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Chicago Breakfast Spots
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Midwest Living Contributing Editors George Hendrix and Steve Slack have become Windy City breakfast experts. Here are a few of their recommendations:
Customers gather near the entrance to the single-story white building housing Lou Mitchell's along Jackson Boulevard (Route 66) downtown. Even if you have to wait, you probably won't mind too much. The line moves quickly, and a host passes out doughnut holes. As you're seated at one of the 20 or so booths, a stool at one of two horseshoe-shaped counters or the ever-popular community table (you share table space with whoever sits down), women and children get free Milk Duds. That's just one of the traditions at this humble Windy City institution, founded in 1923. Breakfasts include dishes such as pancakes, thick French toast, sausage-filled omelettes, and fresh rolls from the restaurant's bakery. 565 West Jackson Boulevard (312/939-3111).
Ann Sather's Restaurant also claims a legion of breakfast fans. The original sprawling Swedish establishment along Belmont Avenue just west of Lake Shore Drive presides over an upscale north-Chicago retail enclave (you'll also find four other locations in the Chicago area). The menu ranges from crab-and-spinach omelettes to traditional dishes such as Swedish potato sausage. Almost everyone orders the warm cinnamon rolls. 929 West Belmont Avenue (773/348-2378).
Heaven on Seven, seven stories up at the Garland Building in the Loop, specializes in Cajun and creole cooking, serving items such as 'shrimp angry omelette' and cheese grits, as well as the usual breakfast dishes and to-die-for pecan pancakes (111 North Wabash Avenue, 312/263-6443).
Wishbone, located just west of the Kennedy Expressway in the West Loop, features a menu that's a little down-home southern and a little south of the border, including grits with cheese and ham, and 'red eggs' in a tortilla (1001 West Washington Boulevard, 312/850-2663).
Reviewed April 2004.
