PrairieFire Golf & Grill opened in 2020 with a clear goal of providing year-round golf. However, the food at this restaurant and driving range, located at 6734 N. German Church Road, in Byron, Ill., has earned golf claps of its own and it now draws diners, too.
The Byron Forest Preserve District built the Toptracer driving range behind PrairieView Golf Club to draw golfers year-round in a part of the country where outdoor golf is limited to about seven months. Instead, PrairieFire has become an epicenter where guests swing by for the grub as much as the golfing bays. Scott deOliveira, PrairieFire’s general manager, estimates roughly three-quarters of visitors are not golfers.
PrairieFire outfits its eight state-of-the-art Toptracer bays with lounge seating, heaters, fire tables and flatscreen televisions, pairing each bay with an indoor seating area so groups can drift in and out as the weather changes. For the dining-only customers, there’s a collection of 10 bar-top seats and four additional tables…