The Leaning Tower of Niles, Halim Time & Glass Museum and Pequod’s Pizza
Where do you find a leaning tower, dozens of religious stained-glass windows and great pizza? Normally one would say Italy, but we didn’t have time to go all the way to Europe. Instead, we headed off to Niles, Evanston and Morton Grove for our latest Date Day adventure.
The Leaning Tower of Niles
Theresa stumbled across a picture of the Leaning Tower of Niles as we were looking for quirky new places to visit. We immediately knew we had to see this potentially 9th wonder of the world so we plugged the address into our trusty Waze app and headed off. After a bit of a drive, we caught our first glimpse of the tower! It rose majestically over a Costco gas station and cast a memorizing late morning shadow onto the conveniently named Leaning Tower YMCA below.
We parked at the YMCA and made our way to the tower. A plaque on the wall told us it was built in 1934 and is approximately half the size of its more famous model in Pisa. Unlike the tower in Italy, this one is anchored in concrete so that its lean will stay consistent over the centuries. The tower was built to honor Galileo Galilei, who proved his theory of gravity by dropping objects from the original over 500 years ago.
We wandered around the tower, which you are not allowed to enter, took the mandatory picture of Theresa holding it up and headed for our next destination.
Halim Time & Glass Museum
Like the tower in Niles, we came across the Halim Time & Glass Museum during a random search for new things to see. We were expecting a small little museum, like many of the others we visit on our Date Days, but that is not what we found.
The museum is five stories tall and opened in 2017. It was built by Cameel Halim and his family to house their personally curated collection of timepieces and stained galls. The museum also boasts a rooftop garden and is available for weddings and other events.
Stained Glass
We started our tour in the Stained-Glass Masters Gallery. This winding path takes you past over 30 giant windows of all ages and styles. We learned a little about the different techniques of making the glass and watched a cool video about the complex window restoration process. It is hard to describe the detail and beauty contained within these windows.
Tiffany
Next, we visited the Louis Comfort Tiffany Gallery. This gallery, as its name indicates, is dedicated to works by the American artist. Like many, we are familiar with Tiffany’s work in stanned-glass. We had no idea, however, just how multi-talented he really was. The museum has plenty of Tiffany glass, but it also features his paintings, sculptures and mosaics. All of which are incredibly detailed and definitely worth seeing.
Timepieces
The second floor of the museum is dedicated to clocks from around the world. There are sections dedicated to British, French, Asian and America clocks as well as ones dedicated to maritime chronometers and American pocket watches. In total, the collection has over 1,110 timepieces and most date to before the 1800’s.
We enjoyed the complex mechanical components of the early British clocks, laughed at the sheer gaudiness of the French Clocks and marveled at the detail of the Asian Clocks. By the time we got to the American grandfather clocks and pocket watches we were a little weary and needed a “time-out”.
Pequod’s Pizza
We’d heard of Pequod’s but had never been. Some say their pizza is the best in the country. We found the ramshackle building in Morton Grove almost disserted at 2pm on Friday. This made it easy for us to find parking, which must be very difficult during busy times.
Our server gave us a nice seat by the window and took our drink order. Beer for Tom and Cider for Theresa. As we perused the menu, we used our phones to learn a little about the history of Pequod’s. It was founded in 1971 by Burt Katz, who is famous for creating a style of deep dish pizza with a charred crust and ring of caramelized cheese. Burt sold Pequod’s to its current owner in 1986 and went on to open Burt’s Place which became even more iconic than Pequod’s, before closing in 2015.
We decided to share an antipasto salad and small pizza. The salad was fresh, and the dressing was homemade and very good. Our waiter told us that our pizza would take 30-35 minutes, but we had it in around 20. Tom’s half has sausage and green peppers, while Theresa went with pepperoni and mushroom.
At first glance, the pizza looked like a normal deep-dish pizza. It wasn’t until our server cut the pizza and took the first slice out of the cast iron pan that we saw the famous char and caramelization. We licked our lips in anticipation and dug in. The pizza was good, but the crust was great. Maybe even better than great. They should make a donut shaped version with even more crust. What a great idea. Next time you are in Pequod’s, please mention it to the cook.
September 2018
Leaning Tower of Niles
6300 W Touhy Ave, Niles, IL 60714
Free Parking
Halim Time & Glass Museum
1560 Oak Ave, Evanston, IL 60201
$17 per adult
1-2 Hours
Free Parking (behind the museum)
Pequod’s Pizza
8520 Fernald Ave, Morton Grove, IL 60053
1.5 Hours
$51 (Including drinks)
Free On-Street Parking
