Must-Eats in Elmhurst, Illinois

Recently, Serious Eats asked where you would take a tourist if they came to visit you in your town.  Some Chicagoans chimed in with places like Great Lake, Kuma's Corner, and Hot Doug's.  I'm sure Alinea and Charlie Trotters are on the list somewhere for foodies.  That's fine for you city rats, but us suburbanites live in the land of strip malls and minivans.  There can't possibly be anything worth eating in Elmhurst, right?

If that's what you thought....I'm here to challenge that assumption.  Granted, I'm not pointing you to any place that specializes in molecular gastronomy.  Without further delay, here's my list of places you should hit when life brings you to Elmhurst.

Seven Ten Lanes Fitz's Lanes Fitz's Spare Keys for their Italian Beef pizza with "extra" giardinera.  It really is quite an amazing pie that comes from a bowling alley.  Thin, crackery crust cut into squares is what Chicago *should* be known for - not the casserole that we are know for.  If you end up at this spot for bowling or dueling pianos, eschew the usual bar fare of burgers/fried stuff and try the pizza.

Richardson's Hamburger Heaven for a burger and root beer.  This is a summer-time only burger stand.  They're closed all winter long - so this is food you get during the warmer months only.  Maybe the rare nature/lack of availability year around makes it taste better?  I'm not sure.  This is a basic no-frills hamburger stand.  It is literally a "stand".  You walk up to the window, order your chow, then wait at another window to pick it up.  The wait staff is young and surprisingly grumpy, there is a fear of getting run over by a car as they speed by on VERY close North Avenue, but the chow is more than good enough to make up for the issues.  Get a burger and root beer or root beer float.  Skip the fries and splurge on the float.

Rosticeria los Fernandez for their roast chicken dinner with ranchero beans.  This isn't your typical mexican restaurant.  I'm sure they have tacos and such, but the real draw here is the roasted chicken.  They serve "meals" with a whole bird cut up with roasted jaaepenos and long onions.  You get a few sides, but avoid the "Gringo" items like mac and cheese or potoato salad.  Go with the ranchero beans and dig in.

Fontano's Sub Sandwiches for an Italian Sub.  Fontano's is home to not one but either different Italian subs.  Various combinations of salted, cured meats plus a generous topping of giardiniera.  Might be the best sang-wich in town.  Not sure why they have 8 different italian combos, but I'm not arguing.  The place seems to be run by Elmhurst College kids - there has never been an adult in sight when we go in.  The only gripe I have with them is that they don't sell giardiniera by the bottle, instead they sell their olive spread and various other bottled peppers -none of which they sell on their sang-wiches.

Recipe: Magnolia Bakery's Apple Cake with Cinnamon Sugar Topping

A few weekends back, Nat hosted a "Sprinkle" for my sister (not a "Shower", people....a "Sprinkle"!)  Anyway...we were over at Nat's folks place on Friday night and Nat was in charge of making some sort of "coffee cake" -she had one in mind,  but she didn't have the More From Magnolia Book with her.

She remembered that the recipe was the first one in the book, so I dug into the Amazon preview and viola! The preview pages go far enough to catch this one!  Unfortunately for us, this recipe, too, called for a Tube Pan.  Some of you may recall that we don't have one of those (see my post about cream cheese coffee cake here.)! Nat rectified that situation and picked one up at Target ensuring that our coffee cakes no longer have to be impostors.

When I went to print that screen grab, the text came through really gray.  So...I quickly typed it out and created a public Google Doc.  I've included the recipe below.

I really liked this - and so did everyone else.  Hopefully Nat will make it again!  I believe the only tough part of this was getting the cake out of the mold.   I grabbed a slice before the "Sprinkle" began, then slipped out the door to spend time at Menard's and to eat a steakburger at Steak 'n Shake - real manly activities to balance the estrogen overtake of our house.

You can find the full recipe published on its own public Google Doc page here.

Apple cake with Cinnamon Sugar Topping 

From Magnolia Bakery - More from Magnolia:  Recipes from the World Famous Bakery and Allysa Torey's Home Kitchen.

2 Cups All-purpose Flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup vegetable oil (canola)

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs, room temperature

1 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

20 oz apples, sliced, patted dry

1/2 cup sugar mixed with 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 325 degress

Grease and lightly flour a 10-inch tube pan.

In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat together the oil, sugar, and eggs until light and thick, about 3 minutes.  Add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla, beathing after each addition until smooth.  In a separate small bowl, toss the apples with half of the cinnamon-sugar mixture, then stir half of the apples into the batter.  Pour the remaining batter into the prepared pan.  Drop the remaining apples on top of the batter and sprinkle with the remaining cinnamon sugar.  Bake for 60-70 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.  Let the cake cool in the pan for 1 hour, then remove from the pan and cool completely on a wire rack.  

New Coffee Shop Coming to Downtown Elmhurst

We already have Starbucks, Caribou and a local coffee shop First Cup crowding up downtown.  This weekend, on our walk around town Nat noticed that we are, apparently, getting another.  We snapped this photo on Park Avenue - south of the tracks - right near Lou Malnati's.

We're not sure what the "In addition" on the sign means, but I presume the place is set to be named "That Coffee Shop".  I can get behind the desire to support the local place over Starbucks, but can Elmhurst support two indie shops in addition to the 2 national chains?  Both have pretty good locations - near the train - but is that enough?  Our Starbucks recently was rehabbed - no Clover machine, though - and based on the lines there when I go with Nat, Starbucks isn't hurting.  It must be a tough market to compete in.

Instead of a coffee shop, why don't any of these entrepreneurs try something else?  I hear from my sister Vic good things about Two Toots.  With all these strollers rolling around town, you'd figure they'd do gangbuster's business.

Fitz's Spare Keys Elmhurst

Earlier this week, I mentioned that the old sign for Seven Ten was coming down and the new one for Fitz's Spare Keys was going up.  Yesterday, Nat and I were out enjoying the weather (yes!  It was 60 degrees in Chicago) and we spotted the new sign.

Looks like they've spent a few bucks to come up with a nice new logo and were able to successfully incorporate the old "Fitz's" iconography into the new place.

And...to go along with the new sign is a new Yelp profile.   I'm not sure if Yelp is "smart enough" to bring over the old Seven Ten reviews.  Maybe when a new restaurant "opens" - even if it in the same space/concept they give that restauranteur a fresh start.  Seems like I'll have to take one for the team and grab a Italian Beef Pizza with extra giardiniera to see if they've change the menu!  Anyone want to join me?

AARP Membership

Those of you know know me (or lived with me) know that I **try** to turn in as early as I can.  Especially during the winter, I like to get into bed early and - if I can - go to sleep.  On days that I don't have class and before we had the babe, it wasn't surprising to find me shuffling upstairs around 9 pm to get into bed.  I read my phone and occasionally thumb through landscape/garage/deck books from the library while fading away to sleep.  Nat joins me later and sometimes utilizes a book light to read and stay up like an adult while I saw logs next to her.

Apparently, the AARP is taking those early-to-bed stats into account as they extend offers to join their membership.  There's simply no other reason I can explain as to why I received this in my mailbox this week:

I'm thinking of joining.  With my time at Kellogg coming to an end in 10 weeks, I'll have to relinquish my student ID.  With this baby, maybe I'll be able to ditch my "Student Rate" and get "Senior" discount at the movies.

When the shoe fits, eh?

You Write One Post on Bob Dylan...

And now my blog stats are FUBAR'd.  Over the weekend, the great Bob Dylan site ExpectingRain.com linked to my Female Bob Dylan Impersonators posts.  I've been toiling along at here for a few months and have had some decent inbound traffic from various places including search.  Google Analytics was able to provide quite a bit of insight into what was 'working' and what wasn't.

Unfortunately for me, that's no longer the case.

When the flood of Dylan fans came a calling, my data - for the most part - failed to be very compelling for me any longer.  With a longer time horizon the insights will come back, but for now, the charts are basically flat - except for the "Day of Dylan".  There used to be peaks/valleys because all of the data was fairly clustered together.  Not any more.

I'm certain that I'm not alone in this happening to, but it sure would be nice for Google to allow folks to "throw out" certain days from the reports.  Would make my analytics account a lot more useful for day-to-day usage.

You're probably wondering....."What does this have to do with me?  Why is Jake telling us this?"

Well....it has nothing to do with you actually.  Sorry.

Garage - Stage 2: Drawings

Last week, I shared my "vision" for our new garage - based on another simple garage I saw across town.  It was mostly 'dreaming' - but now we're moving into the 'action' stage of the process.  Just yesterday I received the preliminary drawings for the garage.  Some things need to change a bit - like the roof pitch and window locations, but for the most part we're on our way.  Equation Boy/Man has received his preliminary drawings as well and is making some modifications.  

Up next is the yard preparation and bidding of the job.  We're going to bid them together (ours + Equation Boy/Man's) because we live 7 houses away and there **should** be some economies of scale that can be captured by the good guys - us.

Coal Abe Lincoln

This Friday, Nat and I drove down to Frankfort to see my folks.  We dropped the babe off for a sit with her Noonie and Papa and we quickly ran to the movie theatre in New Lenox.  We caught Avatar - more on that later - but I also picked up a box of items from my mom.  Amongst some childhood treasures were two Abraham Lincoln busts pressed in Illinois coal.  I only know they're from Illinois coal because of the "certificate of authenticity" that accompanied them in their boxes!

To the untrained eye, they look like cheap black plastic molds that should be sold at a garage sale for a buck or two.  But...now....when you come across a black bust of Lincoln at your local flea market, take a second look and grab it while you can.  For, it could be pressed of downstate coal and now you'll have a story to tell about your old pal Abe sitting on your bookshelf.  

Seven Ten Lanes Begat Fitz's Lanes Begat Fitz's Spare Keys in Elmhurst

I was driving by our bowling alley this morning in Elmhurst when I noticed these sign guys out front dealing with the new signage.  They're taking down the old sign that read "Seven Ten Lanes" and replacing it with one that reads "Fitz's Spare Keys".  For a bit there, the place was called "Fitz's Lanes", but  they didn't really change much besides the name itself. The signage all still read Seven Ten, the  menus still said Seven Ten and the Yelp listing still said Seven Ten.  (I snapped a picture for the Parrillo Family Elmhurst Historial archives*.  Pardon my finger.  The sun was in my eyes and the Nexus One's screen is terrible in daylight).

Hopefully the new sign means that the menu will get a makeover, too.  I love their food, but the wait staff is young (most likely from Elmhurst College), the menu has items that they"don't have any more", and occasionally a charge will show up on your bill that is wrong.  

The place needs an identity - and hopefully the new "Fitz's Spare Keys" will work for them.  The "Keys" part is due to the fact that in addition to having lanes on 2 floors (Yes...there are private lanes in the basement!), they also have a huge piano bar area that features dueling pianos.  I'm not in the restaurant business, but it seems a bit incongruent.  They have this family-friendly bowling alley with great chow, then this pompous velvet-couched space for dudes in untucked-buttoned down shirts with spike-y hair.

Nat had - what I think is a - great idea.  They should separate the space into 2 distinct spots.  There's already a 'back' entrance and play the piano space up off of that- call it something to do with an alley.  Then keep the lanes family-focused.

As it is now - it is classic "straddling".  And...as we learn in business school:  straddlers usually fail.  Be something and be it well.  Don't try to be 2 things.

*no such archives exist outside of this blog!

Female Bob Dylan Impersonators

(First...a word:  sorry about all the videos lately.  Too many are catching my eye!)  A month or two ago, Nat and I took the babe to see "When in Rome" at the Loma Theatre up in Michigan.  Yes...it was terrible, but it was the only thing that was showing at the time we wanted to go (trying to fit a feature film in between feedings/naps is challenging!).

The high point of the film was a song performed by Adele - "Make You Feel My Love" - a song written by Bob Dylan and included on the Time Out of Mind Album.  I've always liked the song - especially the contrast between the context of the song and Dylan's rough voice work.  It always stood out on a VERY strong album.

Hearing it in the movie got me thinking -  might Bob Dylan end up being a great - maybe the greatest - songwriter for female artists?  His works have such tender moments - but with him singing them - they end up elsewhere.  I've included the Adele version of "Make you Feel My Love" below.  But I've also included a few other covers by females as well.  I might argue that each of them are **better** than his original.  Blasphemy?  Tell me what you think.