Category: Sweets & Treats

Sometimes it’s hard to reconcile my healthy eating plans with my endless appetite for frozen sweets. I love ice cream, sorbet, gelato, and frozen custard. Milkshakes bring me to the yard. Luckily, I discovered a delicious new frozen snack at Starfruit. Located on Division Street in West Town, just south of Wicker Park, Starfruit is a great place to meet your friends for frozen kefir.

Starfruit opened early in 2008 with a new approach to cold confections. They serve organic kefir, a dairy product similar to frozen yogurt with cultures that aid digestion and help the body process calcium. Kefir is usually found in liquid form in grocery stores, much like a smoothie. The drink originated in the Caucasus Mountains of Russia, and as its popularity spread west, flavors were added. After enjoying the sweet/tart flavor of kefir drinks, I moved on to Starfuit, the only Chicago shop that sells the soft-serve, frozen form.

If your friends know and love frozen yogurt, they will appreciate kefir even more. Starfruit serves Lifeways frozen kefir, with vanilla and different fruit flavors like peach, strawberry banana and pomegranate. Cappuccino is my all-time favorite, combining creamy chocolate and coffee flavors. Like the frozen yogurt shops I miss from the 1980s, Starfruit has plenty of toppings to mix with the kefir. You can have a healthy parfait with California green grapes and walnuts or go totally hedonistic with Butterfinger bits and mini chocolate chip cookies. The peach kefir goes very well with mochi balls, for a peaches and cream type parfait. Smoothies here provide plenty of calcium, protein and Vitamin C, with the option of seasonal fruit like Washington cherries or exotics like Brazilian goji berries. Your health nut friend and your chocoholic friend will both appreciate Starfruit. The cappuccino smoothie with Butterfinger bits is my favorite summer treat, and I can still tell people it’s a health food.

All the organic kefir cups, parfaits and smoothies cost between $4 and $7, so you can afford to treat your friends. This is also a good spot for parents to bring their kids for a dessert or after-school snack. You can tell them it’s healthy after they try it and like it. Best of all, Starfruit’s friendly servers will let you sample the flavors and help you pick out tasty combinations of toppings and kefir. Every time I visit, the service is excellent and unhurried. The cool white restaurant interior and its outdoor metal tables and chairs are always spotless.

Frozen yogurt is back in fashion and kefir is the next delicious step. Treat your friends to something new today at Starfruit. Be sure to ask for a punch card, so your tenth frozen dessert will be free.

Surprise your friends with delicious desserts from around the world at La Patisserie P. This Argyle Street shop offers a great variety of Chinese, and French rolls, buns, tarts and cakes, with virtually every item between $1 and $5. Any group of girlfriends (or guy friends with a sweet tooth) will find great desserts or snacks here. The reasonable prices and portions invite you to try new things, like the buchi (sesame balls with sweet bean paste) for only 95 cents.

This Edgewater shop has been a family-owned business since 1981. Owner Peter Yuen has studied both Chinese and French baking and the shop offers the best desserts and snacks of both east and west.

Many flavors of smoothies include pineapple, mango, watermelon, kiwi and avocado, for $3.50, with the option of adding tapioca for bubble tea. Your health-conscious friend can sip on a smoothie and enjoy their Vitamin C. If your friends like coffee with dessert, they can enjoy Boyd’s coffee here. Lattes and mochas range from $1 to $2, a good deal anywhere especially with the fluffy tiramisu or the cannoli with ricotta cream and chocolate flakes. Dim sum lovers will appreciate the coconut rolls and egg custard tarts (75 cents). Baked fresh daily, the crème brulee arrives lush and creamy with a delicate shell of brown sugar ($2.75).

The many French-style mousse cakes include: Valencia (with orange cream), bright green Pistachio, Opera (with coffee and chocolate) and a fruit and nut mix simply called Perfect Delight. The mousse cakes come in light, sweet individual portions, enough to enjoy without feeling overly full.

If you visit La Patisserie around lunch time or want a savory snack, try the shu mai or puffy hom bow with barbecue beef, pork or chicken. The egg rolls or ham and cheese buns also make a good light lunch. Even the hot dogs come wrapped in savory pastry Sweet rolls and jelly-roll cakes with cream filling are popular as take-out.

Because of its Argyle Street location, La Patisserie P is a good place to meet before a show at the Riviera or Aragon or on the way to the Lawrence or Montrose Beaches. Parking can be scarce in the evenings here, but it’s worth the wait and the Argyle Red Line stop is only a few blocks west.

Perfect Delight is a cute name for a cake, and also aptly describes this friendly place.

This unassuming storefront on Broadway near Argyle holds one of the hottest, sweetest Thai restaurants in Chicago. Curries and hot pepper dishes are unflinchingly spicy and the pastry case offers house-made Thai desserts. Almost any Thai restaurant will serve pud see ew and pad prik king, but how many mix their own lychee ice cream and bake coconut dumplings and thin, crisp wafer cookies? Bring your friends to Thai Pastry to share dishes, eat family style and split the delectable desserts.

The menu includes the usual rice, noodles, salads and soups: pad thai, pad prik king, crying tiger (spicy beef), red, green and yellow curry. There are plenty of appetizers to share, including: satay, shu mai and fried bananas. The peanut sauce on the Rama chicken has a perfect balance of sweetness and spice. Basil, peppers and other vegetables are fresh and flavorful. Tofu and brown rice can be substituted in most dishes. Seafood dishes abound and specials change weekly; ginger tillapia or fresh sautéed perch for $13.95 are a few good picks. Most entrees range from $5 to $10.

The hot and sour seafood soup mixes green mussels, tender squid, and shrimp with basil and bell peppers. The kang pa red curry tasted spicy but not overpowering with Thai eggplant (lighter and crunchier than the Japanese variety) bamboo shoots and seedy little green peppers swimming in lush golden broth. Pud see ew is savory sweet with brown sauce and fresh carrots. Portions of pad thai and wide noodles with broccoli are generous and just saucy enough.

Tall glasses of Thai iced coffee and Thai iced tea mitigate the spice of the hot dishes and you can also order coffee, a pot of tea and soft drinks. Thai Pastry is BYOB.

Remind your friends to save room for dessert. You can try some of the pastries, many filled with cream, coconut or fruit. The house-made ice cream comes in parfait glasses or by the carton to take home. Coconut, green tea and mango are available and my favorite is lychee, light and creamy with chunks of the sweet white fruit.

Delivery and carryout are available and super cheap with the $6.50 lunch specials. If your coworkers like Thai food, try this menu on a weekday between 11am and 3pm. Delivery is available between Devon, Lake Shore Drive, Diversey and Western and it’s well worth a trip to Thai Pastry for lunch. You could also come here for a happy hour dinner after work. Popular but never overcrowded, Thai Pastry is relaxing with lime green walls, soft Thai music, and doll-house size models of Thai restaurants by the entrance. Service is friendly and substitutions are no problem.

Do you wish that you could take your sweetheart to exotic foreign places? Do you dream about sharing coffee and cake in Vienna, Russian tea in St. Petersburg or Thai iced tea in Bangkok? Then, do you wake up and realize that you can’t afford to leave the city?

Yeah, me too.

At times like this, I take my date to Kopi Cafe, on Clark Street and Berwyn in Andersonville. Billing itself as “a café for travelers,” Kopi brews a wider selection of tea and coffee than any café I’ve encountered. The affordable, tasty menu spans several continents and breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert. Clocks on the wall tell you the time in Katmandu and Tokyo as Jalan Jalan Boutique sells clothes, jewelry, bags, incense and travel books in the back of the shop. Stop in for a cup of tea or coffee or enjoy a full meal, most for less than $10 per person.

Taking its name from an Indonesian word for “coffee”, Kopi Café serves up coffee in all its forms - from simple espresso to fluffy Viennese coffee, Thai iced coffee and frozen espresso treats. Traditional and trendy teas abound here: Darjeeling, red roobios, gunpowder green, anti-oxidant rich white tea, and many healing herbals like Women’s Libertea with dong quai and licorice root. My favorites are white teas with blueberry, strong black Russian tea with sour cherry preserves and yerba mate, a naturally caffeinated South American herb tea. The ultimate shippable indulgence here is Thick.Hot.Sipping,Chocolate, a melted dark chocolate indulgence like a French chocolate pot or the cioccolata I lived on as a student in Florence.

Brunch gets crowded and noisy at Kopi, but with good reason. Brunch items range from old-fashioned croissants, scones, eggs and lox to experimental dishes like Breakfast Pizza of the Future, topped with scrambled eggs, vegetarian sausage and cheese. Crepes and healthy fruit smoothies, including the lychee mangosteen start your day off right or help you recharge after a late night out. No matter how busy brunch gets, servers stay friendly and keep the tables and floor spotless.

The lunch and dinner menu features Greek, Italian, French, Mexican and American inspired soups, salads and sandwiches, making Kopi a good pick if you and your date each want a different cuisine. If you like cheese, split a cheese platter or enjoy the Chevre Chaud salad with crisp goat cheese baguette toasts on a big bed of mixed greens and tomatoes. A unique Greek salad includes a block of feta and tomato pesto with olives and greens. Sandwiches range from Black Forest ham and smoked salmon to Tofurkey sausage and black bean burgers. Panini selections include Caprese Pesto and The Elvis, a fried peanut butter and bananas sandwich.

If you have room for dessert, check the glass cake cases for flourless chocolate cake, carrot cake, fresh cookies and brownies, and puffy yellow Lemon Blossom cookies. You can start or end a date pleasantly at Kopi, which stays open late, or relax in the afternoon on the cushions by the low tables in the front. Peruse the travel books from Jalan Jalan and imagine your next trip to Australia, Brazil, Belgium or Vietnam. Even if you’re on a budget, maybe saving up for your next journey, Kopi encourages you to try new flavors and dream big.

Sometimes my plan for a girls’ day out centers on cake and coffee rather than cocktails. For a sweet treat, take your mom, sister, best friend or any chocoholic or coffee aficionado to Julius Meinl’s Café.

Julius Meinl (the name rhymes with ‘vinyl’) was the name of the first Vienna merchant to sell roasted coffee in 1862. Before that, coffee drinkers roasted their own beans over woodstoves. The Meinl logo shows a boy in a red fez, a reminder of the Turks who first introduced coffee to Vienna. The Meinl coffee business has prospered in Austria for five generations. Their cafe on Southport in Chicago serves the same roasted coffee, imported tea and traditional cakes and dishes as the original in Vienna.

Meinl’s imports tea and makes its own coffee and hot cocoa. Lattes and espresso here are identical to their Italian counterparts. The unique Viennese coffee drink is the melange , a big sweet espresso drink with equal parts steamed milk and foam, topped with chocolate shavings. For true luxury, order this with a shot of your favorite flavor (mine is orange). Your tea drinking friends can enjoy a wide selection of imported tea from chai and lapsang souchong to Earl Grey and strawberry. Drinks arrive on elegant silver trays with tiny teaspoons.

Unique Austrian cakes here include Vienna torte, flourless chocolate cake with marzipan, apricot jam and chocolate, Cardinal Schnitte, ladyfingers with lemon mousse and strawberry jam and gugelhupf, a marbled chocolate and vanilla cake. Meinl’s own creations include mousses, cookies and Mozart torte with chocolate and pistachios.

If you and your friends want a light brunch, the croissants and jam or baked eggs with toast taste great with coffee. You can order your eggs with smoked salmon, cheese or vegetables. Breakfast lasts until noon on weekdays and two on weekends for late risers. For lunch, try the crepes with cheese and ham or asparagus and mushrooms, which come with a mixed green salad. Imported cheese and Hungarian goulash round out the menu.

Julius Meinl's is a great place to meet before a movie at the Music Box. If you take the Brown Line El, the Southport stop is closed for construction, but this is well worth the walk from Paulina. In warm weather, you can sit at a table outside and watch the world go by. In winter, enjoy the cheerful yellow interior of the café and pick out a cake from their opulent display case. Servers treat you very well here and never rush you. At Julius Meinl's, you can invite your friends to Vienna without leaving the city.

If you and your date have a panging sweet tooth and are looking to stop someplace special, Margie's Candies is the place for you! Jump into Mr. Peabody's Wayback Machine and set the dial to 1921 to watch this icon get built. Then, fast forward to witness the Beatles' licking their lips there after their first Chicago performance at Comisky Park (that's Sox Park to you newbies!) and notice how little things have changed. Then return back home and still notice how nothing has really changed, except that the owners' kids and grandkids are now the owners, and that Perry Como won't play from the booth's juke boxes anymore.

People travel from all over the world to partake in Margie's delicious frozen dairy treats and mouth watering chocolates. With a half gallon home made specialty sundae touted as the World's Largest and another housed in a vase tall enough for dozens of long stem roses (aptly named the Eiffel Tower) and over fifty (50!) other varies to choose from, it is little wonder why! It is also little wonder why folks are willing to wait up to five times longer for an ice cream at Margie's than they ever would at a 31 Flavors, because quite frankly, it is just plain worth it. Those get topped off with just about every confectionary imaginable, so the sugar fiends can really get a taste of that old school charm.

For those who really want to set their nostalgia meter off the charts, ordering up a root beer float, shake or even a nearly forgotten chocolate phosphate is a great way to stir memories. Of course, the name signifies candy, and the owners sure do make some great ones, making this candy shop the perfect place for picking up a box of chocolates for sweethearts.

The inside and outside d?cor is very dated, but in a good way. Yellowing newspaper clippings and photos adorn the walls, along with dolls and teddy bears, with the minimal seating covered in kitschy vinyl. The place could stand some sprucing up, but just like repairing an antique piece of furniture, sometimes value becomes lost during restoration. Some folks also tend to become stricken with their laid back service, but good things come to those who wait.

People say you can’t have your cake and eat it, too, but at Sweet Thang on North Avenue, you certainly can. Specializing in traditional French and American pastries, cakes and croissants, Sweet Thang has created quite a buzz in Wicker Park in its almost five years of being open. Anyone who has ever walked by and peeked in can attest to the romantic draw of the red heart-shaped chairs and the sugary sweets that call out from the pastry cases.

Inside, the café has a quaint, French atmosphere. Chairs and tables are cozily squeezed into the area across from the long counter, adorned overhead with ornate, vintage-style lamp shades over unique hanging light fixtures. Red paint, an exposed brick wall and detailed crown molding add a classy touch, and really make it hard not to stick around and have another cookie with your coffee. The back of the café features a slightly bigger sitting area, stylishly decorated with long draperies and chandeliers. To get to this area, you’ll pass under a decorative “wedding cake” that sits majestically over the entryway. A definite attention-getter!

As for cookies, they’re fresh and delicious, and the same can be said of the coffee. If you’ve got a few minutes to spare, let the person at the counter take a minute to make you a cappuccino. The aroma of freshly brewed coffee is something you’d expect to experience in a café like this. Go ahead, give a chocolate chip or a peanut butter cookie a try—when was the last time you got to have a freshly baked cookie, anyway?

Sweet Thang also boasts wedding and specialty cakes, which range in price from $4 to $15 per person. Their talented staff can accommodate almost any cake design, even such odd requests as musical instruments, books, tools and clothes, just to name a few. Sweet Thang’s dessert cases also house treats like cheesecake, tarts, pies and mousses. If you’re looking to satisfy a sweet tooth, this place has just what you need!

Whether you’re by yourself looking for a quiet place to relax and read a book, or with friends looking for an intimate setting to make the latest juicy confession, Sweet Thang provides the ideal environment.