Home Cafe - great brunch

So, a few weeks back on the LTH mailing list I hinted that I had seen a brunch place up north that looked interesting, but I wanted to try it out before posting about it. This weekend, we tried it, and it is well worth posting about.

The place is Home Cafe which is located at 4664 N. Manor (just north of the Francisco Brown line el stop). Home Cafe is only open Sat & Sun from 9-2.

We had the Heuvos and eggs benedict over crab cake. Both were excellent, with the crab cake particularly notable for the perfectly poached egg, the flavorful crab cake and the very tasty home fries and spinach.

Overall each dish used very fresh and very flavorful ingrediants each spiced with a strong hand and cooked correctly. We learned that all the cooking is done by chef Willa Taylor (the owner) so when they get busy there may be a bit of a wait, however this past Sunday we had no wait at all.

Nothing on the menu is over $10 and I am looking forward to trying most everything at somepoint later this summer. Definitely my new favorite brunch place as the food is great, the space interesting and unlike most brunch places in Chicago, the wait at 11:00am on a Sunday was nonexistent.

Shannon

Home is comfortable - and very convenient for me (like a 1 minute walk). They used to have a fried catfish and eggs option on the breakfast menu (with grits!) that I really enjoyed, but on my last visit that was (sadly) not one of their options anymore. Everything is homemade and all the people are very nice. They also cater take-out meals around special events like Easter, etc., so for those that want a nice at-home sit-down but don't want to cook it's a nice option. Thanks for posting this and reminding me - I think I'll take Mrs. Kman to breakfast there next weekend.

The waiter (there is only one most of the time) told us that Willa changes the menu with the seasons - so in the fall/winter she has dishes such as the catfish, in the spring/summer she has lighter more seasonal dishes.

Shannon

We went Home for breakfast for the first time a month or two back. (Brief aside: This is characteristic of the way they actually use the name of the restaurant--sort of like the Latin locative with no preposition, but unfortunately in English, also no orthographic change to indicate why the preposition is absent. We were greeted upon entrance with "Welcome Home!") I agree with Kman and Shannon--it is a perfectly nice neighborhood spot.

I got the Havana Street Redux, I think it was called, a black bean cake with eggs and stuff. Kate got a mixed veggie frittata. Both were quite tasty, and I highly enjoy having such a place in our neighborhood. Very friendly too, and my two-year-old rather enjoys the el passing within a few feet of where he's eating breakfast.

Home Cafe main business is catering, and I believe they sometimes share a kitchen with the coffee shop across the el tracks.

Kman, do you spend much time at Merle's? This coffeeshop was Go Etc. until a few months ago, when Jeff took the place over. He likes to cook and has all sorts of things on the menu (turkey club, seafood bisque, pulled pork, enchiladas), but I don't think I've actually tasted any of his stuff, just stuff he's brought in from somewhere else. They bring in some interesting stuff from around town--sheet pizza from D'Amato's, samosas from Tahoora, baked goods from somewhere I can't recall. They serve Casteel Coffee. They have a very nice patio, and have been promising to break out the grill and do some low, slow BBQ. They've just adopted their summer hours. I'm curious to see what happens, but I like the place.

Speaking of coffeeshops in the area (or quite near), I went to Beans and Bagels' new outpost on Rockwell and Leland Saturday morning and was delighted to see that, in addition to some fine bagels, they also serve about 10 flavors of ice cream from Village Creamery. I vaguely recall Kenny from Rogers Park pointing this out, but thought the point deserved to be made again. They may not have the most exotic offerings, but they do offer purple yam.

Home Cafe
4664 N. Manor
773-866-0345

Merle's Coffee Shop
4642 N. Francisco

Beans & Bagels
Rockwell and Leland
773-649-0015