From Food to Decor, It’s All in Good Taste
I had passed by Pasta Cucina many times on my way to the Three Penny Theatre. But because I was always late, I never stepped in until a friend told me that the food there was out of this world.
Journalist, Author & Syndicated Columnist
I had passed by Pasta Cucina many times on my way to the Three Penny Theatre. But because I was always late, I never stepped in until a friend told me that the food there was out of this world.
If you live in the suburbs, you know how difficult it can be to find good ethnic food without driving to Chicago. That was a complaint Bonnie Ma heard many times from friends and customers. So when the restaurateur decided to open another Midori – which specializes in Japanese cuisine – she selected northwest suburban Mount Prospect as her site.
A tiny storefront diner that serves only breakfast and lunch, seven days a week, the Cozy Cafe lives up to its intimate name.
Have you ever had one of those weeks when you just had too much to do but not enough time to get everything done? It was for just such times that the owners of Scatchell’s designed their strip mall in Cicero, which includes a pizzeria, car wash and laundromat.
One afternoon, a friend and I were trolling for food after catching a matinee at the Music Box Theatre. Just a couple of blocks away from the cinema, we saw a quaint restaurant called the Banana Leaf Kitchen with a sign promising noodles, fried rice and curry.
You gotta wonder about a restaurant named after an illegal drink. So it was with curiosity that I ventured to the oh-so-hip Cafe Absinthe.
Grrrrrrrumble!!!! The noise you hear is the collective hunger pangs of wannabe patrons waiting for a table at Shiroi Hana. The line outside the Japanese restaurant is long and winding. There is no band playing. And as far as I can tell, there are no celebrities inside to bother, either.
It’s 10 a.m. Saturday and there’s already a line at Leo’s Lunchroom. But no one seems cranky. Hungry, yes. Crabby, no.
I lost my headache at Jane’s. Let me explain. The first time I ate at the Bucktown restaurant, I reacted in typical American horror when the waitress seated my friend and me right next to the only other couple in the restaurant. But too embarrassed to ask to be moved farther away, we sat there and made the best of it and ended up having a fabulous time.
Earwax isn’t the most appetizing name for a cafe/record and video store. But it is a pretty darned catchy one.