The Bourgeois Pig

Met a friend here for coffee today: The Bourgeois Pig
(I always have trouble spelling that word--"bourgeois" not pig)

It's a quaint little coffee cafe off Fullerton in the heart of Lincoln Park, and right next door to the DePaul campus. This may have been the reason it was a tad crowded in the main room. We did not venture upstairs to the "additional seating" area, although from the pictures online
it appears to be pretty cozy.


The extensive menu includes a variety of salads, soups, hot & cold sandwiches, and a host of coffees concoctions and teas. I ordered a Pumpkin Spice Latte. I have no previous experience with this drink for comparison (no, I have not had the Starbucks version although I hear it is great), but I was a little disappointed by the Bourgeois Pig's offering. I was expecting more pumpkin+spice flavor (?).....and it fell a tad short. Although, it could have been the abundance of whipped cream topping off the coffee.

I will gladly try the place again, though -- any cafe with a menu that large must have something good.

Listening to Iron&Wine Around the Well -- and wondering if I will ever be warm again.

Marge's Still

This has been a favorite place of mine to eat lately, whether it be a late lunch (and my lunches usually are), or a Sunday brunch. Marge's offers a concise menu of fresh salads (including my favorite: Grilled Salmon Salad), traditional hot sandwiches, great big burgers and some delish entrees (or so I'm told). My only dilemma in visiting Marge's Still is that we usually go on a Sunday, when they offer their weekend brunch buffet -- and it is enticingly hard to resist. Offered with or without a selection of breakfast plates (Eggs Benedict is the fav), the buffet includes fresh fruit, waffles, sausage links/bacon, bagels & lox, a selection of cold salads, and a variety of yummy desserts. Like I said: hard to resist. For this reason, I have yet to try most of the dinner entrees, although it is my firm intention to do so within the next year (at least).

One of the most enjoyable aspects of living in a city like Chicago is having quaint little restaurants, bars and boutiques like this in close proximity -- you'd be hard-pressed not to fall in love with any one of the little neighborhoods surrounding the downtown area!