Obed and Issac's Springfield, Il

What could be better than great food? How about great food in a historic building? That’s what you get at Obed and Isaac's. Obed Lewis and Cordelia Iles Lewis were neighbors of the Lincolns. Their children played with the Lincoln children. 

In 2007 Court Conn and his wife Karen bought the historic Lewis property. Court is their great-great-grandson and he intended to renovate the family home. It, however, was beyond salvaging so they decided to move another historic home onto the land. By the way, the owner of the house that they moved was Isaac Lindsey thus the name Obed and Isaac’s. The Lindsey house proved to be too small for the plans that they had for a microbrewery and pub. 

Together with the two Conn sons, Casey and Adam, it was decided to purchase an additional historic house, the Booth Grunendike house. Today the pub is located in the Booth Gruendike House and the brew plant in the original Lewis family carriage house.

We arrived at Obed and Isaac’s for lunch on a steamy hot August day, it was over 90 degrees in the shade. Parking can be problematic in this area. We ended up parking across the street from the Lincoln Home visitor center; it was actually a great spot just a block away from the restaurant. Meters line the road so make sure to put some money in.

Outdoor dining is offered and if the weather had been a little more comfortable it would have been a good option. As it was, we chose to dine inside. It was comfortably cool in the dining room.

Let me introduce you to the “horseshoe”. If you are going to be dining in Springfield, you will come across it at almost every restaurant. A horseshoe is an open-faced sandwich that originally had ham, French fries and cheese sauce. The bread is thick and usually toasted. Today, there are as many incarnations as there are restaurants. It can be almost any kind of meat and hamburgers are especially popular but even a veggie burger is an option. A lot of competition goes on among restaurants in Springfield to have the best “horseshoe”. If this all sounds like too much, you can usually get a pony shoe which is a smaller version.

Obed and Isaac’s has a very good selection of “horseshoes”, everything from papa Conn’s ham to Buffalo chicken and leg of lamb. My husband sampled the ground sirloin and he loved it. Actually, it was certainly one of the best ones that we had during our three day stay.

I had a hard time deciding. Should I go with the fig pizza, the chicken and waffles or the bangers n mash? No, I decide to have the Strawberry Dreams Salad, mixed greens with roasted chicken breast, fresh sliced strawberries, candied pecans and bleu cheese crumbles with balsamic vinaigrette. It was a delicious salad and a good choice on such a hot day.

If you want something special to drink, they serve home-made draft root beer. Of course, this is a brewpub and they serve their own great beers including Obed’s Pride, Silly Pants Stout and Route 66 Pale Ale.

They serve lunch, dinner and brunch on Sunday. If you are into history and great food, this is the perfect place to get your fix of both.