Fairgrounds Coffee and Tea: Innovative Beverages, Modern Decor

Wicker Park

Beverage Quality: ★★★★★

Ambience: ★★★★★

Affordability rating: ★★★★

Overall rating: ★★★★★

This is probably my favorite coffee shops in the Wicker Park area.  The ambience is bright and modern, which is great for doing work.  The baristas are very friendly, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable.  They aren’t too cool to help you like a lot of other places around here.  They also have beverages that are unique and you can’t find at other coffee shops.  Fairgrounds has a great balance of tea, juices, and coffee drinks, that combine eclectic ingredients together to create a mixture of gorgeous flavors.

When we came here we split a couple of drinks.  The barista also let us sample their elixirs/beverages on draft, which was really fun.  We got the Vosges Coconut Charcoal Elixir and it was marvelous.  There were chunks of real coconut in there with a complex chocolate flavor, coconut water, and charcoal.  It tasted unlike anything I’ve ever had before.  It was like a coconut hot chocolate but a healthier version of it.

We also ordered their Jungle Juice, which was an iced drink with a strong mango flavor (if you like mango, you’ll like this), cayenne, turmeric, and saffron.  The other favors were pretty subtle compared to the mango but they made the mango less sweet.

There are so many other beverages on the menu that I’d like to try!  I also would like to try their food.  I am looking forward to coming back here!

Katherine Anne Confections: A Delightful and Warm Break from the Winter Tundra

Neighborhood: Logan Square

Vegetarian Options Rating: ★★★★★

Pescatarian Options Rating: ★★★★★

Affordability: ★★★★

Ambience: ★★★★

Service: ★★★★★

 Food and Beverage Quality: ★★★★★

Overall Rating: ★★★★★

I haven’t really been a fan of hot chocolate until the past few months when I discovered gourmet hot chocolate places like Mindy’s Hot Chocolate and Katherine Anne Confections.  While I do love Mindy’s, they are so well known and you can’t really sit there and drink hot chocolate unless you eat at the restaurant and I’d rather focus on a place that is not as hyped up.

Katherine Anne Confections is a cute, small cafe in Logan Square that has a fabulous assortment of chocolate truffles, candies, hot chocolates, and surprisingly sandwiches.  After being gifted a box of chocolate truffles from here, I can’t go back to eating truffles that can be found at Walgreens even though that makes me sound super bourgie.  These truffles are fresh and heavenly.  They have unique combinations like goat cheese walnut, which literally melt in your mouth.

I came here for the hot chocolate though so I wasn’t going to ruin my hot chocolate appetite with anything else.  They have an excellent variety of hot chocolates and have an extensive vegan menu.  They are really great about customizing options so even if you are okay having milk chocolate but don’t want regular milk, they can make it with Almond milk.  Their vegan options were not an after thought and I was impressed at how they took great care with presenting truly great options for vegans and people who are lactose intolerant.  Many hot chocolate places don’t let you customize so this was refreshing.  The service was exemplary.  Upon walking in we were greeted by a few friendly faces and it didn’t feel fake.  They were very receptive to any questions we had and checked on us after we had the hot chocolate to make sure we were happy.

We ordered from the vegan menu and got the Mexican Hot Chocolate and the Mocha Hazelnut Hot Chocolate.  They also let you select which marshmallows you’d like in your beverage so I picked the cinnamon for the Mexican Hot Chocolate and vanilla for the Mocha Hazelnut Hot chocolate.

The Mexican Hot Chocolate had a refreshing spice to it.  It was thick and decadent, but not as guilt-provoking since it was vegan and made with Almond milk.  The chocolate was sweet but it complemented the spice really well.  They also sprinkled some peppercorn on there to add even more of a zest on top of the cinnamon marshmallow.

The Mocha Hazelnut Hot Chocolate was a nice companion to the Mexican Hot Chocolate because it was milder so if the spice was too much, you could take a break with the Mocha Hazelnut.  This hot chocolate was also vegan and not super sweet but still thick and decadent.  The hazelnut flavor was prominent but everything was very well balanced.  The vanilla marshmallow melted perfectly in the hot chocolate and was served with two candied walnuts, which added a tasty crunch to the soft marshmallow.

The portions are pretty large and you might either want to split it with someone ($7 for the smallest size, which is what we had) or do the tasting menu ($9, which includes 3 hot chocolates of your choice).  One of these can feel like a meal!

Maybe hot chocolate isn’t your thing?  They do have three sandwiches here and one of them is a vegetarian option.  The Bahn Mi looked intriguing and if I do need something savory to balance the sweetness, I just might try it.  Their cafe curates a warm, neighborhood feel where you can sit and talk to a dear friend or sit alone, observe and/or read as you sip on delicious hot chocolate.  I will definitely be back here to try more of their hot chocolate.  It has a true neighborhood feel to it.

Same Day Cafe: Food and Drinks for All Seasons

Neighborhood: Logan Square

Same Day Cafe is a picturesque, relaxed cafe in the heart of Logan Square.  Its sign and exterior is unassuming but their food and beverages are everything but unassuming.  It’s a smaller cafe with a wonderful collection of records and natural light.  There are some cute plants on the wall, but it’s not overdone.  It feels unadorned with sparks of a rustic ambience.

They have a wide assortment of beverages ranging from homemade sodas to Chai.  They have a really tasty Horchata, which is perfect for drinking outside on their patio in the summer.  It wasn’t too sweet and had a really great balance of flavors.  It was absolutely refreshing with a nice cinnamon kick.

When it comes to cute, small coffee shops, I never know whether the food will be good since I assume the food isn’t the main feature.  But the food is amazing here.  I had heard great things about the grilled cheese and tomato soup, which I usually don’t order out because it’s a very basic meal and I can make it at home for way less.  But their grilled cheese and tomato soup is far from bland and boring.  Their tomato soup has fresh basil, olive oil, and rosemary croutons.  So simple, yet so scrumptious and hot on a cold, winter day.  The rosemary croutons add a nice crunchy texture to the soft soup.  This soup was really delicious and complemented the grilled cheese.

Same Day makes their own bread and the freshness of it was apparent while eating the grilled cheese.  The grilled cheese consists of rosemary bread and more exciting cheese than just cheddar.  It has both gouda and cheddar.  I also added arugula to it, which served as a nice contrast to the soft cheese.  It also made me feel happy to eat a vegetable since grilled cheese isn’t the healthiest meal in the world.

We tried the pan potatoes on the side and they were also phenomenal.  Again, potatoes can be really boring, but these were not boring.  The potatoes were pan fried and seasoned with a giardiniera slaw, parmesan, and fresh oregano. The giardiniera slaw was definitely a highlight and added some nice zest to the potatoes.  I could not get enough of it!

The service was friendly and easy going.  Our server was really nice about splitting up the grilled cheese and putting them on separate plates.  While food menu is relatively small, there’s still so much I would love to try here.  They have brunch-esque food making it a wonderful alternative to a typical restaurant brunch spot.  What’s also great about Same Day Cafe is that you don’t have to wait and can just have a chill brunch or lunch without feeling rushed.

Xuan Tea

Bucktown

Tea Quality: ★★★★★

Ambience: ★★★★★

Affordability rating: ★★★★

Overall rating: ★★★★★

I am so happy to see a real teahouse open up in this part of Chicago.  We have a lot of great coffeeshops to choose from but no real teahouses.  The teahouse is structured in a way where you walk in, are greeted at the counter, and can sit at the tea bar or in the back with the interesting art for more privacy.  I love the aesthetic of this place.  It’s very modern and clean, with a lot of beech wood and white color.

I am a big tea fan and tea drinker so I was very excited to finally try this place out.  They have a great selection of tea from China and Japan that are authentic and undiluted with sugar.  More specifically they have black tea, green tea, and white tea.  They use the real tea leaves and make sure that the tea is steeped to perfection.  They also have really cute mugs and teapots.

The service was great as well since they are very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about what they have.  The owner was really friendly and talked to us about the tea.  I look forward to seeing this place unfold and emerge.

I cannot wait to come back here to hang out and try more tea!  This was perfect for a post-workout drink on a rainy day.