Archive for March, 2010

Hop Around the Shops & Easter Hours

Thursday, March 25th, 2010

Easter is coming and that can only mean one thing. Eggs and bunnies. Well, that and chocolate. But Easter also brings one of our favorite Southport events: Hop Around the Shops. The festivities are 12-4 this Sunday the 28th. We’ll be handing out Easter Eggs with bite size deals inside and an adoptable dog from Chicago Canine Rescue outside to greet you.

The Chicago Canine Rescue helps those dogs (and cats) slated for euthanasia because they are too old, too young, too injured, have disabilities, or have simply been overlooked for too long by potential adopters at other shelters, helping more than 2,500 dogs & cats since founded 2001. They help find permanent homes for in-need animals of our city, and help make the sadly discarded animals healthy and ready for adoption.

For Hop Around the Shops, the stores all up and down the street will have something for the kids too! From face painting to visiting with the Easter Bunny, everyone is sure to have a good time. The press is fired up about it too from Daily Candy to Chicago Magazine to NBC5 to Time Out Chicago. Mark your calendar and bring the kids this Sunday for Easter fun!

As for Easter, the 4th, we are open our usual Sunday hours – from 8am – 4pm. Bring the family for a new brunch tradition of Bread Pudding Pancakes, or Grown Up Poptart!

Posted in Goings on, The Cafe | No Comments »

Grown Up Kids Stuff, chocolate sauce for adults

Thursday, March 18th, 2010

We’d like you to meet our favorite new chocolate sauce – Grown Up Kids Stuff. Simply put, it is the taste of our adolescence packaged into a glass jar.

Chocolate Sauce? But I like my regular kind…

This ‘Stuff’ is not only made in our great city of Chicago, but it is also made from simple ingredients. No melodexo-whatevers or high fructose somethings – like typical supermarket off-the-shelf brand chocolate sauces. Grown Up Kids Stuff has cream, sugar, butter, cocoa, molasses, salt, spices. Plain English. This is the perfectly-made sneak at 2am.

Who creates this coco yummy?

A wonderfully nice couple that has been making this sweetness for years – even their kids ate it!

I want to eat it now! But how?

The way to really taste this chocolate sauce, I mean really taste it, is to pull a spoon and dig deep into the long container – drawing a heap of this ‘Stuff.’ Now the art of eating chocolate sauce on a spoon is really up to the eater – drop the whole clump down the hatch, nibble bits of the thick chocolate, or nab a gob and let your mouth melt it out tasting the layers of flavors. Either way you eat it, you’ll first notice the chocolate – as obvious as this sounds – it is a thick rich chocolate that has you come back for more. A hint of molasses and just enough sweetness, not grainy or waxy, but smooth well orchestrated sugar that lives with and not around the chocolate. You don’t have to let this goodie live only on your spoon – try it on your favorite ice cream, drop a dollop in your morning joe to give it a boost, or even heat a bunch for dippin’ in fresh fruit.

How can I buy it?

Here, on our shelves. Nervous we don’t have any? Don’t hesisate to give us a call at 773-665-0100. You’ve got to get a spoon ready to dig in. Because, what is not to love about local thick chocolate sauce with real ingredients? Well, nothing really.

Posted in On Our Shelves | 4 Comments »

What ‘The Traveler’ is saying:

Friday, March 5th, 2010

This crazy NYC blizzard calls for comfort food like decadent Bread Pudding Pancakes from Chicago’s Southport Grocery, a store-cum-cafe with a brunch menu of sandwiches, omelets and sweets that make it worth a winter trip to the Midwest.

What ‘Simple+Pretty’ is saying:

Friday, March 5th, 2010

This could be the most perfect sweet ever….

Simple + Pretty – a blog about all things pretty and well… simple. From paper to design to candies and beyond. We’re happy they picked up our Cupcake Truffle story.

Posted in What Others are Saying | No Comments »

What ‘Chicago Now’ is saying:

Friday, March 5th, 2010

In some of my previous posts on this blog and my personal recipe blog I’ve talked a lot lately about healthy eating and exercise. What I haven’t mentioned as explicitly is that part of the reason I like to eat healthy and exercise is so that I can afford myself the occasional indulgence.

When I eat dessert, I want to really eat dessert. I’m not interested in low-fat cookies or sugar-free ice cream. When I indugle, I like to go for one-of-a-kind sweets..

On Thursday, February 11th from 6-9pm, head over to the Southport Grocery Store to get in the spirit for Valentine’s Day: sip champagne, sample seasonal confections like smores and truffles and chat chocolate with Truffle Truffle maker, Nicole.

Your can also experience firsthand the Cupcake Truffle, a decadant mouthful of Southport Grocery’s signature soft vanilla cake wrapped in thick buttercream, dipped in a velvet layer of milk chocolate that melts away in your mouth and finished with sprinkles for unparalleled indulgence.

You can pick some up for your significant other but if you’re anything like me - they might not make it until Sunday.