Things to Do in Schaumburg

At Poplar Creek Bowl, families and friends bowl frames on 32 shiny lanes outfitted with automatic scoring instead of grumpy old math professors. Meanwhile, competitive types can join leagues to play games that could win them prizes such as pizza parties, cash, and scholarship money. In between matches, bowlers can cue up at billiards tables, perfect their emotionless stares during games of video gaming in officials time out, or enjoy a burger and brew at the sports grill.

More than 100 flavors of shisha infuse Milan Hookah Lounge’s softly lit atmosphere with a smoky haze that swirls off of premium tobacco from brands such as Fantasia and Starbuzz. Tobacco-free hydro herbal molasses comes in a slew of sweet flavors, satiating nicotine abstainers and easing the conscience of leafy, tobacco-human hybrids, and refreshing colas and teas cleanse smoke-saturated tongues. Guests kick back in a cozy lounge area with ceiling-suspended lamps, low couches, and sports-broadcasting TVs as occasional live music and belly dancing swell the airwaves with melodious and abdominal vibrations.

The Slaughter’s roots are planted firmly in Chicago soil. Since its founding in 2006, the franchise has consistently opened roles for the city’s gridiron stars, both on the field and in the front office. This Windy City loyalty has been apparent before the team even played its first snap; Slaughter is a nod to the city’s working class and to the old Chicago stockyards.

In 2009, the Slaughter rewarded the Second City with a championship during an undefeated season as part of the Continental Indoor Football League. A year later, the team joined the Indoor Football League, where it remains today, playing all of its home games at Sears Centre Arena. There, frequent promotions help create a party-like atmosphere, and spacious concourses let fans spread out and play their own pickup games using wadded-up slices of deep-dish pizza as the ball.

If you're all dressed up in chainmail with no place to go, today's deal is an excuse to wear grandma's mail hood and mittens out of the house. Today's side deal to Medieval Times gets you an adult ticket and royalty upgrade to the sensuous four-course feast and live show, featuring horse-mounted combat, falconry, and mace-wielding professionals, for $30, a $65.55 value for adults, including tax. Your royalty upgrade gets you preferred seating in the second and third rows, a banner for cheering on your knight, a behind-the-scenes DVD, and a commemorative program. Though Medieval Times' website offers free royalty upgrades with the purchase of a regular ticket and offers tickets as low as the Groupon price when you purchase multiples, your Groupon combines these deals without requiring you to purchase multiples or limiting the showtimes you can attend.

World Domination Events boosts adrenaline levels across the country by placing guests behind the wheel of high-end exotic cars. Customers climb into sleek Lamborghinis and Ferraris and send them hurtling down the turns of a racetrack or spinning through a designated autocross course to test horsepower-handling skills. Meanwhile, corporate packages allow companies to boost employee morale or settle conference-room scheduling conflicts with invigorating laps in a luxury ride.

Visitors to the Elgin Public House step into a cozy interior reinforced by exposed-brick walls. A culinary crew revives weary locals with a menu of hearty pub eats and a beer selection of 87 varieties imported from across Europe and the United States. Chefs use certified-Angus beef for burgers, stuff pork chops full of bleu cheese cornbread and mango chutney, and hand-cut steaks in-house after aging them a minimum of two weeks to ensure optimal flavor and prevent them from prank-calling patrons. A calendar of weekly events keeps things lively with regular offerings such as Wednesday-night trivia, Friday-night fish fries, and daily specials. One Tuesday each month, limited-seating dinner-pairing events offer six-course meals, with each course accompanied by an alcoholic beverage, such as red wine or tequila.