Cradled in a quaint section of Illinois street, across from the cute “Kid’s Ink” book store, lies my new favorite place for lunch. I’m not kidding. This place makes my usual plastic Meijer bag of peanut butter and jelly, pretzels, and fruit snacks as long forgotten as a middle-school boyfriend. My new (edible) boyfriend: The Illinois Street Food Emporium.
On the outside, the humble gray strip with green awning looks like nothing out of the ordinary. But as soon as you open the doors, you sense—indeed through all your senses: sight, sound, touch, and taste—that this is the kind of restaurant that makes you feel like you’re a part of the neighborhood. The joint welcomes you with open arms full of cake displays: Lemon Custard, Tiramisu, and Coconut Cream pies that look good enough for a wedding. And large, glazed pastries are displayed from floor to ceiling that look so good you need a bib to wipe all your drool. Apart from the food on display, the setting is charming: an abundance of small tables and chairs covered with green table-cloths, and a small vase of white and yellow daffodils. The walls are simple and white, with the exception of one impressive wall full of colorful still-lives by local artists. And that’s just using my eyes!
What about sound? Well, there’s lots of it! When my friend Susan and I went Friday afternoon for lunch, the place was bustling with people from businessmen and women stopping for soup, to a mommy sharing a turkey croissant sandwich with her toddler son (Aww). The noise is bearable enough that you can still hear your friend talking, while loud enough that you feel comforted to be around lots of hungry, happy people.
Alright, but I’m forgetting the most important sense: TASTE!!! And this place has got lots of it. Susan and I sat at a table for four, and when the waitress brought our food out she asked, “Is anyone else joining you two?”
“No” we laughed. And the sight was funny, almost overwhelming because the food spread out across the whole table! We started with the Strawberry Chicken Spinach Salad. The light, sweet raspberry vinaigrette was served on the side. At first I thought the dressing was dip for our bread roll! Thankfully, the classy and worldly Susan knew better. The salad was the right size for a meal, but big enough to share between two people. It was full of mixed lettuce, strawberries, almonds, cottage cheese (an unexpected surprise), onion, and to top it off, several warm strips of grilled chicken. The salad in itself was warm and fresh with the juicy strawberries and chicken. But the king ingredient was the raspberry dressing. The sweet topping gave the salad a light, summertime flavor that made me want to sip lemonade and swim outside. Unfortunately it’s cold to do the latter, so I ate salad instead.
After salad, we moved on to our sides. The first, and only disappointment, was the Hot Macaroni and Cheese. Macaroni is indeed one of the hardest foods to perfect. It’s either too cheesy or not cheesy enough. This time, it needed more cheese. It was hot, but didn’t live up to its creamy and cheesy potential.
Now what usually goes along with cheesy things? Why tomato soup of course! Now, when I ordered the tomato soup, I didn’t except anything special. I mean, come on, it’s tomato soup. How fancy can they get? Pretty darn fancy. This isn’t just your ordinary tomato soup. No, this soup has chunks of tomato and celery with basil sprinkled on top. This soup could truly make a meal in itself, upstaging the every day grilled cheese sandwich.
Speaking of sandwiches, if there’s one thing that Food Emporium has it’s hunky sandwiches. Susan and I split two sandwiches: the Crostini and the Italian Sausage Sandwich. Both were served on French bread, but each offered it’s own taste-bud adventure. The Crostini has a sun-dried tomato paste, turkey, melted provolone cheese, and spinach. It has a fresh, vegetable flavor that left my lips dripping bite after bite. It was served with a side of fruit: pineapples, grapes, melon, and cantaloupe. Susan and I both agreed that the second sandwich tasted like pizza! It had tomato sauce, grilled peppers, big hunks of sausage, and melted provolone.
And now, dessert! We shared a slice of lemon cake. Not only does this cake look amazing, it tastes so too. The outside is decorated beautifully with butter cream frosting and a lemon puree on top. The cake itself is lemon and has a light but shocking taste that wakes you up! After we ate our first bite, we both screamed, WOW! The cake has a kick that’s irresistible, and surprisingly it doesn’t fill you up too fast.
So next time you’re sick of going to Atherton, C-Club, or the inside of your pathetic, plastic, Meijer bag, head on down to Illinois Street for a hunky lunch that will send your taste buds rocketing to the moon!
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