Welcome to Lawn Squad® of Arlington Heights, IL

Arlington Heights, Illinois, is a village of roughly 77,000 residents in Cook County — a northwest suburban Chicago community straddling the IL-53 and US-14 corridors whose character has been shaped as much by its identity as one of the most completely realized and most genuinely livable of the original postwar Chicago suburbs as by its position at the center of a village downtown that has grown over the past two decades into one of the most honestly accomplished and most completely satisfying suburban main street environments in all of northeastern Illinois — a village whose Vail Avenue and Campbell Street corridors visitors describe as among the most handsomely activated and most atmospherically complete suburban downtown streetscapes in all of Chicagoland, and whose combination of a Metra Union Pacific Northwest line station that makes the village one of the most genuinely walkable and most transit-connected communities in the entire northwest suburban corridor, a park system described as among the finest in Cook County, and a community identity so genuinely rooted and so honestly itself that it stands apart from virtually every comparable suburb along the I-90 corridor makes it one of the most quietly magnificent and most refreshingly uncommercialized large villages in all of northeastern Illinois — a place whose downtown visitors describe as genuinely and completely walkable and whose combination of serious performing arts culture anchored by one of the finest regional theaters in all of the Midwest, an outstanding outdoor and recreational inheritance, and a culinary ambition that has quietly produced some of the most serious and most honestly accomplished restaurant kitchens in the entire northwest suburban corridor makes it one of the most completely realized and most honestly extraordinary communities in all of Chicagoland.

The sights here are extraordinary: Marriott Theatre — sitting at 10 Marriott Drive in the heart of the Lincolnshire corridor just north of Arlington Heights and open year-round with a season running from January through December — is the region’s most celebrated and most completely realized performing arts destination, a theater-in-the-round whose combination of an intimate 680-seat configuration, a production ambition that has consistently delivered Broadway-quality musical theater to the northwest suburban corridor for more than four decades, and a roster of productions described by devotees as matching and frequently surpassing anything available at comparable venues in the Chicago Loop visitors describe as producing one of the most genuinely extraordinary and most honestly rewarding live theater experiences accessible anywhere in the greater Chicago metropolitan area, with a staging described as using the theater-in-the-round configuration with a creativity and a technical mastery that makes every seat feel like the best seat in the house, a production design described as delivering a quality of scenic and costume work that makes the Marriott one of the most visually accomplished regional theaters in the entire Midwest, and an overall atmosphere described as making every visit feel less like an evening at a suburban dinner theater and more like a genuine encounter with American musical theater performed at the highest possible level — a theater described as one of the genuine unmissable cultural destinations in all of Chicagoland and one that makes Arlington Heights feel, in its presence, like a community that has earned a cultural distinction entirely and completely out of proportion to its suburban address. Arlington Heights Historical Museum — sitting at 110 West Fremont Street in the heart of the village’s most beautifully preserved historic residential neighborhood and open Wednesday through Sunday — is the village’s most carefully realized and most warmly educational cultural destination, a local history museum campus whose collection of restored nineteenth-century structures — including a farmhouse, carriage house, and one-room schoolhouse — documents the full arc of Arlington Heights’s transformation from prairie farming settlement through the railroad era and into the postwar suburban community in a way described by visitors as producing the kind of local history experience that makes every subsequent walk down Vail Avenue feel freighted with a history that is genuinely worth knowing, with a period structure collection described as among the finest in Cook County, and an overall interpretive ambition described as making the Arlington Heights Historical Museum one of the most genuinely rewarding small museum experiences in all of the northwest suburban corridor. Busse Woods and Ned Brown Forest Preserve — spreading across more than 3,700 acres of Cook County forest preserve terrain along the IL-53 and IL-72 corridors within easy reach of the Arlington Heights village center and open year-round from dawn to dusk — is the region’s most expansive and most quietly magnificent outdoor inheritance, a Cook County Forest Preserve District property whose trail network winds through upland oak savanna, glacial lake shoreline, and the remarkable Busse Lake fishing and boating corridor in a way described by regulars as producing a quality of accessible natural terrain and recreational variety that has become genuinely rare this close to the Chicago metropolitan core, with a great blue heron rookery described as one of the most accessible in all of Cook County, a bald eagle wintering population along the Busse Lake corridor described as drawing birders from across the Chicago region with a regularity that makes a winter morning at the preserve one of the most genuinely anticipated natural events of the Cook County calendar, and an overall atmosphere described as restorative in a way that makes every walk through the forest preserve feel less like suburban recreation and more like a genuine encounter with the natural world. Arlington International Racecourse — sitting on a storied 326-acre racing campus along Euclid Avenue at the heart of the village and holding a place in American Thoroughbred racing history as the site of some of the most celebrated races ever run on North American soil, including the legendary 1978 match race between Affirmed and Alydar — is the village’s most historically consequential and most completely irreplaceable sporting and cultural landmark, a racing facility whose combination of a beautifully maintained grandstand, a racing history that includes the inaugural Arlington Million in 1981 — the first million-dollar race in the history of the sport — and a position at the center of the village’s identity that no other institution has ever approached visitors describe as making Arlington Heights feel, in the presence of its racecourse, like a community whose sporting inheritance is not merely local but genuinely and completely world-historical — a track described as one of the great American racing venues and one whose future the village watches with a combination of pride and vigilance that speaks to how completely and how honestly the racecourse has always belonged to the community that surrounds it.

Arlington Heights’s restaurant scene runs along Vail Avenue, Campbell Street, and the surrounding downtown corridors in a concentration of kitchens that collectively represent one of the most satisfying and most honestly accomplished suburban dining landscapes in all of Cook County, drawing regulars from Palatine, Wheeling, and the broader northwest suburban corridor who have learned that this village’s tables reward attention and repay the drive: Salted Pig on Vail Avenue is Arlington Heights’s most celebrated and most completely realized contemporary American dining destination — open for dinner Tuesday through Sunday and described by devoted regulars as producing a seasonal menu with a creativity and a technical confidence that makes it one of the most genuinely accomplished restaurant experiences in all of the northwest suburban corridor, with a charcuterie program described as assembled with a craft and a curing seriousness that makes every other charcuterie board in the village feel like an afterthought, a roasted chicken described as prepared with a quiet confidence that only comes from a kitchen that has been cooking at a high level long enough to stop needing to prove anything, a cocktail program described as assembled with a mixological seriousness and a seasonal intelligence that makes every other cocktail list in Arlington Heights feel slightly underachieving, and a room described as warm and convivial in a way that makes every table feel like the best seat in the house regardless of where it actually sits — a restaurant described as one of Arlington Heights’s great dining institutions and the single most persuasive argument that this village’s culinary ambitions are not merely serious but genuinely and completely extraordinary. Metropolis Coffee on Vail Avenue is the village’s most warmly beloved and most completely essential morning destination — open daily from early morning and described by devoted regulars as producing a coffee program with a sourcing seriousness and a roasting precision that makes it one of the most genuinely rewarding café experiences in all of the northwest suburban corridor, with an espresso described as pulled with a consistency and a technical mastery that makes every other coffee option in the downtown feel slightly ordinary, and an atmosphere described as warm and completely without pretension in a way that makes a Saturday morning in the Arlington Heights downtown feel, for the duration of a long and unhurried cup, like the best and most completely justified part of the week. Peggy Kinnane’s Irish Restaurant and Pub on Campbell Street is the village’s most warmly convivial and most honestly essential neighborhood Irish pub and dining destination — open daily from midday and described by devoted regulars as producing a menu of Irish pub classics and American comfort cooking with a quality and a generosity that makes it one of the most genuinely satisfying and most completely rewarding casual dining experiences in all of Arlington Heights, with a fish and chips described as arriving at the table with a batter and a fry so perfectly made that regulars order it on every visit without deliberation, a pint described as poured with a care and a patience that makes the Guinness at Peggy Kinnane’s one of the most reliably excellent in the entire northwest suburban corridor, and an atmosphere described as warm and genuinely welcoming in a way that makes a Sunday afternoon feel like the best and most completely justified part of the week. Wherewithall — drawing regulars from across Chicagoland for a tasting menu experience described by devoted regulars as producing some of the most genuinely accomplished and most completely realized contemporary American cooking available anywhere in the greater Chicago metropolitan area, with a seasonally driven menu described as changing with a frequency and a creativity that gives regulars a genuine reason to return every few weeks throughout the year, and an overall dining ambition described as making Wherewithall one of the most genuinely extraordinary and most completely unmissable restaurant experiences in all of the northwest suburban corridor — rounds out Arlington Heights’s dining picture as its most intellectually serious and most honestly extraordinary fine dining destination, a restaurant described as making this large and beautifully realized northwest suburban village feel, at the table, like a community whose culinary ambitions have arrived at something genuinely and completely worth traveling for.