A Geneva Classic Finds a New Home

The Little Traveler’s Atrium Café, at 404 S. Third Street in downtown Geneva, IL, is now serving the legendary Mill Race Inn salad, highlighted by its famous vinaigrette dressing.  Early last year, Geneva lost an icon when it was announced that the Mill Race Inn would permanently close its doors at the picturesque location along the Fox River. Bonnie Rae Off, third generation owner and former manager of the Mill Race Inn, decided to preserve a bit of the restaurant’s history by sharing the vinaigrette recipe with .

Rae Off, who explains that she got her start in the restaurant business at the age of three when she used to help fill salt and pepper shakers at the Mill Race Inn, worked with the Atrium Café’s head chef, Dave Press, to perfect the vinaigrette recipe as he tweaked it to make it MSG-free. The salad has won her approval.  As she said at her last tasting: “A little piece of Heaven. Perfect.”

She sees The Little Traveler as a fitting home for the recipe. The connection between The Little Traveler and the Mill Race Inn goes all the way back to 1933, when Kathryn Raftery, the Little Traveler’s founder, encouraged the Forsythe sisters to open a tea room at the former site of a blacksmith shop and nearby gristmill.  Mrs. Raftery thought the location along the Fox River would appeal to travelers in the carriage trade business that had begun frequenting Geneva, and she was right.  For generations, a visit to The Little Traveler and dining at the Mill Race Inn had practically been a requirement on any trip to Geneva.

The two businesses share another connection—Malava Parks.  After Rae Off’s grandparents bought the Mill Race Inn in 1946, they hired Parks to manage the restaurant. She was the creator of the vinaigrette dressing, which quickly became a signature menu item. In 1963, Parks married and moved away from Geneva for a time, and when she returned, she came to work at The Little Traveler, where she warmly greeted customers in the shop’s front room.