The other bakery on Central St, in Evanston… the one we thought we’d buy stuff for the meet up… is Tag’s Bakery. They definitely had good stuff but nothing that screamed “meet up”. If I wasn’t already aware that Jamie was bringing cupcakes, I probably would have grabbed some but who needs 500 cupcakes at a BlogHer meet up of 15 people?

We did buy stuff just for us to eat. The lemon bars were excellent and the kids really enjoyed the eclairs. Some of my crew sampled their Florentine cookies and said they were fabulous.

Last month, we went in search of some sort of treat to take to the Pre-BlogHer meet up in Chicago and found ourselves on Central St, in Evanston. There are two bakeries on that street (not counting Foodstuff which has baked goods but is not just a bakery) and Great Harvest Bread Co was the one we did not think we’d buy anything from.

We were wrong. I think we spent $50 there!

We grabbed huge sticky buns and toffee chip brownies to take to the meet up and there were plenty for us to eat before and after. These things are HUGE so I cut them into quarters and a quarter was still huge. And they’re amazingly good.

We also grabbed a loaf of Apple Crunch bread, based on the recommendation of Prince J and RJ. They were right, it was awesomely delicious and I could eat the entire loaf (but didn’t.)

It’s a good thing this little bakery is not in the most convenient location for us (parking stinks) or I’d probably be there every week.

I don’t seem to blog very often about places we don’t like, possibly because there are very few places we don’t like. The Dixie Kitchen is a place we did not like. Some of us liked it less than others. None of us have even the first clue why President Obama enjoys eating here. (Did he get a kickback?)

It’s not bad food, but it isn’t great food. I’ve never seen Fried Green Tomatoes the way they made these. The Plantains were excellent but is that really southern cooking? Not anywhere north of Florida, really.

I enjoyed my taco scramble a good bit, very spicy. I think I am the only one who didn’t walk out of there with mean things to say about my meal. But, that’s because what I ordered isn’t in any way shape or form traditional.

TW’s fried green tomatoes and her mom’s oyster po’ boy were disappointments because they expected “real” fried green tomatoes and oyster po’ boys. They didn’t get what they were expecting.

We finally went to Bennison’s! Finally.

We haven’t spent all that much time in Evanston. We tend to go in that direction only to pick up or drop off the kids. Our roaming around, exploring food options and such, tends to take place on our side of the Eden’s Expressway.

But, we’ve exhausted new quick take out breakfast options in Skokie so I broadened the net and decided it was time to visit the famous Bennison’s.

The little kids have been there and Liz wasn’t all that thrilled when I told her that’s where we were going but in the end, she was happy with her chocolate chip cookie.

TW and I were happier though - we had egg & cheese sandwich thingies (I took the bacon off mine but kept the ham) and those were very good. The red velvet donut was tasty, really tasty. More places should make those.

We brought home a custard cup for TW’s mom and she liked it very much.

The loaf of rye raisin bread was not my favorite but RJ and TW’s mom really liked it.

We bought some sort of apple bread. Yummy. Very yummy. A hit with everyone, I believe.

Added bonus, you can follow Bennison’s Bakery on Twitter. I love that.

We went to the Blind Faith Cafe in Evanston during our house hunting trip, April 2007, and I really can’t believe we haven’t gone back.

It was really, really good.

I think the only two things keeping us from going back are a) there are a ton of restaurants to try b) the parking down there can be a little frustrating. Until it warms up, I don’t think we’re heading back there any time soon. I don’t want to have to walk three blocks in the wind and snow, it’s too damn cold.

Their website says “Innovative Vegetarian Cuisines” and makes the place look a little more foofoo than it is. It’s a pretty loud, low key kind of place with really excellent vegetarian food - the kind of place that has too many damn things on the menu to choose from. (Vegetarians are used to having just one or maybe two items not a whole bloody menu, ya know?)

UrbanSpoon calls Blind Faith Cafe “cheap” but it isn’t cheap, even by Chicago area standards. It’s not super expensive but definitely not cheap. Yummy though.