With the city's constant gentrification, neighborhoods are changing over faster than ever. Devon Avenue has always been a prime example of this. For example, it houses scarcely a share of the Jewish restaurants that lined the street just 10 years ago. They are replaced by Indian and Pakistani restaurants and stores, and who knows who will be next.
Many of the previous tenants have moved further north, and you can find them if you have a car. Before getting started, though, you might find an old friend in the first suburb north. Remember Rolf's Patisserie? It was on Diversey, just east of the big intersection at Clark and Broadway. When it disappeared a couple of years ago, few knew that it resurfaced on Touhy Avenue in Licolnwood. Now located in a much larger space, Rolf's offers the same mix of cakes and pastries, with a small seating area that goes pretty much unused. If you live nearby, try one of their nicely decorated birthday cakes filled with sliced bananas and strawberries.
Just a little further up north, be sure to stop in at the Marketplace on Oakton, at Oakton Avenue in downtown Skokie. Besides a limited supply of grocery items, and a wide selection of both the typical and obscure fruits and veggies, shoppers can find an assortment of Asian specialties from edamame to frozen potstickers to a whole bunch a stuff most local folks have never heard of. It's a great chance to experiment with foods you would never risk trying in a restaurant, where it's not considered polite to spit stuff out.
Now, just get back on Skokie Valley Road, and head north to Dempster. Go west, and you'll soon hit Kaufman's Deli. Like a visit to the Soup Nazi, a visit here requires a quick decision maker who knows what he wants and knows how to ask for it. The crowds on weekends allow you time to decide until your number is called, but be prepared to wait twice. The right side will only help you with your bakery items (rye bread, challah, cookies), while the left side will hook you up with smoked fish, lox chopped liver, pastrami, and more. This is take-out only, so if you're not heading home, you should be prepared for a messy meal in the car.
If you want to eat in an actual restaurant, drive just a little north on Skokie Valley Road, and you'll hit Bagel Country, a Kosher dairy restaurant. That means the Kosher products are cooked with dairy products only. No meat or meat products are on the premises. You get the real thing here: bagels that are boiled like they're supposed to be, with crisp exteriors and soft interiors, soups, sandwiches, and a selection of pastries. Diners who crave meat can try some of Bagel Country's faux meat products, but if you're after meat-filled kreplach and brisket, you're only minutes away from the real thing.
Just up Skokie Valley Road in the Old Orchard Shopping center, is The Bagel, a former Devon Avenue tenant. Here, the space is bigger, cleaner, and more welcoming. Large display counters up front offer a selection of pastries, deli meats, and bagels. Just as at the much smaller Boys Town branch on Broadway, diners get a basket of sliced challah and a bialy or two that will fill you up if you're not careful. The giant menu lets you choose from traditional favorites, like fried matzoh and kreplach soup, as well as diner staples, like cheeseburgers and milkshakes.
From here, veer northwest to Northbrook, where you will find Leonard's bakery at Dundee and Pfingsten Roads. Leonard's was an old timer on Devon Avenue, but has found a brand new set of clientele in this largely Jewish enclave. Challah, rye bread, cookies, and, of course, Babka. The bready yeast cake that featured so prominently into an episode of Seinfeld can be yours at Leonard's. Raisin, chocolate chip, or apple, these round Babkas are the real thing. But, before you pick one up instead of, say, a chocolate layer cake, remember, you either like Babka or you don't. In my family, the men like it despite—or is it because of—the dryness, while my mom and sister would prefer just about any other dessert. If there's a Babka for dessert, the conversation will invariably turn to a comparison by my mom of just how dry it is, and whether it is dryer than the Babka we had last time.
OK, now it's time to carbo load, and Max and Benny's is the place to do it. Located in an ever-expanding space in an unassuming strip mall on Deerfield Road, just across from the Deerbrook Mall, Max and Benny's is just what you want for, well, about any meal. The large menu features many of the same items found at The Bagel, but the bread basket is even bigger here.
Bialies, challah, and more. I always fill up on it long before my food has arrived, or, in some cases, before it has been ordered. Better to save room for big bowls of soup, giant omelettes, and my favorite, cinnamon raisin french toast, thickly sliced, ordered grilled, not fried, yielding a less greasy version that is still mighty tasty. They'll even make an egg white version, so you can eat up with a (little) less guilt.
After all this eating, it's probably a good idea to head home and take a nap. Don't forget to pick up a cookie or cake from the counter at the front of Max and Benny's so you have a little snack for when you wake up.
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