Illinois’s First Luxury Campground Returns With a Blockbuster Pop-Up Lineup | Eater Chicago

"An upscale, 96-acre campsite and event venue billed as Illinois’s first “luxury campground,” located just outside Starved Rock in Tonica (about 90 minutes south of the city), reopens for a full season after five years of planning and pandemic delays, with a reopening on April 29 and a public grand-opening tour on May 15. The historic former 19th-century brickyard—wildflower-laden and thoroughly transformed into a hotel-style retreat—offers 11 safari-style tents with hardwood floors, en-suite bathrooms, king-size beds, mini-fridges, air conditioning, and individual campfires, plus lodge-style dining in the Barn, a coffee-and-cocktail bar inside a vintage 1971 Airstream called the Burlington, and Bricks & Stones, a private event space housed in an 1800s blacksmith shop. Chicago chef Cleetus Friedman oversees dining and catering, programming a monthly dinner series that features decorated guest chefs (including Paul Virant, Gale Gand, and John Manion) with cooking demonstrations, three-course family-style dinners, and meet-and-greets, and plans additional collaborations highlighting nearby distilleries, breweries, and purveyors. Activities are delivered with a hotel-like approach—yoga classes, lawn games, canoeing, and massages—and the expansive rural grounds are positioned as a pandemic-era advantage for guests seeking comfortable, socially distanced dining and events, appealing particularly to comfort-seeking campers, wedding parties, and honeymooners." - Naomi Waxman