Craig’s Friday Countdown - Happy DP Places

Cold rainy days in rust-belt cities are an acquired taste.  Renewing the plates on the Ford has me in downtown Davenport at Scott County’s admin building.  The building is architecturally depressing, particularly in context of the County’s historic (unfortunately, long ago torn down) courthouse and it’s potentially beautiful mid-century replacement (ruined with an ugly appendage).  It’s worse inside.  There isn’t a single surface, much less any design feature, of any quality in thought or execution.  Corian.  Ugh.   Please call my number so I can leave.  

There's plenty of good, non-depressing stuff downtown.  Here's my list.  Yours may differ.   

22.  Microbreweries – If intoxication is the goal, at least support the local brews.

21.  Mac’s – A bar with history.  Is being stuck in history cool, or is it just being stuck?

20.  Analog – A bar with classic arcade games.  Fun.  But still, a bar and that only goes so far.

19.  Adler Theater – Pay no mind to the marquee, its pretty inside.

18.  Wells Fargo / Union Arcade – Classic office buildings remade into apartments.  Better than being empty.  Not as good as thousands of workers fleeing to suburban office buildings. 

17.  Loft District – Old warehouses made into living units. Cool, and remaking downtown one new millenial and empty-nester at a time.  

16.  Bucktown – Neat place, showing its age.

15.  Front Street Brewery – Your ranking may differ, I like that they’ve been there the longest, and have pluckily stayed put on the flooding front lines. 

14.  Skate Park – Not quite downtown, but a landmark for declaring this is a place the City is not going to overlook anymore.

13.  Me & Billy – Fun, open and bright, not a chain. 

12.  The Full Kit – Skate shop and skate wear.  By definition, cool. 

11.  City Hall / Main Library / Police Station / Central Fire - Real architecture.

10.  Freight House – The venerable building soldiers on.  The fried egg sandwich at Fresh Deli rules.

9.  Reader – Kathleen’s a little … much at times, but otherwise the best thing by far that gets published in Davenport. 

8.  River Bend Retro – Mid-century furnishings, scandalously underpriced.   

7.  Day Trotter – Music, much better than Davenport has any right to feature.   

6.  Ragged Records – The vintage vinyl lifestyle, in one place. 

5.  TAG – Sharp, bright, fun design professionals.

4.  Crafted – A great little store featuring hand-crafted stuff.  Expanding, so that’s a good sign.

3.  Oh So Sweet – Fantastic bakery. 

2.  Hotel Blackhawk – The best hotel between Chicago, Denver, Minneapolis and Nashville. 

1.  Modern Woodmen Park – See above.  Replace “hotel” with “ballpark” and city names with Barrow (Alaska), Key West (Florida), Caribou (Maine), and San Diego (California).  Though the crushed seashell fields of the Cape Cod League are pretty sweet, too.