I became a coffee devotee in Chicago. Warm, welcoming cafés on every street corner. Cafés that pulled you in with the steam of frothed milk and freshly roasted beans then filled you with light, flaky pastries and strong, dark coffee. Getting coffee was part of the culture. Coffee was on the schedule.
Here I find myself always driving out of the way to go to a Starbucks, mainly because I can just swing through the drive-thru, and because I haven’t lived here long enough to become a follower of the local chain. This has been my status-quo for the past two years. Good coffee, delivered to my hand without dragging the kid out of the car. One thing was missing though – beyond the coziness of those big city cafés – the pastries.
I was introduced to two utterly fantastic cafés. Two cafés that somehow eluded me for two years and made my drive-thrus seem irrelevant. A French one, Chapelure, filled to the brim with pastries. Real, buttery, freshly made croissants. Chocolate croissants. Satisfying a need that had long been unmet. The other, Aggie Mae’s, a bakery/café with bread pudding and cupcakes. And even more croissants. Warm ham and cheese croissants. Simple and quite possibly the best thing I’ve tasted in a long time. All this making me wonder what other treats I’ve been missing out on.
Oh, and the coffee? Well, it was perfect.
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