Filter This!

Filter 1334 N. Milwaukee.

Pictures to come soon!

Chai latte: sweet yet subtle.

Lemon Square:  too cakey, not enough lemon.

This is the first place I've been to in about a month (maybe longer). My dance rehearsals have completely taken any spare time I have. Many people may roll their eyes and think "well you can find time if you want to" but not when it comes to dance rehearsals. Sorry folks, I literally have no time. This is the first Sunday I've been able to get out of my apartment and it saddens me greatly, especially with the weather turning slightly nicer now.

The Filter atmosphere is like I just stepped into my grandma's livingroom with the avocado couches, tweed arm chairs, buddha head lamps, and velvet highbacked chairs. I'm sure at most points of the day there is more furniture in this one large room than there is people. The noise level is louder than most coffee shops but it's bearable. The music overhead ranges from Radiohead, Guster, instrumental Explosions in the Sky and various other indie choices, but it's just enough music not to overwhelm with the noise coming from the people around me.

This may be my new favorite spot. I look forward to visiting this place on a less busy day during the week. 

If you wish to find this hole in the wall gem I'd suggest taking the Blue Line to Division and then it's just a 2 block walk.

Public Service Announcement

I regret to inform those who might actually read this or find it just the tad bit interesting that I will have to halt all further chai latte adventures. This is not a personal choice but due to the fact that I have six dance rehearsals a week, plus midterms coming up in two weeks, plus level placement exams in my technique classes that I have sucked of all free time. I hope to resume my wanderings sometime after Spring Break (March 19-27). But, I can make no guarantees.

If I get the chance I just may venture towards a coffee shop in my hometown area but don't hold your breath for a blog post of that 'cause then we're just getting too personal. I'm not sure we're ready for that level of commitment quite yet.

Hope all is well,

Cheers!

Loose teeth, loose leaf, choose feet, none of these is like the other.

I'm sure everyone has been in a panic due to my lack of a chai latte post this past weekend ;-) I did visit a coffee shop on Broadway but due to my small time slot there I didn't have much to say about it or to take pictures. The place I visited was Looseleaf Lounge on Broadway Avenue just passed Borders & next door to the Buffalo Exchange thrift store, and I had high hopes for this place but was let down. 

The cafe was super super SUPER small and crowded. They lacked any sort of pastries or cookies, so I settled on a Pumpkin Spice Chai latte w/2% and it was very tasty and smelled delicious to boot. Not much I can say besides this. The atmosphere was alright but because it was such a small place people had to sit very very closely so when I was studying I also felt like I was apart of the conversation of the people sitting next to me which I didn't want to be.

They did have a great array of loose leaf teas which I'd like to try more of but the 40 minute bus ride does not make this place an idea gathering on a regular basis.

~Looseleaf Lounge~

Chai latte - 8/10

Studying atmosphere - 4/10

Cheers!

The tea party is already in session, and you're late!

I popped over to Argo Tea over on state & washington (I believe). I've heard good things about Argo Tea. It's a Chicago based tea-cafe (correct me if I'm wrong) who have recently spread to other places in New York City so it's no longer Chicago's little tea-gem. The Argo Tea I visited has two floors so I was looking also for the study-like atmosphere. But there's nothing special about this place. The upstairs was awful in the arrangement of chairs and tables. Everything had a hard surface so it echoed worse than the Grand Canyon. And the people who were studying there obviously weren't very seriously about their studies because they blabbed more about E! than their homework thanks to the upstairs acoustics I heard every last detail.

The tea was the best part, as it should be in this case. I ordered the Red Velvet tea w/skim and it was delicious! A little pricey but it was a treat and I can't wait to go back to try more teas. They have a great selections of all sorts of hot and cold tea mixtures and just thinking about it gets me in the mood for another.



My cafe wanderings may have to slow down a little bit now that my dance education has gone into full swing for the semester.  But I hope to get to the Looseleaf Lounge this Saturday sometime.

Cheers!

Do a Dollop. Doooo doooo a Dollop of Daisy.

Now that I've said the name of this coffee place several times I cannot get the Daisy sourcream commercial jingle out of my head! It's maddening. At the moment it's funny but if it goes on any longer I may have to go to harsher extremes in hopes of extracting this song out of my head. If only I had a pensieve like that of Dumbledore's where I could cast this memory/song into and lock it away forever.

The Dollop Coffee & Tea on 4181 N. Clarendon Avenue near Irving Park is not the cleanest of coffee shops I have been too but I do love the old library/1900s era back room-kitchen-esque feeling. Waiting at the counter to order I made friends with a small fruit-fly who was looking longingly at the S'more cookies through the glass case. To see what all his fuss was about, perhaps he knew how good it was from previous experiences, I ordered the cookie along with my usual staple of a chai latte w/skim.




I found a long wooden table near the back, where I sat next to a lamp that leans awkwardly to the side. If this lamp had arms and legs I'm sure it'd be splayed out on the table with its head in its hands with a tired expression and droopy eyes. From my wooden table, beside my leaning lamp companion, I have a great view of the entire cafe, great for people watching. My favorite part of this shop is the free wi-fi. I had read that Dollop had recently changed to the 2-hour card carrying limit for wi-fi access but I was pleasantly surprised to find my macbook instantly found the connection which purred instantly with its accomplishment.

Over head the music selection is blasting that "wouldn't it be nice if we could wake up" song which brings a smile to my face and adds to the funky, eclectic feel of this shop, later "Sloop John B" comes on and I laugh out loud to myself as I am reminded of my previous high-school years in the musical review show "Sing-Out" that I spent five amazing years in with some of the most amazing and generous friends I have had the pleasure of having.

The trek out here was a long one. Taking the 146 bus from State to Gordon Terrace took approx. 35-40 mins. It is still early in the semester so my work load has not completely taken up my weekend so I'm able to take the luxury of going long distances to these places but I fear that as the semester rears its ugly head in the season of midterms I may be confined to shorter distances.





Alright enough chit-chat let's get down to business shall we? The chai latte, the latte version is a syrup which I can tell easily because it has a similar taste to about the majority of all other coffee shops in the area. There is a great selection of loose leaf teas which include chai but those are separate from the lattes and I guess are brewed differently.

The S'more cookie which sounds just devine fell flat in keeping up with its name. Apart from the occasional chunks of chocolate, the cookie tasted bland and the texture was stale and kind of chewy (but not in a good way).

I have formally worked at my aunt's bakery business back in New York off and on as the main cookie baker for almost nine years so I am able to say with confidence that I have turned into a cookie snob and know the art inside and out of baking a decent cookie or two.

This cookie was probably leftover from the previous day and left out over night in the case instead of being wrapped up like it should have been. The one thing I hate is getting day-old baked goods, if you're going to keep it longer than a day be sure to wrap it up during the night where not a lot of air can get to it so that it doesn't taste or feel like I'm eating something only slightly softer than a brick. Too harsh? Maybe, but in the food business one bad tasting can turn a customer off which will lead them to never returning. Trust me, I know! I won't hold the cookie against them, but the chai was dissapointing. But I am interested in trying their vanilla rooibos tea which I have recently fallen in love with.

It's starting to get a little busy as the morning turns into an early afternoon. Instead of keeping a chairs distance apart, strangers have succumbed to sitting next to each other to share a table or two. All for the love of coffee... or free wi-fi... which ever keeps your boat buoyant.

The service was very friendly.

All in all...

Chai latte 5/10 (no foam art?! Saddening).
Atmosphere 7/10 (would have been higher if my fruit-fly friend would stop bothering me with his chit-chat about the S'more cookie).
Studying atmosphere 9/10 (needs comfier wooden chairs... I think my butt is numb).


Cheers!

A last alliance of men and elves... Oh wait sorry I meant a last alliance of baked goods and coffee

Last weekend my chai latte path took me to the Alliance Bakery & Cafe lounge of 1736 West Division Street.

It is prized and has won many notable honors for the chocolate work, cakes, mousse, and their various other bakery sweets and treats.

This bakery is extremely small so upon entering I was almost pushed back out the door by customers waiting to buy their breakfast croissants and espressos. The wait was extremely long for my simple small chai latte and cinnamon bun (they had 4 people behind the counter, yet it didn't help the service any).

It was a little confusing at first but after leaving the bakery portion and a little investigating outside Jen and I found their lounge which is connected to the bakery but you must exit outside to go next door.

The room was not as cozy as earlier reviewed by a customer on yelp.com. Instead the room was chilly and lacked the ability to retain heat because the front door refused to budge all the way closed. Apart from one section of the front window with 2 comfy chairs and a couch the rest of the room had ill portioned wooden chairs and tables, with one corner booth as the exception.

The cinnamon bun was heaven. The bread was soft and light with just enough cinnamon. The icing, which I believe to be the most crucial part, was perfectly light and buttery with the slightest hint of vanilla. The chai latte as I had expected was extremely sweet but bland on the spicy side. It was made from loose tea which might have change the brewing (they might've rushed it) time which could've taken part in how bland it turned out.

After spending about 1.5 hours in the Alliance Lounge working I started to feel restless and cooped up. I thought about another drink but the thought of having to put my coat back on and bundle up to go back outside and into the bakery was disheartening (in warmer weather of course it wouldn't be a problem). I probably won't go back because it was a bit of a trek to this bakery and especially because it was 2 days after the Chicago Blizzard of 2011 which dumped about 20 inches of snow and the sidewalks looked like a scene from the Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

Alliance Bakery & Lounge

their chai latte (loose leaf)  5/10

lounge atmosphere 4/10 (bakery 5/10)

For studying 3/10

Cheers!

Rain may fall and wind may blow, And many miles be still to go, But under a tall tree I will lie, And let the clouds go sailing by

The title of this most recent blog is a quote from J.R.R Tolkien's character Frodo Baggins from the first book of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I admit I just finished watching the extended edition with cast commentary of The Fellowship of the Ring and The Return of the King, not all at once of course. But I fell in love with the story and the characters and actors who portrayed these beloved characters all over again which sparked my interest in venturing to this Noble Tree Coffee in Lincoln Park. It reminded me somewhat of the "white tree" that sat on the top level of Minas Tirith in "a courtyard of stone" as described by Pippin in the third installment of the trilogy.

(third floor)

On the 3rd floor of this 1930s three-story house turned cafe known as Noble Tree Coffee on 2444 West Clark Street in the Lincoln Park area of Chicago's westside, I sit amongst my fellow studious neighbors, with their macbooks glowing, books spread out on various roundtables and highlighters squeaking against the laminate papers of books, I find myself almost wanting to have more homework to do to feel some sort of camaraderie in the struggle to finish our work before the school/work week starts. The atmosphere is extremely work-oriented and hushed in tonality. When the need to talk the voices travel across in a hushed whisper so as not to disturb those who are working diligently around us. The most noise comes from the first floor where the coffee counter & a smaller cafe-like room is situated. A narrow staircase with an ornate banister leads to the second & third floors that are similarly set up with all sorts of wooden chairs mismatched to add depth and interest, a few small couches sit in the corners, library-esque lamps hang over the round tables that give  warm glow that offer a juxtaposition to the snow that has piled up against the window sills. The walls though could use some sprucing, they remain painted white without so much as a photo to grace it, their stark-ness reflects the white and cold world outside.

(third floor, view from my table near the stairs, the stairs were like a sound tunnel)

The staff wasn't overly friendly or welcoming as Jen, my roommate, and I walked in. I got the "please just order something so I can get on with making it for you" vibe from both workers behind the counter. I'm going to chalk it up to the fact that it's Super Bowl Sunday and they were both males who didn't want to be working today... But I doubt this was the case but I'd like to give them the benefit of the doubt. I wasn't too thrilled to get my 12oz chai latte cup without a saucer because I had a long trip up a narrow staircase with an over-filled coffee mug. I had to stand and sip my latte before I could make the trek up these looming stairs and even then the idea of tripping up the stairs with latte in hand was not a warming thought.

(Their Chocolate cream pie, was way too dense and heavy)

I did have my eye on their homemade chocolate cream pie which I might even risk the trip back downstairs to try. I'll allow my sweet tooth to linger on the chai for a moment longer before I subject it to another attack of a sweet sensory overload.

(second floor)

Today, being Sunday, it is extremely busy in here. Each floor is packed with students. The music that is played over head is some sort of Mexican-like mix that I don't particularly care for. I did the old headphone try and played a few tunes to see how overwhelming the music might have been through my own music and much to my gratitude the cafe music did not seep through my own which gives the Noble Tree a bonus point in my book. *note: as the afternoon proceeded and a new shift of baristas entered the music changed completely and was enjoyable. I am delighted to say that "All I Need" by Radiohead played overhead which I have a strong connection to after dancing to it in a student-choreographed piece in my dance department.

(their bathroom, believe it or not)

Now on to the important part of all of this. The chai latte. I regret to inform you that it was as mediocre as the General Mills powder mix I can make back at my apartment. The chai was made from a syrup, and was made a little too foamy for my liking (1/4 of the cup was steamed milk foam). Thank you for the mustache. Much to my disappointment I was not granted any latte art! The new thing in cafes these days I have happened upon is the art that is made when pouring the steamed milk in the chai mixture. I was simply given my cup of chai and sent on my way. This is not to say the chai was bad but nothing I could not have gotten at a Starbucks or Caribou Coffee.

(A feeble attempt at latte art in Jen's Soy Latte)

The atmosphere of its victorian era charm triumphs over their product which I don't think should be something to strive for. None-the-less if you're looking for someplace to study I would highly suggest Noble Tree Coffee, though a word of advice would be to come on a slightly off day or at an off hour. Getting here and having to go up and down stairs looking for someplace to sit is a magic trick when caring a chai latte in one hand and a piece of pie in the other with your heavy book-bag bringing up the caboose.

(while the building itself remains cute and quaint the product nor the service lived up to the hype)

Noble Tree...
Chai latte 4/10
Atmosphere 6/10
Spot for studying 7/10


Cheers!