Foodie Alert
Midwest Living magazine came to South Bend and chose 10 favorite restaurants in the area. The city developed the selections into the South Bend Foodie Trail. “Whether you come here for a meeting, a sporting event or as a traveler, one thing everyone has in common is you’ve got to find a good place to eat,” DeCleene said. Dining selections include such wide-ranging options as the swanky Café Navarre and the LaSalle Grill, the latter an 18-time AAA Four Diamond Award winner; the supercasual Fiddler’s Hearth Public House, with a real Celtic feel to it; and Japanese Fusion.
Game Day
Notre Dame football is legendary, and its national and international alumni bases are fanatical. The Fighting Irish game-day experience and traditions are not to be missed. Fans love to tailgate and do it with spirit.
Visitors can also tour the picturesque campus and the Main Building’s famed Golden Dome, Basilica of the Sacred Heart and Joyce Center. Some love listening to the Notre Dame marching band during pregame, grabbing a steak sandwich from the Knights of Columbus stands, walking through the same stadium tunnel players have used to reach the field since 1931 or, on a serious note, visiting the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes to light a candle or say a prayer. The stadium press box is an optional meeting site on non-game days.
A Good Night’s Rest
South Bend and Mishawaka have about 35 hotels and 4,000 rooms. The Century Center is attached by a climate-controlled “green bridge” to the DoubleTree by Hilton South Bend, a 291-room, full-service hotel.
Notre Dame Conference Center is adjacent to the Morris Inn, a 150-room, AAA Four-Diamond hotel “with all the bells and whistles,” said Carolyne Wallace, the CVB’s director of sales.
Nearby, Saint Mary’s Gillespie Center connects to two hotels: the 100-room Hilton Garden Inn and the 150-room Inn at Saint Mary’s.
