South Park Recreation Center

We planned our son’s party here and it was fantastic. The venue was set up just as we asked. The place has it’s own surround sound system and projector for the slideshow. The venue is surrounded by windows which makes any day function so pleasant.
Most importantly the people we worked with made figuring out the venue stress free. They were very helpful, responded to questions promptly and really tried to work with you to make your day special.
I would definitely use their facility in the future.

I took a Belly Dance course through SPRC to brush up. It was a beginners basic class taught by Teresa and she did an excellent job. She’s much older than other instructors I have had, but her extra years don’t hold her back. She expresses herself very well, both through dance and conversationally.
Teresa specializes in traditional and tribal Belly Dance. If you’re looking for frills, you won’t find them here. The emphasis is on the dance and simple movements, not flashy costumes. The class is small, so you will get a lot of personal interaction time with her. However, the interest insn’t always there, so you aren’t guaranteed there will even be a class if there aren’t enough students signed up.
Sign up and hope for the best. You won’t be disappointed!

Every so often I see someone posting a question about an affordable space for a party or reception of some kind. Well, for Park Ridge residents, the best choice is probably South Park Recreation Center. This place is near the corner of Talcott & Cumberland, a half-​block north of Devon.
When my youngest son was to be baptized and we were planning a reception, we were short on cash, having spent most of our life savings on home improvements and renovations when we bought our place. We needed an affordable place for our guests that didn’t involve bowling or costumed characters with pizza. The pastor at our church recommended South Park and he was right!
Park Ridge Park District offers a room that holds around 150 people. They set up a table arrangement based on your layout. You pay by the hour. The setup time, like decorating and bringing stuff in, counts towards rental time. However, they have a discounted «setup rate» and a «party rate» for when the guests actually arrive. Liquor permit costs extra. But to give you some idea, we were able to get the hall for 4 hours + 1 hour setup time and a liquor permit for $ 180. For comparison, the VFW hall on Higgins & Canfield, which looks like an old army barracks with antenna on top, would have charged $ 400 and required you to buy all your drinks from them.
The hall is a bright, clean space overlooking the ball fields to the east and a nice view of the expanse of lawn in front of the field house. It also has a kitchen with refrigerator and freezer so you can keep drinks cold, along with any cake or ice cream you may have. There’s 2 park district employees sitting around in an office nearby in case you need some help with finding something. Men’s & women’s bathrooms are clean and the building is ADA-​compliant too. Even with tables set up, there was plenty of room for kids to run around and play too.
And to cater the event, may I recommend Moretti’s in nearby Edison Park, but that can be a review for another day…