RIP: Joey's Brickhouse

I felt the need to share my recent discovery that Joey's Brickhouse has closed. There's some signage out in front -- including a heartfelt note from Joey himself -- confirming the restaurant's closing.

I am really sad to see this place go. Although it had been hit or miss in the past, I felt like it was on the up-and-up in recent months. Their all-you-can-eat salad, pizza and Rice Krispie treats deal on Tuesday nights was one of my favorites, as I mentioned in this previous post.

On top of the fact that this was an amazing deal, we had great service at Joey's Brickhouse every Tuesday night I visited. (And for a while, this was every Tuesday.) Joey himself was often in the house and he was always very welcoming and accommodating. His servers were friendly and competent -- and on more than one occasion, insisted that we join them in taking multiple rounds of shots on the house.

Sadly, Mega Biters, from now on, you'll have to look elsewhere if you're seeking a great all-you-can-eat option -- or just a tasty dinner in the Lakeview area.

RIP, Joey's Brickhouse. You will be missed.

Best Dishes: Stuffed Turkey Sandwich at Silver Cloud

In case you hadn't noticed, Fall has arrived. Since today was cool and cloudy, Jeff and I decided it'd be a great day to head to Silver Cloud for one of our favorite cool-weather meals. Silver Cloud is a bar/restaurant in Bucktown that specializes in comfort food. The atmosphere is nice and cozy, the service is friendly and competent, the bar stocks great seasonal beers (most of them craft) and features an out of this world seasonal cocktail list. (Their winter drinks are my absolute favorite.) To top it all off, they do comfort food really, REALLY well. We have two favorite items on the menu: 1) the chicken pot pie (perfect for a winter dinner) and 2) the stuffed turkey sandwich, which is what we ordered and what we'll be chatting about today.

The stuffed turkey sandwich is comprised of white meat roasted turkey (for real roasted; I believe they cook a turkey daily at Silver Cloud), cranberry sauce and stuffing in between two pieces of toasted white bread. Normally, the sandwich comes with mayo. Naturally, I ask for it without any. Fortunately, I feel that the stuffing and the cranberry sauce do enough on their own to prevent the sandwich from being too dry. This thing is like Thanksgiving in a sandwich, but better -- because you can get it any day of the year! Given that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, it's not surprising that I like to experience the glory that is that meal multiple times a year (or month if I'm really feeling extreme).

The toasted white bread isn't something I'd normally choose for a sandwich, but it really works here. The toastiness adds to the flavor and provides an important crisp textural component. The turkey is cooked perfectly and layered in thick slices just like real Thanksgiving leftovers. The stuffing is savory, served warm and never too dry. It's the perfect complement to the natural sweetness that is the cranberry sauce, which is an ideal final touch to a great sandwich.

I also like to start my meal with a Bloody Mary, which they do very well at Silver Cloud. Every Saturday and Sunday, they have $4 Bloody Marys -- and for an additional $0.75, you can get one of their "Snazzy Skewers," which consist of a blue cheese-stuffed olive, a shrimp, an artichoke heart, green pepper, red pepper, celery and a pepperoncini pepper. I highly recommend splurging and spending that extra 75 cents -- it's a delicious addition to an already well-made drink.

I can't wait to go back for my first chicken pot pie of Fall 2010. It is the best chicken pot pie in the city. Yes, I have tried quite a few chicken pot pies around town and yes, that does officially make me Cartman. I'm okay with that. Trust me when I say that this thing is the real deal. More about the chicken pot pie and the winter cocktails to come... In the meantime, spend a blustery day nice and warm inside a booth at Silver Cloud -- enjoying an early Thanksgiving.

Stumbling Upon Greatness: Fiddlehead Cafe

The other night, I joined my friends Jeff and Mike for dinner at one of my favorite BYOBs, Mediterranean Grill, in Lincoln Square. After dinner, Mike's wife Kristen decided she wanted to join us for a drink. As Mike, Jeff and I had already gone through both of the bottles of wine we'd purchased to accompany our meal, we decided to head to Fiddlehead Cafe across the street.

I was pleasantly surprised when we walked in. The place has a cute atmosphere that's more stylish than I'd expected. However, I was even more pleasantly surprised by their drinks list, their butternut squash soup and their service. Our server was fantastic. She was attentive without being overbearing, friendly and extremely knowledgeable. Best of all, she went above and beyond to ensure that we were having a great experience.

She brought us menus promptly after we sat down and to my delight, they have wine flights! And not "wine flights" poured from dusty bottles no one ever actually drinks, but real, interesting wine flights. One had a Chilean Cabernet and I remarked I'd never seen that before. The waitress volunteered to bring me a taste so that I could try it -- even after I decided to order another flight. I went with the "Jammy Reds," which I enjoyed very much and would highly recommend. I liked all three wines in the flight, which were true to their name and all big, jammy reds.

My favorite of the three happened to be the wine our server had cited as hers: the NV 2 Cocky Sisters Red Wine from Paso Robles, CA. That's right it's a blend -- a big honking blend of six (6!) different wines. (The breakdown is apparently 46% Counoise, 22% Syrah, 20% Grenache, 4% Viognier, 4% Cab Franc and 4% Petite Verdot.) What really matters though is that it's reminiscent of juicy black cherries, which are almost always my favorite base for a nice weeknight glass of wine. So much so that I decided to have a glass after I finished my flight. Highly recommend.

Sidenote: The Chilean Cabernet I sampled (thanks to our fab server) was also good. It's the 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon, Agustinos Reserva, from Aconcagua, Chile and it's featured in the "South Americans" flight. I plan to try that flight the next time I'm there.

Jeff did the Unibroue Beer Flight... Mostly because they actually HAVE an Unibroue beer flight! Unibroue is one of my all-time favorite breweries and not something you see on just any beer list. I was extremely impressed by the presence of such greatness -- 3 different Unibroue beers at one time! -- and was not disappointed. (I mean, clearly Jeff knew I'd be sampling his order.)

Unibroue Ephemere is one of my favorite beers and it happened to be the first in the flight. Ephemere is a white ale that's brewed with apples, which makes it a great Fall beer, but it's not sweet like a cider, which makes it really interesting. The next beer is their Maudite, which is a red amber. Also delicious and well-balanced -- definitely a step up in hoppiness from the Ephemere. It makes for a great transition between the relatively mild-mannered Ephemere and the dark and stormy Chambly Noir, the third beer featured in the flight. The Chambly Noir is a rich black ale that has some coffee notes (though they're not overwhelming) and is deepened by rich toffee flavors. For the life of me, I can't remember what the carbonation factor was like on this beer, but I did really enjoy it.

It should be noted here, however, that Jeff also liked the 2 Cocky Sisters red from my wine flight so much that he ordered a glass of that following the Unibroue trio -- even though he liked all of the beers and in general is a beer freak.

Mike and Kristen both stuck to Daisy Cutter, which they love, and which as of circa a week ago, Fiddlehead still had. As we were discussing Kristen's hilarious pairing of Daisy Cutter and butternut squash soup, a true blend of the seasons so indicative of the in-between time of year that is early September, the waitress mentioned that they'd just gotten all of their pumpkin beer samples in that day and were trying to decide which to feature on their Fall beer list. Since they had some extra, we got to taste a couple of those, too. Just loved her. And their Fall beer list is going to be a-mazing.

Now I must make further mention of this butternut squash soup. It was deeeelicious. If I hadn't just eaten an entire BBQ chicken schwarma sandwich, I'd have ordered a big bowl after trying Kristen's. It was rich (just buttery enough) and filled with the flavors of Fall. Then it was topped off with a hint of Sriracha crema, which is like pairing fire and ice -- a complete contradiction in and of itself that works beautifully with the soup. Brilliant.

This place made me so happy. Fiddlehead Cafe appeals to beer geeks as much as it does wine geeks -- and especially to those of us who happen to love both equally! Plus, I absolutely cannot wait to try more of the food.

DEAL ALERT: All wine flights are $8 on Tuesdays. This is definitely a great value... I guess I'll be visiting on a Tuesday in the very near future!

Cumin

I was really excited to try Cumin, Bucktown's newest (and only) Nepalese/Indian restaurant. I've spent a lot of time in Bucktown and often thought that the only cuisine the neighborhood lacked was a good Indian option, so the stars seemed to be aligning perfectly. I also love what I've had of Nepalese food, which was admittedly limited to a meal at Chautara, a delicious little Nepalese restaurant up in Madison, WI. (If you are ever in Madison, pay this place a visit. Look, Yelp agrees it's worth it.)

I will start out by saying that the food at Cumin is pretty great. Everything we had (which actually ended up being more than we ordered) was good. But the service is very rough around the edges. Our server came to our table and greeted us with "Do you know what you'd like?" I mean, given that the restaurant is new to the 'hood and it specializes in Indian/Nepalese cuisine, which is a little more exotic than say, your average New American restaurant menu, it might have been helpful to have some sort of intro to what is a particularly robust menu. No such luck. And then she kept coming back and asking the same question as we worked to navigate the extensive menu. It was unprecedented hovering combined with very little actual assistance. We definitely felt rushed to order -- and it's not like the restaurant was crazy busy that night. There were no hordes of people (or any people, in fact) waiting for us to give up our table.

As we were deciding, we chomped on something sort of similar to Indian chips and salsa. Only the chips are a different, more delicate texture and they have some sort of seed/herb in them. And they're served with three different sauces. The green one on the left is savory and a little spicy; the dark purple/brown sauce was sweet but complex; and the marmalade-like sauce on the right that was pretty much straight up sweet.


We ordered a bottle of wine to start, as well as some of the Lamb Keema Samosas and the Paneerka Naram Garam Pakora. Samosas are traditional Indian appetizers that are deep-fried pastries filled with a meat and/or veggie filling. In this case, the filling was supposed to be "minced lamb in a flavorful spice blend." Paneer is an Indian cheese that is somewhat similar to cottage cheese. In the Paneerka Naram Garam Pakora, paneer is mixed with chopped onion, bell peppers, cilantro and seasoned mashed potatoes, rolled in chickpea flower and deep fried.

Our server stumbled a bit through the wine service, which is totally fine since really, there doesn't need to be a ton of (read:any) pomp and circumstance around a $20-something bottle of Pinot Grigio. But then our appetizers came out and the one that they placed in front of Jenny and Elizabeth was unidentifiable, and it didn't look like we thought it would. (Fried balls of Indian cheese.) There were some fried lumps we thought might be vegetables, but since both Elizabeth and Jenny are vegetarians, we wanted to be sure.


At this point, our previously ever-present server was nowhere to be found. The other server who dropped the appetizers off was unable to tell us if they were what we ordered. Language was a bit of a barrier here. That's good because the place seems authentic, but bad because we couldn't confirm what was on the table. Though he couldn't tell us if the appetizer contained paneer, he could tell us that it was vegetarian. We decided to try to find our server before taking the plunge. When she did make it back to our table, we learned that this appetizer (while the lumps were in fact meat-free) was not actually the one we ordered. The waitress was nice and said that we wouldn't be charged for it. And in the end, our veggie friends liked the fried vegetable app just fine.

The samosas looked tasty, but when we broke into them, we discovered that they were the vegetarian version instead of the lamb. We were a little disappointed because we'd thought that the lamb samosas sounded interesting and we'd never had them before, but no big deal. We like veggie samosas. And they were tasty. The filling was soft and flavorful and the exterior was crisp without a ton of residual grease from their bath in the deep fryer. Delicious.

After perusing the menu, we were thrilled to discover they have sesame naan, which none of us had ever tried before. We got an order of the sesame naan and the garlic naan, which is pretty much a staple when this group hits up an Indian place. Both types made it to our table, which was great, and they were tasty. But I have to say that I think Veerasway's naan is better.


Jenny decided to try a Nepalese dish and ordered the Parvate Aaalu Tama Ra Bodi, which is potatoes, bamboo shoots and black eyed peas in "delectable Nepalese spices." According to the menu, this is a delicacy from the mountainous region of Nepal -- and Jenny really liked it. I'm not a huge fan of black eyed peas, so it was a little harder sell for me personally -- but I do feel that the dish was well-balanced and well-executed over all.


I ordered the Chicken Sahi Korma, which is chicken cooked in an almond-cashew curry sauce. It was pretty damn awesome. The sauce was rich and savory. The chicken itself was decent, but the sauce is definitely what makes this dish.


Elizabeth ordered the Navaratan Korma, which is is nine (!) assorted vegetables in the same amazing almond-cashew curry sauce. I actually preferred her dish to mine because I thought that the flavors of the vegetables added greater complexity to the dish than the chicken did. This would be the dish I'd recommend ordering -- if you're not intimidated by the thought of nine different veggies in one dish. Personally, I thought it worked beautifully.


Annie got the Fish Tikka Masala, aka Mahi Mahi in a mildly spicy creamy tomato sauce. Allegedly the fish was sauteed with some diced bell peppers and onions, but they were pretty undectectable. (Except for that one sticking out in the picture below. I think that might have been the only bell pepper in the dish.) The Mahi Mahi is an interesting take on the ever popular Indian gateway dish, Chicken Tikka Masala. I personally didn't love the combo of fish with Tikka Masala, but it was decent. And the fish was cooked very well. Again, a well-executed dish, but I'd go for the Chicken Tikka -- especially if you haven't eaten a lot of Indian in the past.


Overall, Cumin has some solid Indian and Nepalese cuisine. I don't think I'd make a point to eat in again, but this place would be great for take-out. And it's new, so the service may improve. They weren't rude -- they just seemed confused and perhaps inexperienced, which means that things could change for the better with time.

It's not my favorite restaurant in a neighborhood that has a lot of great ones, but it's a good Indian option in a hood that didn't have any Indian at all before. Give Cumin a whirl and let me know what you think.

Technical Difficulties...

Hi, Mega Biters.

Just wanted to let you all know that a review for Sable Kitchen & Bar at the Hotel Palomar is coming soon. I've been having some technical difficulties with the images, which has caused the delay in posting.

Also ate dinner at Cumin in Wicker Park last night, so I'll be working on that review as well!

In the meantime, I wanted to say thanks so much for the rave reviews the pumpkin bars have been garnering. A few of you have mentioned that you've made batches on your own for various occasions since the posting -- and I am so glad to hear that the recipe is working out for everyone! Please continue to let me know your thoughts about the recipes/restaurant reviews posted. Love hearing them!

Thanks again for your patience on the posts -- see you soon!
Nancy

Fall Favorite: Pumpkin Bars With Cream Cheese Frosting

Fall is my favorite season. Crisp air, crunchy leaves, football games, cozy clothing, darker beers and heartier fare... I don't understand how anyone could NOT love fall. As the Cubs season inevitably gets exponentially sadder come September, the white knight that is a new football season blazes in with the promise of an uninjured Bears defense, potential Ws and of course, fall's national pastime: the tailgate.

I love tailgating. A football game sandwiched between hours of eating and drinking outside? That's like an experiential double-down. No filler here: just all amazing all the time. What's more, it's eating and drinking outdoors -- sans the humidity (and sweat) associated with these activities during the summer months!

Following the the Bears' home opener this weekend and thinking about all of the deliciousness to come, I'd like to highlight one of my favorite ways to ring in the season with a treat that's perfect for any football tailgate: pumpkin bars with cream cheese icing.

I first experienced these pumpkin bars during my college days at U of I, when my former roommate Jenny Buckler's culinary master mom used to bring them down for their family's amazingly decadent tailgates at all Illinois home games. I could easily eat an entire pan of them -- and they always made me look forward to home games, no matter how poorly Illinois was playing! (And trust me, it got progressively worse each year we were there.)

I baked a batch this weekend to bring to an Oktoberfest party and figured I'd share the recipe in case people were looking for a new way to celebrate Fall -- and all of the fun it's sure to bring.

Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

Bars

4 eggs
1 2/3 cups granulated sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

15 oz. can pumpkin

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

Icing

8-oz. package cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Prep:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Using an electric mixer at medium speed, combine the eggs, sugar, vegetable oil and pumpkin until light and fluffy. Stir together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and mix at low speed until all elements are thoroughly incorporated and the batter is smooth. Spread the batter into a greased 13 by 10 inch baking pan. Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting and cut into bars.

To make the icing: Combine the cream cheese and butter in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the sugar and mix at low speed until combined. Stir in the vanilla and mix again. Spread on cooled pumpkin bars.

Enjoy! (Note: Because the frosting is a cream cheese-butter combination, these bars should be chilled when not being consumed.)

Sweet Summer Corn, Tomato and Basil Salad

Hello, everyone. As promised, here's the recipe for my Sweet Summer Corn, Tomato and Basil salad -- adopted from the original recipe found in my favorite Bon Appetit cookbook. As mentioned in the previous post, I'll provide the original recipe along with notes as to what I did differently.

Just a few notes before we begin... The corn in this recipe has been sauteed with olive oil and garlic -- and it's a really cool way to cook corn! It smelled amazing and it was fun to watch the corn go from pale yellow to golden. I liked it so much that I used this same method when I prepared an impromptu heirloom tomato-corn salsa earlier this week, only I used shallots instead of garlic. However, I absolutely recommend the garlic for this salad; the flavor is phenomenal. If you're not a huge garlic person, stick to the recommended 3 cloves. 4 was pretty strong -- but if you love garlic like I do, definitely go for the extra clove.

I used a package of grape tomatoes instead of the plum tomatoes recommended in the original recipe. I did this for the simple fact that the plum tomatoes at Whole Foods didn't look that great while I was shopping. The grape tomatoes, on the other hand, looked pretty fantastic. Thus, decision made. I'd actually recommend using the grape tomatoes if you try this, because they end up making cute little beds for kernels of corn that get stuck inside. Diced plum tomatoes just wouldn't have the same effect.

Lastly, definitely try to chill this salad for 8 hours, as it really did get better with time and was actually better and more flavorful the day after I made it! (Sorry members of the Food Babies/Mega Bites dinner party... Live and learn!)

All right, without further ado, here's that recipe:

Sweet Summer Corn, Tomato & Basil Salad

Ingredients
6 large ears white corn, husked (I used 8 bicolor ears)
5 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves or 1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic (I used 4 cloves)
1/2 cup (packed) thinly sliced fresh basil 5 plum tomatoes, seeded & chopped (I used 1 package of grape tomatoes, quartered)
3 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
Salt & pepper (to taste)

Prep
Using large knife, cut corn kernels from cob. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add garlic; sauté 1 minute. Add corn; sauté until just cooked through, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Add half of basil.

Transfer corn mixture to large bowl. Cool slightly, stirring occasionally. Stir in tomatoes, vinegar, 3 tablespoons oil and remaining basil. Season with salt and pepper. Cover; chill 3 hours or up to 8 hours.

Mega Bites/Food Babies Dinner

My friends Keith, Jess, Meg and Bobby live for food in the same way that I do and manifest their love for all things culinary in a blog they call Food Babies.

So when Keith and Jess invited us all over for dinner at their new place, I knew I was in for a meal of epic proportions. Keith and Jess said they'd supply the main course (burgers) and they asked the rest of us to bring sides.

To my delight, Julie, a friend who went to high school with Keith, Meg and me, was able to join us as well. She brought some outstanding homemade guacamole (vaya, former Spanish teacher!) and an assortment of delicious cheeses to kick of the meal. It seemed that the Drunken Goat was the favorite, but the cheddar and the blue she found at Olivia's Market in Bucktown were pretty extraordinary, too.

Since Keith (who I had affectionately nicknamed "Beef" in high school -- though at the time it was short for "Beefcake") knows more about meat than anyone I know, I suspected that these wouldn't be just any ordinary burgers. And in typical Keith fashion, he didn't disappoint. Naturally, he has already managed to find an amazing butcher shop in his new 'hood (Olympic Meat Packers) and procured 5 lbs of 100% Kobe beef, which they'd happily ground for him on site. Keith turned this massive quantity of freshly ground Kobe into some spectacular-looking burgers, even raw. When they came off the grill topped with either Cheddar or Gruyere, depending on your preference, these burgers were true masterpieces.

But Keith didn't stop there. He also managed to bake some bacon. That's right. In the oven. With some rosemary. And after this experience, I'm a believer in baking bacon to crispy perfection. The rosemary made bacon smell even better -- and it did no small favors for the taste, too. Next, he sliced some flawless heirloom tomatoes and toasted some amazing pretzel buns he and Jess had managed to find. Oh, and somewhere along the way, Keith had also had time to make a homemade chive aioli, which he noted was a labor of love due to all of the whisking. I'm sure it was worth it in the end, right, Keith? While I can't speak for him, I can say that the finished product was absolutely out of this world. The burgers looked great and tasted better. Best burger I've had all year -- I'm not even joking. (And I've had a lot of the burgers voted Top Ten in this city this year.)

For their side, Meg and Bobby made a phenomenal pesto pasta salad with plenty of delicious mushrooms, tomatoes, pine nuts and yes, more goat cheese. Everything about it was light and fresh -- a perfect complement to the heavy beef-eating we were doing that evening. Bobby also brought some of his home-brewed beer because welp, Bobby brews beer. And it's some great stuff. There's a slightly smokey element to it that's really unexpected and truly delicious. At this point, I was feeling pretty lucky to have the friends I do.

For my side, I'd originally planned to hit up the Farmer's Market that day and just see what struck me. Unfortunately, it rained like cats and dogs all day long... so there was no trekking to the Farmer's Market. Instead, I hit up what I firmly believe to be the next best thing: Whole Foods. Before I left, I thought about what produce is most in season right now, so that it'd be the freshest possible foil to our big beefy burgers. I decided that corn and tomatoes would be my best bet and consulted my BFF, the Bon Appetit cookbook. I decided on a Sweet Summer Corn, Tomato and Basil Salad. While I didn't follow the recipe exactly, I stayed pretty true to the original and was quite pleased with the results. Though the salad was pretty tasty that night, I have to note that I wish I'd chilled it longer than I did -- because the end result was even better the next day.

Something you should know about me is that I rarely end up following a recipe to the letter (unless I'm baking something... for the first time). I'll post the menu for this salad tomorrow: the original version, with a few notes about where I may have taken some "creative liberties."

Lastly, there was dessert. Jess, a baking machine, made some fabulous banana bread. (Unfortunately, I don't have a photo of the banana bread. Notoriously horrible about remembering to take photos when there's food to be eaten, I am apparently even worse when I find myself in a Kobe beef-induced food coma. I'm sorry, Jess! I'll try to do it justice with my words.) This banana bread was impeccably done and was really the ideal end to our meal. Anything sweeter or chocolatey would have been way too much on top of everything we'd just eaten. Banana bread was perfect. Flavorful, dense but still somehow light, never dry... It made us all very happy. Along with the company, the wine, home-brewed beer and the bourbon, of course.

My mouth is already watering just thinking about the next foodie dinner with these peeps!

Bakin' & Eggs: I Am Unimpressed

I will start by saying that the two people who own Bakin' & Eggs seem very nice. However, I'm afraid the experience leaves a lot to be desired.

On Sunday morning (errr, afternoon), Keelyn, Jenny and I decided we wanted some French toast. I'd been wanting to try Bakin' & Eggs for a while and it's pretty close to our house, so we moseyed on over. Our first impressions were that the place was cute -- and crowded. We were told there'd be a 30 minute wait. We were okay with that.

We somehow found ourselves involved in the cluster that was the line while trying to order something to drink. The iced tea I had was good, but it's no juice bar. Keelyn's lemonade was straight up Minute Maid. Jenny tried to get some coffee, but they were out of anything decaf that they could make iced. (And it was about 95 degrees out, so hot was not happening.)

We waited for quite some time and were just goofing around until someone noticed it'd been way over half an hour. So Jenny went to investigate. (Naturally.) Somehow there was another Nancy who'd put her name down on the list and they'd seated her instead of us -- and then completely forgotten about us. Hmm, this was not instilling confidence in the coming experience, but wasn't a deal-breaker.

Our server, however, was. She was terrible. Not just someone who's new, but trying hard. No, more like completely disengaged and awful. We were looking for her at multiple times during the meal, often to no avail. And having been one myself, I cut servers a lot of slack. It's not like she was running around to a million other tables. She was literally nowhere to be found. And when we were able to interact with her, the experience could be described as mystical at best. It was like she was on another planet. Perhaps she was just having a bad day, but it certainly didn't do our brunch any favors.

And then there were the utensils. The silverware was filthy. There was a piece of onion the size of a silver dollar on Jenny's spoon. And the rest of her utensils looked a little mangy, too.

When our food came, it was just okay. Even the maple pepper bacon, which you'd think would be one of their specialties given the play on it in the resto's name, was really nothing special. The jam they gave us was completely liquified, which was interesting -- but not in a good way. After eating two pieces of toast with liquid jam and deciding this was probably not a foray into some sort of misguided molecular gastronomy, I asked for some more. The next batch was a more normal consistency. I'm guessing the first round probably just got too hot, but it was another of many disappointing factors in the experience. (Especially since Keelyn pinpointed the toast as the highlight of her breakfast.)

That said, the true best part of the meal came at the end. When we went up to pay -- and correct them for the miscellaneous extra charges that had been placed on our bill mysteriously, perhaps by the server's extraterrestrial buddies? -- the owner had told the cashier to let us each pick out a cookie from the cases filled with adorable looking baked goods. Really, all of the baked goods looked amazing. But after our experience with the food we'd already ordered, I would never have bought one. However, given the ability to select a cookie for free, I was happy to do so.

And after sampling all three of our choices -- chocolate ginger, peanut butter and peanut butter chocolate chip -- I am pleased to say that the baked goods are where it's at with Bakin' & Eggs. These cookies were excellent. After further investigation, I learned that Bakin' & Eggs is affiliated with Lovely: A Bake Shop on Milwaukee in Bucktown.

I wouldn't go back to Bakin & Eggs for brunch, but I would definitely go back to pick up some of their cookies to go. And I'd happily try some of the additional baked offerings in the future as well. However, if the Lakeview location isn't convenient for you, I'd recommend just swinging over to the original Lovely in Bucktown. I know I plan to explore that venue as well. To learn more about Lovely, visit their cute website here.