Maize Mexican Grill’s new location with a game-changing drive-through will open soon on Neil Street.

Champaign-Urbana Public Health District is urging Champaign County residents to get their flu shots as the seasonal flu has increased drastically this season.

Kyle’s Corner, a new Savoy restaurant, will open in the vacant space left by Industrial Donut, which closed last summer.

For the first Thirsty Thursday of 2026, Alyssa is highlighting a drink that has neither booze nor caffeine, dedicated to the readers out there participating in Dry January or cutting down on coffee.

The arts calendar this month offers a host of warm spaces that engage all your senses, and crucially, put you in rooms with other people, which beats solitary hibernation any day of the week.

The Urbana tree collection will occur between January 12 and 16 on residents’ U-Cycle collection day.

Happy New Year! Here’s to hoping 2026 is better than 2025. Start the year right with some of these events.

Ambar India in Campustown has closed its doors, ending the restaurant’s 12-year tenure on Wright Street.

Kick off month one of the new calendar with a custom falafel bowl, hot-honey cheese, hot chocolate, hot fried chicken in a Caesar salad wrap, and a top-notch hash stack.

Specializing in customer-cooked ramen, the new casual restaurant offers an impressive variety of flavored noodle packets ranging from $3.99 to $5.99.

No safety net, no departmental backing, just Yocum trusting that we’d recognize what he was offering: live bodies on a stage, three feet from your face, doing something that can’t be replicated on a screen.

From layered cakes to epic brownies to cinnamon rolls, the sweets of Hunny Bunny Bakes will be missed.

This Espresso Royale's location at Village Green Plaza recently reopened after a total remodel of the coffee shop. As a frequent flier of the previous model, Maggie was very excited to see what it had in store.

Omkar pays a visit to Oozu Ramen Bar in Campustown and reviews the experience.

Given the portion sizes at their cost and the speed at which they received their food, El Paraiso would make for a great lunch spot for anyone who lives or works around Downtown Urbana.

Analog Wine Bar has been open since 2019, and Carolyn reviews her experience at the Downtown Urbana spot.

Anyone on the hunt for some unique cocktails at reasonable prices, check out Public House 1833 sometime.

Theatre changes people. And here in Central Illinois, thanks to these programs and the people who sustain them, that magic is alive, well, and already lighting the way for the next generation.

The restaurant was carry-out only but conveniently located on Green Street to make stopping by to pick up lunch or dinner easy enough.

"Our food is old-school Italian. If people don't like it, that's fine; I respect that. We just want to carry out the family legacy." - Mary Manzella of Manzella's Italian Patio.

The griddle at Sam's Café has been hot since 1987 when Bassam Issa (Sam) opened the restaurant on Walnut Street in what used to be a candy shop.

For Champaign-Urbana, the promise is that under Pinholster’s leadership the College of Fine & Applied Arts at Illinois won’t be walled off from the community but braided into it.

The letter L evolved from the Semitic lamedh, meaning “ox goad” — the perfect symbol to prompt attention to the responsibilities of the land acknowledgment.

Tayler pays a visit to Ittonken, the Japanese restaurant on Neil Street, a restaurant space previously occupied by Masala Indian House and Dumpling Noodle BBQ.

On North Cunningham Avenue, La Michoacana provides a flavorful experience that you should check out.

New Prairie Solar has stayed committed to green building and renewable energy since 1988, and while the technology has changed, the understanding behind solar power has remained gray and muddled.

Downtown Champaign’s first Ethiopian restaurant has set an official opening date.

Across our twin cities, across disciplines, across institutions, and community spaces, the people doing the labor of art and humanities are part of a shared system. And that system is only as strong as the relationships that sustain it.

Cope cautions that land acknowledgments risk becoming empty formalities, and instead urges real relationships, education, and reparative action for Indigenous communities.

Six Red Chairs offers a limited menu, but every single item was worth the purchase.

Experience Champaign-Urbana's digital passports are free, fun checklists that you can use to explore new places in the area or get rewarded for visiting your favorite spots.

As guest curators Tyler Lotz and Albion Stafford explain, these artists have created pieces “in distinct ways, diverted from the conventional or well-traveled path and, along the way, discovered new vocabularies of the ceramic vessel.”

In this second and final installment, we talked about potential long term effects of CCS and banning the practice in and around the aquifer.

Here's the delicious Chinese food Wells ordered at Golden Harbor and Dim Sum House.

Warm up with a cozy s’mores latte in Urbana, noodles at new Chinese restaurant, spicy chicken on campus, lard-fried doughnuts, and a fish sandwich on furikake brioche.

Remington visited the station to chat with Eric Bohlen, station manager, to discuss its incredibly fascinating history and what lies in the future for WEFT.

C-U doesn’t coast on good intentions. It runs on the people in that room: the ones making the work, building the stages, creating the next opening for someone else to walk through.

Jess spoke with Marc Miller, Deputy Director of Prairie Research Institute, Miller’s team at PRI have been critical partners in researching the science and developing best practices for carbon capture and sequestration, and more.

Whether visiting from out of town or just looking for a relaxed place to unwind after work, Fiala Brothers Brewery & Beer Hall's blend of comfort, character and community makes this spot feel like it belongs to everyone.

Whether you’re looking to revisit it or wanting to give it a try, here are four places that serve up a good, old-fashioned country fried steak.

Farren's at the Inman is undeniably different from the pub many C-U residents grew up with, yet it remains the same at its core.

In early January, The Station Theatre hosts an experimental production of Cocaine, a 1916 play by Pendleton King that cuts as deep now as it did then.

In this second installment of Jess' series on the Mahomet Aquifer, Andrew Rehn of Prairie Rivers Network talked about the risks of carbon capture and sequestration.

Kendall and a few friends paid a visit to one of the newer additions to Downtown Urbana.

What was set for a regular revisit article of a campus staple in that moment became a final farewell to the fine dining fixture of campus.

You might be affected by Seasonal Affective Disorder with the changing of the season, and Champaign-Urbana Public Health District is sharing some tips on how to conquer The Blahs.

It was here, in Memorial Stadium, that so many legends inside of a lineup too long to fully list staged a benefit for farmers in crisis.

Earlier this year, Jess chatted with Andrew Rehn, Director of Climate Policy at Prairie Rivers Network in part one of her series.

Triptych Brewing is a great place to spend a few hours to broaden your knowledge and appreciation of the craft beer experience.

In the world of science fiction and fantasy publishing, Uncanny Magazine is both an anomaly and beacon. It offers a space where queer and disabled voices, neurodiverse narrators, and unapologetically political stories are not just included but celebrated.