This weekend I did a lot of wandering in the streets of Oak Park and Forest Park, the city of Chicago’s immediate west suburbs. Both areas are easily accessible by the Green (along Lake St) and Blue (along I-290) elevated trains (El’s). Here is a photography enhanced list of the nice food spots I discovered along with links to my Yelp reviews of some of them…
Louie’s Grill, Forest Park – small corner diner with booths and a counter…. reminded a little of my days in Tennessee where a good old Waffle House was the place to be! I grabbed a stool at the end of the counter and the guy next to me handed me the front page of his paper. Nice! I went with my standard “2 eggs, bacon, potatoes and toast”… that is my “comparison” meal. I like to compare apples to apples and as a potato lover, it all hangs in your breakfast potatoes and the crispiness of your bacon! These were nice, typical breakfast potatoes, done just right with the crunchy edges!
Thyme and Honey, Forest Park – This fairly new restaurant had a great “down home” feel inside. The decorations were like “grandma’s house” (well, not my city-born grandma, but what I assume other grandma’s houses are like). The menu was a nice combination of breakfast and lunch/dinner dishes. The biggest bonus was the full-size banana that came with each dish. I could hear kids at the tables around us excitedly asking their parents to open their bananas. How cute! I ordered my “comparison dish” (see above, LOL) and the potatoes were perfectly cut and crispy, but had nearly NO seasoning *sad face* Ketchup helped, but I really missed the seasoning. The other options were grits or fruits. My breakfast buddy (the one with the knife upside down in the pic) ordered the fruit (huge chunks of melon) with his Thyme and Honey omelette which included ham, sausage, bacon, onions, pepper and cheese. Overall, it was a good meal, but nothing special. Maybe I’ll have to go back and try dinner there…
Aripo’s Venezuelan Arepa House, Oak Park – My FAVORITE place of the weekend. This new Venezuelan spot was a great suggestion from a coworker. The “arepas” are “sandwiches” – meat/fillings in between corn cakes. They were AWESOME. I wrote a Yelp review on it HERE.
Todd and Holland Tea Merchants, Forest Park – I walked in here and instantly fell in love with the set up. This cute tea shop was actually had 4 different sample teas – 2 hot teas and 2 iced teas. I wrote a Yelp review on this place also HERE… they turned me on to the benefits of Rooibos for allergy sufferers and I have been excitedly enjoying cup after cup of the Rooibos Chai blend.
Bonus – Chicago folks looking for some cooking lessons, Flav’our Cooking School is advertising their August Hand-On Classes for half off. I’m definitely working a class or two into my summer budget!
Happy Eating!
Cherish (A.K.A. Chicago)
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