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What would the holidays be without donuts, beefs and pizza?

It would make sense that this is a good time to mention how great the leftover turkey, dressing, gravy and cranberries have been the past few days since Thanksgiving.

But that would be too logical for my rantings about food. So, loosen your belt buckle a bit as your stomach may expand just thinking about this and enjoy my observations on possibly the greatest trio of foodstuffs ever invented: doughnuts, Italian beefs and pizza.

Let's call it my unusual version of holiday bliss.

Dunkin' keeps surfacing

Dunkin' Donuts has been with us since 1950, but the bakery and coffee franchise seems to have vaulted to another level in the Tri-Cities area the past few years.

First, even though it essentially competes with Starbucks for the nation's coffee business, Dunkin' Donuts seemed to have a formidable opponent plop down on Randall Road about 15 years ago when Krispy Kreme set up shop.

Krispy Kreme and all of its marketing strength from that era is long gone from St. Charles, and Skippy's Gyros has called that spot its home for the past several years.

Dunkin' Donuts has kept a presence on Main Street in St. Charles and Randall Road in Batavia. In the meantime, another Dunkin' Donuts location went into a spot on the west side of St. Charles that once housed the Goody's restaurant along Lincoln Highway.

And then Geneva began talking about another Dunkin' Donuts location going into the Pepper Valley strip mall on Kaneville Road. City officials and the Pepper Valley Homeowners Association are still debating that project, particularly concerns with noise and traffic related to a proposed drive-through window. The hope is that Dunkin' Donuts will revise its application this month to address those concerns.

Batavia is preparing to get into a similar act in terms of hearing out residents' concerns, as the owners of the Shell gas station at the corner of Batavia Avenue and Houston Street are talking about opening a Dunkin' Donuts with a drive-through window on the south side of the building.

Regardless of where the next shops turn up, the bottom line is we seem to enjoy our doughnuts and coffee, and Dunkin' has always been front and center in this area.

They love beef

So, why am I talking about Italian beef sandwiches again? My readers wanted their say about my recent column in which I mentioned my favorite local choices for Italian beef.

For the most part, readers agreed Beef Shack on the west side of St. Charles continues to deliver one of the best sandwiches in the area. Jan Gargantiel of Batavia raved about their beef sandwich with cheese on garlic bread.

And most agreed with me that Portillo's in Batavia and the new Buona Beef in St. Charles were deserving of being mentioned among the area's best.

Mike Manny of St. Charles also rated Beef Shack at the top, but said those visiting that small restaurant should not overlook the Italian sausage combo, or the cheeseburger with chipotle mayonnaise, lettuce and tomato on a ciabatta bun.

Mike Davis of Geneva reminded me that he originally clued me in on Beef Shack, but added that the Italian beef sandwich at Old Towne Pub in Geneva deserves to be on the list.

Davis is so passionate about his Italian beef sandwiches he has been in contact with the owners of one of his favorite places, Al's Beef in Niles, in hoping they would consider opening a shop in Geneva.

The owners responded, saying they would love to come to Geneva, but don't currently have an interested franchisee to operate the place. There you go, Mike. Your new “calling.”

Same for pizza

We've also talked often about our favorite pizza spots, but here's my problem: I like just about every pizza I ever encounter, including the $5 deals at area grocery stores and places like Little Caesar's.

Still, I've made it clear that Salerno's in St. Charles, and Morano's and Aurelio's in Geneva are hard to beat. Yet, I also like Taylor Street, Antonio's, Rosati's and many others in the area.

My wife said she's been getting a consistent flow of positive feedback from the ladies in her exercise classes about one place in particular that I hadn't tried — Charlie Fox's in Batavia.

So I did what any other good reporter would do. I went to this 131 S. Batavia Ave. pizza location last week and tried it.

The thin crust pizza was quite good, with the sauce being the key ingredient. In fact, it reminded me of a great thin crust pizza from yesteryear, at a place called Tom's Pizza in St. Charles.

The Charlie Fox's locations in St. Charles and Geneva have also enjoyed rave reviews, particularly about that thin crust pizza. Don't let the fact that one of the specialty pizzas at Charlie Fox's is called “The Garbage Can” throw you off. This place knows how to make pizza.

A note on leadership

You couldn't leave the recent Geneva School District Community Leadership Breakfast event without a new appreciation for what the schools are teaching young kids.

Each school's student council made a presentation about community and charitable events the schools have taken part in during the school year. That means they worked together to develop the presentation, got a good dose of public speaking in front of a lot of people, and learned the value of contributing to your community.

Learning those skills is just as important as reading, writing and arithmetic in my book.

Maybe I'm easily impressed because the Catholic grade school I attended in the early 1960s seemed more like a UFC cage match with nuns delivering physical reminders of who was in charge than any semblance of a learning environment for skills you would need later in life.

Either way, we should feel good about our young people learning about what it means to make your communities better places to live.

Go for holiday bliss

We're already starting to enjoy ourselves for the holidays. After all, that's a key aspect of this time of year, right?

The Electric Christmas Parade in St. Charles and tree-lighting ceremony in Batavia drew enthusiastic revelers last weekend, and one of the key events of the season will unfold Friday night when Geneva hosts its popular Christmas Walk.

Yes, it seems like it all came on us so quickly again, but who can complain? Have a great time at upcoming holiday events in our towns.

dheun@sbcglobal.net

  Colton Leonhardt, 2, of St. Charles checks out the Christmas tree near Santa's cottage during the Holiday Homecoming in St. Charles Friday. Laura Stoecker/lstoecker@dailyherald.com
  Italian beef continues to be a subject of interest to columnist Dave Heun and his readers. Mark Black/mblack@dailyherald.com ¬
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