julie] And man, oh man, can they wolf down the food.

Five pounds of meat for each of these creatures.

It's a mixture of venison, beef, chicken, and horse meat just to keep them healthy and satisfied.

- [Anna] So you can see the bison and elk out here.

- [Julie] Right.

- [Anna] Which is something they would normally hunt up north and in Canada and-- - Sure.

- Yellowstone and all that.

What the bison have and elk have is kind of stamina.

So the wolves see for a little bit and then they have to have a lot of stamina to keep up and tire out the prey.

So the bison, they can just keep kinda running forever-- - At a steady pace.

- And the wolves have to be able to keep up-- - Ah.

- When they tire out is when they get 'em, unless they luck out some other way with like an injured animal.

- [Julie] The two overlooks and trails around the wolf exhibit are open and ready for you and your family to come out and experience the call of the wild for yourself.

- We'll also have an update in our ongoing coverage in the March of the Armadillos.

- We love our armadillos because they're cute in their own special way.

We'll show you the latest sighting in Central Illinois.

- March of the Armadillos-- - Last summer-- - Can't wait.

- "You Gotta See This!"

reported on the March of the Armadillos.

Aside from digging up gardens, they're essentially harmless.

But you rarely see them around Peoria.

The critters moved into Southern Illinois several years ago.

From there, they've been steadily moving north, in general, about as far as Springfield Could they permanently relocate even further, more toward Peoria, year round?

Experts have doubted armadillos could survive winters in Central and Southern Illinois.

However, in January, Steve Waterworth of Havana was driving near the town of Easton by the Crane Creek Bridge.

He spotted this armadillo, apparently looking for something to eat.

Waterworth thinks the little guy, which he says looked peaceful, might be living under the bridge.

So welcome to Central Illinois, Mr. Armadillo, or Ms. Armadillo, whatever.

Just don't forget to watch "You Gotta See This!"

every Tuesday at 5:30 PM.

(light jazz music) We're also gonna talk about a new strategy by the city of Peoria to buy dilapidated properties on the cheap.

It's a way to create tantalizing new development opportunities.

- Ooh, speaking of tantalizing, we're gonna talk to a mom and pop shop in Chillicothe that bake the best cheesecakes you've ever tasted.

Let's go see 'em now.

Harreld Webster was bored with his job, so he went looking for a new hobby.

Instead, he found a new career.

Harreld and his wife, Tagwana, own Triple Dipple's Treats & Delicacies in Chillicothe where they've sold countless cheesecakes and cookies for almost six years.

Their secret?

He knows what people like.

- My stomach leads the way.

As with the beginning, it's what I feel like eating.

If I try something, I'm like, "I wonder if that would be great in a cheesecake."

- [Julie] The couple lives in Peoria with three children.

Several years ago, Tagwana was a stay-at-home mom and Harreld worked as a maintenance supervisor.

But he found the work tedious at times.

So seeking a creative outlet, he started to noodle around the kitchen.

- [Harreld] I wanted a cheesecake and I couldn't find what I was looking for anywhere else.

And so I spent about two months and way too much money just making a recipe that I would appreciate, just that I would enjoy.

- [Julie] He experimented with various flavors, which family and friends loved.

In 2015, the couple decided to sell cheesecakes at the farmers market.

Amid the brisk sales, Tagwana saw a bright future.

- Tagwana has pushed me to go further.

She's the one that encouraged me to do the farmers markets.

She's the one that encouraged me to buy more pans and spend the money when I couldn't see if the money was gonna come in, and she's the one that really encouraged me to quit my job, actually, to go into this full-time.

- [Julie] To set up shop, they found a shuttered bakery in Chillicothe.

They called it Triple Dipple, a play on their son's nickname, Trip.

The first Black-owned business in Chillicothe history, the place has been a smash from the start.

- [Tagwana] Our first day, we had a line going down the sidewalk to get in and we actually sold out of product-- - [Harreld] Of everything.

- [Tagwana] By like three hours in, we had no more product and we could not believe the success.

We were like, "Are you kidding me?"

Which we were so thankful.

- [Julie] Success has been a family affair.

- [Harreld] My son would make the cookie dough, my daughter would help with the, or my daughter, Macy, would help with the arranging.

Madison is now full-time.

She's here every day that we're open.

- [Julie] The community has lent a hand as well.

- [Tagwana] People actually are helping us on social media.

- [Harreld] Oh, yeah.

- [Tagwana] So when they plug us, they say, "Oh my gosh, this is so good."

Our followers have just exploded.

And I'm thankful because now it's not like a little gem on the map.

People are saying, "If you're going up to I-80 "or to Chicago, you've gotta stop at Triple Dipple's."

So that's been a great success for us.

- [Julie] And they keep coming back for that cheesecake.

- [Harreld] Turtle's probably the top seller overall.

But it depends on where we are.

So if we're in Peoria, Sweet Tater is king.

If we're in Chillicothe, it's definitely Turtle.

In Morton, it's anything pumpkin.

- [Julie] Last year they decided to launch a new business, a coffee shop.

Chillicothe already had two of those, so they decided to look elsewhere.

- I really appreciate small towns because they really support what's in their town.

One thing I know is that people want to stay in their community.

They want to go ahead and support local business owners.

- [Julie] They found a place in Germantown Hills and soon became the proprietors of the village's only Black-owned business.

It's called MadMac's Coffee, named after their daughters, Madison and Macy.

- [Tagwana] That kinda has taken off and we've been doing really well with Germantown.

Thankful to say that they've been supporting.

More people are starting to find out about MadMac's and are coming to the coffee shop on a regular basis.

- [Julie] The couple sees their customers as friends.

- [Tagwana] Because you get to know the people.

You actually start to know, like we have a person in the coffee shop that we know every morning, he's gonna come in and every morning, he's gonna want cold foam with this cold brew.

And you kinda get to know people and you find out their hobbies or, a couple people come in say, "Hey, have you seen this new movie?"

And you're like, "Oh, let's talk about the movie."

So again, you get to know people, you have those connections, and it is community.

- [Julie] Business is going well at both sites.

But in each town, the couple sees themselves less as entrepreneurs than as members of the community.

- [Harreld] It definitely becomes something bigger than your initial idea.

Like, I started a bakery.

It's not my bakery, it's Chillicothe's bakery.

It's not our coffee shop, it's Germantown Hills's Coffee Shop (light upbeat music) - [Phil] The city of Peoria eyes development of vacant properties on its south side, a long-term vision you can take to the bank.

The Peoria Land Bank, that is.

The city created the land bank in 2021 as part of a long-term strategy; buy dilapidated properties cheap, and cluster them into prime development spots.

- In a perfect world you want a very robust private market where vacant land goes for sale, people sell, buy it, build something new, generating property taxes.

Where land banks come in is when that's not necessarily occurring.

- [Phil] In Illinois, there are six land banks, including Peoria's.

A pair of state grants provided Peoria with more than $350,000 in funding.

That's a lot of money when you're talking about vacant properties on the south side of Peoria.

There, the city, mostly through delinquent tax auctions, has snapped up scads of rundown homes.

Last year, for example, the city bought 85 homes most destined for demolition.

The price for each, $400.

- And it's not competing with the private market because it's really just an abandoned property that because of bureaucracy will just sit abandoned for years and years.

- [Phil] On those $400 sites, no developer will build single-family homes.

- [Joe] The cost to build a house, even a cheaper, smaller house, is probably, the cheapest you can get is probably 150 to $200,000 and the market just doesn't support that in 61605.

- [Phil] On their own, those $400 properties are essentially worth nothing.

But packaged together, they have great value for development potential.

- So we're really not kind of in the land bank game to see how we can maximize the profit.

It's really about the long-term growth and health of our community.

- [Phil] Though the Land Bank has sparked the rejuvenation of two properties on the Cinder Bluff and West Bluff, the focus is on South Peoria.

- And we do absolutely have to have quality, affordable housing in the south side of Peoria.

We've lost that, Council District 1 lost 5,000 people from 2010 to 2020.

- [Phil] The city believes more housing will bring more residents, which should bring new businesses.

- [Joe] You know, the first thing we need to do to that area is get housing.

I mean, with population loss, you're not gonna be able to attract businesses.

And if you start getting people living down there, that's when businesses will naturally come.

- [Phil] The mayor says there are people who have moved out of South Peoria but would like to move back if housing were to improve there.

- [Rita] There's people that want to live on the south side of Peoria but there's not enough affordable, quality housing there.

- [Phil] Those kind of connections also could help with investment in development, the mayor says.

- [Rita] And one group that I'm interested in in bringing in are the South Side alumni.

Those people who grew up on the south side of Peoria, they still have fond memories.

They live all over America, or they have means, they have skills, they have talents, and may be interested in investing back in those neighborhoods that they grew up in.

- [Phil] Two pending projects loom on tracks cleared via the land bank.

At MacArthur Highway near West McBean Street, across from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Park, MacArthur's Senior Flats would encompass four stories and 60 units.

Off West Antoinette Street, near St. Ann's Catholic Church and the Garden of Hope, townhouses and duplexes would total 48 units at Churchview Garden Homes.

For those two proposals, the city is working with an Ohio developer.

If all goes well, construction could start in 2024 and finish by that year's end.

- [Joe] Within just those two areas of 61605, potentially $30 million of investment in 150 new housing units.

And I think the disinvestment that's occurred the last 50 years in 61605, hopefully getting some of these projects is really reversing that trend.

- [Phil] Over the next two years, The city hopes to create eight or nine further chunks of development-ready tracks.

One is in the 1900 and 2000 blocks of West Lincoln Avenue.

The stretch consists mostly of city-owned vacant lots, plus a few crumbling bungalows.

But Mayor Ali looks down the two blocks and sees much more.

She imagines more duplexes and town homes, thanks to the Peoria Land Bank.

- [Rita] It's going to be a great opportunity, I think, to bring housing to the South Side.

(light upbeat music) - Potlucks are a staple in the Midwest and when someone asks me to bring a salad, this Italian chopped salad is my first choice.

It has an incredible combination of ingredients and flavors all tossed together.

Let's start with the easy homemade vinegarette which can be made up to a week ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator.

I like to mix my dressing in a nice canning jar with a tight lid, but any jar will do.

Just make sure it has a lid that fits nice and tight.

We're going to add two tablespoons of red wine vinegar, a tablespoon of freshly-squeezed lemon juice, a tablespoon of dried oregano.

I love oregano in a salad dressing.

A teaspoon of dried basil.

I've minced two garlic cloves.

We'll go ahead and add that in.

A pinch of red pepper flakes.

It's optional, but we all know it's gonna give the salad a really good kick.

Two tablespoons of grated Parmesan, and an eighth of a teaspoon each of your salt and your ground black pepper.

One and a quarter cup of your favorite extra virgin olive oil.

We're gonna go ahead and seal the lid in.

Give it a really good shake.

That's gonna be a great dressing.

Let's get going on the salad.

I have one medium red onion.

I've sliced it thin.

One 14-ounce cans of garbanzo beans.

I've drained them, rinsed them, and patted them dry.

Five cups of romaine lettuce cut into one-inch pieces.

I love radicchio.

It has such a nice, beautiful color and it adds some crispness to the salad.

I've used a medium head and I cut it into quarter-inch strips.

I've got two cups of nice, ripe cherry tomatoes.

I've cut these in half.

One medium cucumber, cut 'em in about quarter-inch pieces.

Four ounces of provolone cheese.

I've cut these in nice thin strips.

What sets this salad apart from many others is the pepperoncinis.

They're just Tuscan peppers or mild sweet red chilies.

You can use fresh from the garden in the summer.

I like to use the pickled variety that I find in my condiment section of my favorite grocery store.

Just slice them up thin and toss those pepperoncinis right into the salad.

Don't forget to add a half a cup of your pitted black Kalamata olives.

And we're gonna mix our salad.

Look at how delicious.

So many great variety of vegetables.

Give it a good toss.

I have all the vegetables combined in my big salad bowl.

Now it's time to shake the dressing.

I'm gonna lightly drizzle the dressing on the salad just to give it a nice light, even coating.

Give it a nice gentle toss.

Ooh, this is looking good.

Perfect amount of dressing.

You don't want a swimming pool of dressing on the bottom of your salad bowl.

I like to serve my salad in a nice wooden salad bowl.

But sometimes if I wanna get a little extra fancy, I transfer it onto one of my favorite platters.

Look at how pretty that looks, all the colors.

The radicchio really makes this salad pop.

Your potluck friends are gonna ask for this recipe.

It's because this salad is a little bit more exotic than your typical green salad thanks to those pepperoncinis.

And what I love about this salad is you could take it from just a side salad to a main dish by just adding your favorite protein.

You can add some sliced hard boiled eggs, some grilled chicken, fish, or even steak.

Delicious, and it turns it into a main course.

This is why I make this salad year round, because it's so versatile.

I hope you try this at home.

(upbeat jazz music) - I'm Jennifer Nichols with Hollywood & Vine here in Hollywood, Illinois, and we are going to make a lineup of shots of our signature drink called, The Salty Morgan which is Jackson Morgan Salted Caramel and Kahlua.

This is our most ordered shot here.

A lot of people aren't familiar with Jackson Morgan but it's a cream-based whiskey liqueur.

And then most people are familiar with Kahlua.

It's more of a chocolate-coffee liqueur.

So this is gonna be a little bit more like a dessert.

You wanna start passing 'em around while I do these?

- Sure.

And then we'll...

It's pretty simple, but it's delicious.

We actually made this up at home because someone had recommended that we get Jackson Morgan and it was very good, and we were taking it home with us, and Marshall and I were drinking a bottle in like half an hour.

So we decided we needed to do something to make it last longer.

And we had a bottle of Kahlua in the cabinet.

And so we started mixing it together, and shortly after that, I had someone come in one day that asked for a tasty shot but that wasn't fruity or girly, and decided to pour this as a shot instead of as the drink that we had been making at home.

And that's how we ended up with it.

We got everybody?

Does everybody got one?

- No.

- Can I call you back?

(customer talks indistinctly) - Yep, sure, yeah, yeah.

Who needs one?

- That everybody?

- [Customer] We have a couple (indistinct) - Couple.

(customers chattering) - [Customer] Cocktails and brews (indistinct) - [Customer] You got everything?

- Oh, yeah.

- Anybody else need one?

- Yep, one more.

(customers chattering) - All right, everybody, cheers.

- [Customers Together] Cheers!

(customers cheering) - [Customer] Happy Anniversary.

- [Jennifer] Thank you.

(soft jazz music) - [Phil] Nestled in the heart of the old Industrial District on Peoria's far south side is a decaying building holding many treasures that haven't been seen for decades.

What once was bustling United Warehouse Company in the early 1900s has succumbed to the elements.

But both inside and out, oddities are being found.

Outside the building, the bricks crafted by artisans of long ago are being harvested for reuse in new projects.

Inside the giant oak beams and wood flooring are highly desirable and being carefully removed to shine again in new houses in commercial buildings.

Of course, the building had been in great disrepair for many years.

So roofs, walls, and floors are no longer holding the former behemoth together.

But besides the structure, dark and cold for many years, some of the leftover artifacts inside the building are the most intriguing.

"You Gotta See This!"

got an exclusive tour of what's left of the old building and some of the history hidden inside.

Like this five-foot statue of a mermaid, probably cast 50 or more years ago, still stood giving good luck to all that entered.

Potbelly stoves were certainly a necessity to keep warm.

How about one of these grand pianos, that may have been the centerpiece of a beautiful house on Moss Avenue 100 years ago?

And what about this buggy made by the Peoria Buggy Company, nestled on the fourth floor of the giant tomb?

Who used this?

A former mayor of Peoria?

A whiskey baron?

A vaudeville actor?

What a pleasure it was to walk through this old warehouse and imagine the hustle of workers and the smell of cigar smoke.

What a beautiful view of Peoria.

- Wolves, armadillos, and cheesecake, oh my.

- What a combination.

Ya never know what's gonna be served up on this show.

Make sure you come back next week on "You Gotta See This!"

- "You Gotta See This!"

(light upbeat music)