John "Existential Fashion Disaster" V.'s Profile

The smell when you walk into the Spice house is amazing. The staff is all very friendly and willing to give you advice and tips. The selection of spices is tremendous and all of it is fresh and high-quality. Their themed gift packs are really cute and actually gift-worthy. The recipes are tasty and their custom "local" mixes are brilliant. Each time we try one, it becomes one of our favorites.

Brought my mom here once and it was delicious; been to the Barrington location as well, also amazing. We brought the family back here for a weekend brunch the other day and was wowed again. Apple cinnamon pancakes were great. We've also tried their soups and brought a quart of the chicken and wild rice home this time. We decided to attempt to resist the delicious breakfasts and try their lunch menu on our next visit.

Great apples and apple-products... cider, cider donuts, jam, salsa, barbecue sauce, pies, muffin mixes, syrups, etc., etc. Decent selection of pumpkins and other gourds for the Fall and a cool place to pick out a pre-cut OR u-cut christmas tree. We usually end there two or three times from the fall through the winter. We almost always have a hot cidr, while we're there, and usually a donut (I think a cider comes free with a tree purchase, or at least it has in the past). We also usually pick up some pepper bacon and cheese curds while we're there. It's a winning tradition for us.

they do a decent NY style slice, and that's saying something for a Chicago based pizzeria. They are, in fact, right across the street from Mather High School, so they are flooded with high school kids during the day. I've never tried it in the evenings, but if you know the Mather schedule, you can get in there 10 minutes before the period ends, when all the kids are leaving to get to their next class, and get an order in and done pretty quickly. The staff is friendly enough.

The pizza was decent. I'm no native Chicagoan, so I know my "thin" crust, and this was a little greasy and just a bit limp, but very tasty. We also had a Barbeque sandwich at the table, and the sauce was good, but the beef left something to be desired.

In a restaurant with a bar, nowadays, you almost expect free refills on sodas, because you know they make plenty of money on their alcohol... but that is not the case here. Unfortunately, we had a mix of Diet and regular drinkers, so we couldn't go for their pitcher option.

Anyway, the real reason this didn't get a higher rating from me was the atmosphere. The place has no windows... it's kinda dark. The booths are alright for four adults, but trying to have a conversation is hard with the very loud announcements each time someone's food is ready.

Summary: decent food, weird atmosphere

We were also there on Family Night, but left just as Greg the magician/balloon creationist was getting started, so I can't review his tableside act, sorry!

Peace, Love & Root Beer - reads the sign out front and the back of some of the girls shirts. This is a classic drive-in... and even though the girls weren't on roller skates, it felt very classic-authentic. I almost felt bad that my modern car windows did no get along well with the hook-on food trays.

We got a pulled pork sandwich, a turkey club, some curly fries and a too-sweet butterscotch shake. It was very tasty and just the right amount of food for our lunch needs. The classic rock was playing and families were sitting in their cars, at the picnic tables and in the gazebo... and I think there were even some people at an indoor seating section, but we did not investigate it.

We've made it an official tradition to see one play every summer at APT. We have yet to see any shakespeare, but the other comedies that we've seen have been great (Misalliance, Widower's Houses, Hay Fever). This summer, we took the "Inside Out" tour and thoroughly enjoyed it. We got a peek at the newly opened Touchstone (indoor) theater and all the costume and props storage as well as backstage. It was a good combo with an afternoon show.

We had visited the other Blue Spoon location on another trip to the area and were staying just down the street from this location, so we decided to try it out for dinner.

We tried a pizza (Mozz and Pepperoni) and some pulled pork quesadillas, and both were delicious, though quite greasy... like grease dripping down my hand and wrist... but soooo delicious.

We also had a couple small servings of gelato for dessert and found it to be a little more "ice creamy" than some of our previous gelato experiences (harder & colder), but it was still very good.

My girlfriend and I stopped in here because we saw some people with some yummy looking ice cream (gelato, actually) walking out the door. We popped in and sampled some gelato. They were really nice about letting us combine multiple flavors into whatever size we wanted.

We liked the place so much, that we convinced the whole family to head back there for breakfast later in the week. Breakfast was fantastic... I think we tried a little of everything. The potato pancakes were a favorite of mine.

Bringing a group of kids and watching them pump water, grind corn, and feed hens is really a blast. The staff is very friendly and gave the kids a bunch of great information about the cows. There was a three or four week old calf there and the kids were enthralled. Our kids were equally interested in the sheep and pigs, but we only made a quick visit to them, and the horses were hanging out across the pasture, so we just waved.