Melody D.'s Profile

I want to like Home.  The patio is so pretty... the staff is so nice.. I always see upcoming actresses in big shades and bright lipstick pretending to eat...

But, ergh, the food is really mediocre.  I mean, if your thing is TGI-Fridays (or Sizzler... or Olive Garden.. or Cheesecake Factory.. or CPK), then you'll probably dig the food here.  I don't; I can't; I won't.  There's so much great food in this city, and this food is not terrible, but not great either.  I can see why the actresses go... you should pay to sit there and be seen, not to eat.

A bunch of reviewers for this joint have complained about absurd wait times spoiling their night out.  But hello, this is *why* you don't go to a popular restaurant on a Friday or Saturday night at peak times...  It's so annoying when Yelp'ers give low-ratings to perfectly good restaurants simply because they a) arrived with 17 people and no advance notice and expected prompt seating and quality food, b) went on a day and time that everyone and their mom would be showing up and expected same, c) realized they could spend less for crap food and went on a tirade about how you could spend $9 instead of $10.  Well yes, of course you can... and at McDonald's you could spend $2.50.  Point being??

I almost feel like Yelp should have guidelines to fairly and adequately reviewing restaurants.

...Anyway, I went to Franklin Cafe on a Wednesday at about 11.  The place was half empty and we were seated immediately.  The tall, friendly waiter with gauges seemed to get his timing perfect at every turn:  menus served up immediately; came back to see what we wanted just when we had decided; served up the wine and then the appetizers in a ten minute window; back with entrees the moment we had finished the apps; check and to-go boxes the minute we looked ready to leave.  Left that man a nice tip...

The food is comfort food taken up a notch and it sits comfortably in its price range.  Obviously, you can pay more and get better food, but for what it is and for how it's priced, it's a safe bet that you're going to be go home full, happy, and with no major holes in your wallet.

PS.  To the other reviewer, below, who decided to update his 2 star rating with another 2 star rating after the restaurateur generously offered him a free meal-- dude, wtf?  Doing sh*t like that, degrades the quality of Yelp.  I feel like in addition to "funny" "cool" "useful" there should be a "now you're just being a tool" button.

Ordered four scrummy small plates, one delectable big plate, and four boozy bottles of wine for three people (too much wine, obviously).  I ate with a real wine snob and apparently, Josh, the waiter, knows good wine.  Avec, the restaurant, also knows good food.  Really f---ing good food, let's not kid ourselves.

The fact that they don't take reservations (and eat holes in my wallet) is the only thing stopping me from going back every other week night.  And then some.

Like the brazen food "connoisseurs" we are, we ordered : chorizo-stuffed medjool dates with bacon & piquillo sauce; saffron marinated chicken thigh; crispy sweetbreads; flatiron steak; and braised pork shoulder with mussels, tripe, tomato and savory streusel.  The dates are insane.  Seriously.  I've made dates stuffed with camembert and wrapped in bacon before (gourmet party trick), and my dates look like a skinny, sad-eyed comparison to the voluptuous sweet and spicy roasted mess that got delivered to our table.  Everything else was really good, you know, by anyone's standards (and at any other dinner would have been a highlight).  Then came the pork shoulder--with mussels--in the most savory, finger-licking stew (or broth, or brew, or something).  Technicolor food FEST!

I kept calling Josh by his first name and demanding he try our food (I may have been rather intoxicated by the time the final course arrived; hard to say).  He didn't oblige such demands, but did drink a fair bit of our wine.  Good chap, that one.

The dessert--well, to be frank, I'm sure it was good, but memory gets a little hazy at that point.

I do recommend the restaurant.  I've tried Blackbird and Sepia (same owners) and love them too.  Sepia, in particular, has ridiculously good cocktails, and some of the best front of house I've ever been party to.  But Avec has the best food, hands down.  I just hope they eventually start offering reservations, so I don't have to freeze my ass off for an hour the next time I want good cookin'.

It's a pretty cafe that looks a bit like a loft apartment.. high ceilings, wood floors, and so on.  I'm a tea drinker and got the Moroccan mint, which was tasty and pleasant.  I like that they give you your own pot and let you choose from an assortment of mugs on the counter.  I also liked the array of colorful magazines they have lining the corridor to the main sitting room (and on that note, it's a nice touch that the main room and the ordering room are separate, so you don't have to listen to the baristas taking orders as you work or read).  They have very nice decor: lovely tables to work at and big comfy chairs to sip tea and read in.

Why only three stars?  It's close to a four for me, but the food they had on display didn't look in the least bit appealing (it looked like refrigerated airport food, to be honest).  That's not a dealbreaker though; coffee and tea at a coffee house are always more important than anything else on the menu.  But the place lacks something...  I really couldn't say what.  Character, perhaps?  The vibe was a little stodgy for my tastes, a little too "modern upper-crust."  I wanted it to be a little more weird.  And weird, it most certainly was not.

Neighborhood bar with character, bad juke box hits and lots of regulars.  Smokers sit out front.  Love that they have almost as many kinds of cigarette packs as liquor bottles (I've always wondered if there are collectible death packs in America, like there are in the UK).  Every bartender appeared to be over the age of sixty, and the crowd was definitely a range of ages and types.  Extensive beer list to choose from, on what looks like a bingo board!

Definitely a decent Chicago-dive, but I'm more into wine and well-mixed cocktails, so this wasn't quite my scene.  Did finish my first PBR though.  Can't say it was good ;)

I got a little confused looking for this place when I stepped off the El (Chicago-Blue).  The El dumps you into an island in the middle of the intersection of Milwaukee, Ogden and.. well, probably two other streets.  If you're a little lost, the Matchbox is the black box of a bar on the corner with red lights strung along the eaves.

When I got my bearings, crossed the street, and made my way inside, they were out of menus and out of stools, so Danny and I stood by the coat wrack, him sipping on a martini, me wringing my hands over what to order.  I leaned over a lady squeezed in at the bar and attracted the bartender with a quick nod.  He asked me what kind of liquors I liked.  I must have looked unsure (gin? vodka?), so he motioned me away, and came back a couples minutes later with a ginger-infused gimlet.  Absurdly good.  The gimlet came in the shaker with a sugar-rimmed martini glass, and I got three good pours out of the shaker (or about 2 1/2 martini glasses full of gimlet).  The grand total?  $7.50.  

I'm not a Chicago native, so I'm not sure what the average price of drinks is around these parts.  But I know in LA or SF, a tasty well-made cocktail, is going to run you about $13--for one martini glass.  Calculating out my 2 1/2 glasses, I'd say I saved myself about $25 (not including tip).  

The bar is tiny and packed (we went at about 6:30 on a Friday), but we were eventually able to secure seats, and standing wasn't bad at all.  The music is loud, but good, and the crowd seemed like a mix of old-timers, hipsters, and business professionals.  Your standard neighborhood watering hole (or hole in the wall, as it were).   Will definitely be back to the Matchbox.

As with everyone else in this city, I am flippin' obsessed with Bi-Rite ice-cream.  I dream about it.  I tweet about it (what a dork).  I make salted caramel on top of Kitchenette ginger cookies my new sex therapy.  Or, um, substitute-for-sex therapy.  I lay down wads of cash way in excess of $60 on weekend shopping sprees because everything looked *that* good and the supplies don't last me a week...and the checkout girl had the NERVE to tease me about it...  (Yeah, me, you, and everyone you know.)

So, here's a hint, guys.  Buying at the creamery--BAD PLAN.  If you want ice-cream (in massive doses, duh) and you want it fast, don't wait in the line.  Buy it in the Bi-Rite co-op down the street.

I'm a total idiot for telling you this, but then, I feel bad for all y'all..patiently waiting in the neverending mess outside the creamery, when you *could* scoop up a quart in less than three minutes flat.  

To execute the three minute plan, I recommend: a driver (to circle the block... did you really think there was parking?  in the mission??), $8 of purchasing power, plastic spoons or sporks for scooping, and those creepy clown cones you get out of the box.  SO READY.

Um...they have RIDICULOUSLY hot servers here.  

When I'm in the Bay Area, I have a tendency to complain about how--back home in El Lay--you get your self-esteem all bent out of shape dining out at restaurants packed with barbie doll servers (the luckless wannabe models, actresses and musicians, dutifully waiting your tables, like some sad, beautiful underclass...)  Usually I'm exaggerating--a little.  Sure, a lot of servers are cute, but some of the hipster ones are getting on scraggly, and some of the diner girls are getting on forty.  

Not...so...here...!

Seriously, one of the girls who works here nights would give Megan Fox a (delectable) run for her money.  And lest you be batting for the other side, there is a veritable cohort of pretty blonde gay males flouncing about in all directions to indulge your whimsy.

(I recommend the Moules Frites).  (But mainly everything is average--to mediocre.  And overpriced, at that).

**UPDATE to what was originally a 4 1/2 star review:  Emmy's sister-in-law (the uber bitch) started working here regularly.  She has big hips and looks mean.  She also makes sarcastic comments to me whenever I come in.  Um, if I wanted my dose of snark and entitlement I'd go to Chez Papa...  Thanks but no!  

It really is a shame... the food is tasty.  ALL of the waitresses are hot (and nice and cool) except "Emmy's sister-in-law" (I have no idea what her name is; she always announces herself that way when asked why she's so annoying).  Poor Emmy.  I like you.  Why'd you go and marry into a crap family?  And then make said crap family service your restaurant?  Eeps.

If you go to Edinburgh and you want to eat Indian, you go here.  The food is so, so much better than Indian food you can get in America (and also so so much better than any other Indian place I ate in Edinburgh--or London!).  The servers are hilarious, especially the main guy, who always teased me about my orders and knew my name AND culinary preferences by the second time I'd even been to the restaurant.  If I lived in this city, you'd bet I'd be eating here weekly (if not nightly...)