Brunch in Uptown

When one of my friends, Roman, suggested doing brunch today wayyy north (in Uptown) today, I was a bit put off. It was going to take a lot to impress me if I have to trek way up to Sheridan and Argyle for a simple Sunday morning brunch. However, Roman has spoken pretty highly of his past experiences at Tweet so I figured I'd approach this with a (fairly) open mind.

I arrived a little early but quickly fell in love with the place. Tweet just has so much CHARACTER... from the decor to the FREE COFFEE while you are waiting to the BOARD GAMES that are available while you are waiting for a table.

I had no problems getting settled on a cozy little stool to wait for my friends while sipping my free cup of coffee (okay, I may have had approximately three cups of free coffee but whatever) and admiring the old-school board games that were just ready and WAITING for players.

Once my friends arrived, we got seated in a back corner and... well, proceeded to get overwhelmed with the menu. I wish I'd snapped a picture of the menu - it was simply ridiculous. Each menu even had an ADDITIONAL menu embedded in it (with Velcro, of all things).

The really interesting (to me) thing about Tweet was how many gluten-free options there were. Not that I require gluten-free items, but it's just nice to know that the option is available.

Anyway, we ended up starting off with these mini-doughnut things that Roman had raved about in the past.

I have to say - I'm not the biggest doughnut-person at ALL, but I fell in love with these things. They were just so warm and delicious (and not overly sweet on their own). While the plate of mini-doughnuts came with a side of like syrup or something, I found that the doughnuts, themselves, satisfied my sweet tooth in and of itself.

After THAT lovely little starter, our server actually brought us complimentary dishes of fruit to enjoy before our actual meal!

I cannot emphasize enough how much I loved this aspect of brunch. We NEVER get free fruit with brunch in Chicago... and this fruit was just so darn fresh and delicious (it's been a while since I've ingested anything from that food group...) and a GREAT way to fill up just a touch before gorging on breakfast itself.

Soon after the fruit was devoured (I was already full by that point), our meals came out...

Holy food. The portions were QUITE generous, to put it mildly.

And SO DELICIOUS. I ended up going with Tweet's gluten-free pumpkin pancakes (helloo!) and... well, yum. Just plain yum. The pancakes were the perfect balance of sweet and (pumpkin) spice and everything nice... and I wouldn't have known that they were gluten-free at all. Unless I"m missing something, gluten-free pumpkin pancakes taste just how I would imagine "normal" pumpkin pancakes to taste.

Roman ended up going with a Danske omelette (he revisited an old favorite of his) while Purvi ended up going with a breakfast burrito and hash browns. I'm not a food critic by any means, but their plates LOOKED quite tasty and both were QUITE pleased with their meals as well.

All in all - today's brunch? A sweet success. Great food, lovely conversation (including a wonderful little blog idea, c/o Roman's creative ingenuity) and... well, FREE COFFEE! Hello! (Clearly, I have my priorities in check.)

Needless to say, I would DEFINITELY make a trip up north to re-visit this eclectic, delicious hidden gem... anytime at all.

Brunching, Threading and Mother Nature Taking Her Own Sweet Time

It's another one of those clusters of a blog title, huh? What can I say- since I've (only) been blogging about once a week lately, I've gotta cram certain key activities into singular blog posts, no matter how unrelated...

This weekend started out not looking so hot. It all started last Wednesday night, when I started feeling incredibly sick. Initially, I thought it was just the general fatigue my body's been experiencing for the past couple of months, thanks to my perpetual inability to sleep while on the road for work. Nope- Thursday morning I woke up with a full fledged stuffy nose, sore throat, cough, etc. etc. Because I tend to frown on Western medicine, I refuse to take anything, since I'm a fan of that whole letting Mother Nature take her course.

Yeah, Mother Nature's sure been taking her own sweet time. That hasn't stopped me from enjoying my weekend, however. You better believe that I'm not going to let some stuffiness and fever get in my way (well. To an extent.). I mean, I have my priorities and obligations...

And quite frankly, I HAD to get my eyebrows done this weekend! While I've been trying to upkeep with some standard tweeze-ing, it simply just does NOT compare to threading. Anyone who knows me at all knows I am slightly OB-SESSED with 1) eyebrow shaping and 2) threading. I feel like the obsession has only skyrocketed over the past year or so, since I've discovered one of THE best threaders in all the land (and trust me, coming from me, that is saying a LOT).

"My threading lady" in Lincoln Park only charges $7 for eyebrows!! Now do you see why I go as frequently as I do? I mean, I'm used to eyebrow waxing services that charge upwards of $20 per visit! You can clearly see why I feel NO guilt about taking full advantage of these $7 services on a regular basis (that's right- I go every 2-3 weeks... if you're an Indian girl, you'll understand why this frequency is needed... ah, sisterhood. Hahaha.).

This Saturday, I met up with a friend for brunch at Orange, right next door to my place (I picked the place... the fact that it happened to be right next door to my place was not exactly coincidental). You can't really go wrong with brunch at Orange- it's just so simply delicious. And talk about some fun brunching... Alma and I decided to splurge on Orange's signature "Frushi" to start off the brunching experience.


Have you heard of frushi? It's pretty obvious what it is from the pictures, right? Fruity flavored sushi (the purple one is blueberry flavored). Unique, right? It was actually quite tasty, I must admit. And who doesn't appreciate a unique component of a dining experience, really?

Anyway, as we were finishing up brunch, I mentioned that my afternoon plans consisted of, among other things, eyebrow threading. Needless to say, I was more than pleasantly surprised when Alma indicated she'd love to join in the merriment... I mean, you don't have to tell me TWICE. I advertise my threading lady to ALL the WORLD, and the fact that I now had a buddy to accompany me?? Well... you better believe I capitalized on Alma's photog abilities to snap some pictures of the whole threading experience if you will...



Doesn't it look so fun?!?!? So SIMPLE!! And my threading lady is just so AWESOME!!! She is the sweetest person EVER and always apologizes when she sees me tearing up (which, trust me, is natural). Seriously, getting my eyebrows threaded is one of my FAVORITE things EVER- I really think it's one of those things that can make any bad day all the better. It just opens your face on up and makes you just look so much more well-KEMPT, if you will!

Honestly, I wouldn't actively advertise this place if it wasn't so DARN GOOD. This lady is consistently AMAZING and I think my eyebrows could not look any better if they tried (if I do say so myself)... even random people at stores have complimented me on them!! And trust me, you KNOW that's all it takes to get me sailing to cloud nine and all that. Haha. Seriously, if you are in the Lincoln Park area (or hell, even if you're not, make the TRIP up- it's totally worth it!), you should visit the Century Mall and just look for an "eyebrow threading" shop. It's on the second floor right by Victoria's Secret.

I can 100% assure you- you will NOT be DISAPPOINTED.

Oh. That's all I've got. Hope it sufficed for this week!