Harner's Restaurant-N Aurora: Biscuits and Gravy w/jackalope

This unassuming large cabin of a bakery and restaurant on the west bank of the Fox River serves up a wickedly good version of biscuits and gravy. Unlike some sad versions I've had that merely hint at sausage in the gravy, this place delivers the goods with large chunks of housemade sausage and a healthy dose of black pepper all combined in a properly cooked gravy with no hint of uncooked flour or lumps. The biscuits stand up well to the simple but solid gravy; buttery, tender and moist. Kind of like KFC wants to be without the corporate artificial funk flavoring. The rest of my breakfast, eggs and hash browns, were servicable.

I'd also be doing a disservice if I did not mention the bakery portion of Harner's. While the semantics of the word "homemade" can and have been debated back and forth here and elsewhere this place is presenting baked goods of a very "home style" ilk. Nothing fancy here but good solid stuff like cake donuts, coffee cakes, zuchini nut bread, apple, peach
and lemon merengue pies along with dinner rolls, hamburger buns and the like.

Finally, their menu advises they offer a pig roast on the first Friday of every month. I can't vouch for it but at a price of around $11/per, I'll be it checking out in the near future. There is also some indication on their menu that the meat is sourced locally and aged in house.

Oh, and check out the sweet jackalope trophy head on the far south wall of the non-smoking dining room.

Harner's Bakery Restaurant & Catering
10 W State, North Aurora, IL
630-892-4400

Harner's has the best butter pecan coffee cake around. Lots of butter. Lots of pecans. Mmmmmmmm.....butter pecan coffee cake.

Man, oh man! If this is what you say it is ... But, can I justify driving 80 miles round-trip for this? Not likely ... maybe combine it with a trip to the casino! Yeah, that makes it less irresponsible

Really, just how good ARE those biscuits? Would you eat them without the gravy? How do they compare to your grandmother's? That's my benchmark. (The reference to KFC also threw me a bit; that's aiming low. How do the biscuits compare to the real deal?)

Desperately Seeking B&G in Chicagoland

Jim,

The KFC comparison was not the best in retrospect. These are damn fine biscuits and would be excellent w/out the gravy. I just walked into our kitchen to bust off a chunk of a left over day old one to double check, and while not optimal, it's still got a nice texture, buttery flavor and moisture level. Combine these with their peppery gravy laced with big hunks of sagey sausage and you got a nice heart attack on a plate. I'm not sure if I'd tell you to drive out from Logan Square for it, but if you are in the area, it's well worth a stop. Biscuits and gravy along with corned beef hash and hash browns are my benchmarks for a breakfast joint and the biscuits here rank very high. Kountry Kettle just a ways down the road in Elburn on Rt 47 serves up a mean plate as well. Both places are very country and home style without a hint of irony. It's more blue collar midwestern than say, something you would find catering to Lincoln Park Wishbone scenesters. Not meant as a slam as I've had a few decent meals at Wishbone in all of it's previous (Grand) and current locations. Maybe I'm comparing apples to oranges and Wishbone is going for a southern feel definitely.

I don't think my Sicilian grandma ever made biscuits. Calzones, yes. Biscuits, nah.

Elburn Kountry Kettle
115 N Main St, Elburn, IL
630-365-6031

The marketers on this board should study the Harner's menu. Genius. One of the most appealing documents I have seen in a long time. Uncluttered, well-organized, good color and typesetting, prominent words such as "pig roast," "biscuits and gravy," "hickory smoked ham," and "homemade bread pudding." ("Uncomparable" isn't something I've seen before, but that's ok.) I'm trying to figure out how to get North Aurora on my calendar.

Harners is a regular favorite of mine, the kind of place you hate to post about because it's a homey local place where you see the same people who have come in for years. Just about anything they serve is good and the Friday night pig roasts have people waiting out the door by 5:30 pm. Biscuits & gravy may be stellar but my favorite is the corned beef hash, just the best anywhere with big chunks of meat. The Harner family raises pigs on their farm in Kaneville and anything pork on the menu is excellant, breakfast sausage patties are very good sized. I don't partake of the bakery much but people at work die for their coffee cakes, it's hard to walk in the door and not pass by the bakery without a good sniff of sugar and butter.

I use Dixie Truckers Stop off I55 in McLean IL as the benchmark for biscuits and gravy. Harners is pretty good though not as large or as sausage laden as Dixie's-still Harners is about as good as I've had in Chicagoland.
However, Chuck's in Burbank has recently opened for breakfast on the weekend. I have not had a chance to partake yet, but Chuck has such a flare for everything he makes (the man knows his roux) that I would not be surprised if his biscuits and gravy turn out to be the best around.
Anybody been to Chuck's for breakfast?

Wow. Nice find, Tony. Interesting that all these posters suddenly appear who have been keeping this place a secret .

Basically this is at routes 56 & 31, right? So I have driven by it on my way to Geneva maybe 50 times or more and never noticed it. I can picture the intersection, even if I still cannot see the place. I hereby turn in whatever chowhound street cred I might ever have had, but I will go there to eat, and soon.

And I thought I was good at sniffing out good places to eat...

BTW, Jeff, this is maybe 30 minutes from Westmont, at most. Easy run for breakfast to get those home-raised and happy pork products. That is the part that hooked me - they raise their own pigs and make their own sausage. Mmmmmm.

Harners is just west of the bridge on 56 or State Street as it's called in North Aurora. As I said, I've been going there probably 20 years, it's not the kind of place I would ever think about posting about because it's a local homey place that has it's warts. It's not always really clean, the service can be spotty but it's comfortable and I know a lot of the people that go there. I've always loved their sausages and corned beef and every now and then they have potato pancakes. They have a monthly pig roast and I think Tuesdays they have a pork chop special. Harners used to have a killer thick smoked bacon but haven't had that on the menu in a year or so.

We were at Harner's again yesterday for a filling breakfast before a trip to my new love, Woodman's. I am hooked on the corned beef hash at Harner's, big chunks of meat, just the right amount of onion and done to crisp perfection. SO had a one egg mushroom omlet that was very generous in the ingedients. Total for these two meals....$8.19 before tip.
Where you pay as you leave, there is always a big plate of cookies to tempt you towards the bakery.

Dicksond, I also have been going there for years, and did not want to share this place with others. See Check Please effect.

What was always fun, was to pick out the people from west of the Fox, and those city slickers from the east side of the river. Bib overalls, versus Brooks Brothers. After a while the wait staff started to figure out that the Brooks Brothers tipped much better, and gave them better service, cutting out the old regulars, many of whom have stopped eating there.

Never had a bad meal there, a few average ones, but some very good ones.

No biscuits and gravy, but an overall solid breakfast here today.

Needed a big meal ahead of sitting in the hospital about 6 hours while vangie has some more tests done. Not about to settle for hospital food, a big breakfast made sense. (2) eggs over easy, hash browns, (2) house made sausage patties, pecan coffee cake. All good, standouts were their sausage they do in house, great stuff, nice spice. Pecan coffe cake slice served warm was really good. Also tried some of the corned beef hash, also really good.

Also got some of their bakery items to go. They are taking orders for king cakes for mardi gras. It had been years since i had been here, thankfully some things dont change. Ill add some pics later.

We're still regulars at Harner's and I'm still partial to the corned beef hash but their sausage patties can't be beat in size and in taste. I'm glad you enjoyed it Jim! BTW, I hope Vangie is Ok and that the tests prove nothing serious.

corned beef hash was great, tried that based on your reccomendation.

pecan coffe cake was great, as were the sausages.

Pics:



river view from the booth:



butter pecan coffee cake:



kids pancake & sausage links:



eggs, hash, raisin toast:



eggs, potatoes, sausage patties:



website:

http://www.harnersbakery.com

Looks good Jim! I don't eat eggs so they always give me a full plate of the corned beef hash. Just had that this morning.

LikestoEatout wrote:Looks good Jim! I don't eat eggs so they always give me a full plate of the corned beef hash. Just had that this morning.

So has anyone had the once-montly Pig Roast here? Any reviews? Is it worth a drive?

Or a rec on any of the specials (they have one each day, ranging from Chicken and Dumplings to Prime Rib and Battered Perch)? Has anyone tried them? Or should one just stick to what sounds like very good breakfasts?

c8w

I'm a breakfast regular at Harner's but the few lunches I have had there have been excellent, just good, home made comfort food. We tired to go to the pig roast once but at a little after 5, there was a line out the door so we left. I have had their pot roast dinner which is the Thursday special and really liked it, very tender and juicy. It just never comes up on my radar when I think of a place for lunch or dinner because we love their breakfast so much.

Stopped at Harner's while driving along the Fox on Sunday. Had sausage and gravy with country fried steak. The place exceeded my expectations. The gravy was perfectly prepared - no hint of the raw flour which plagues many preparations. The country fried steak was the best I have had in the Chicago area. Next time corned beef has will be tried.

Thought I would be first to post this restaurant...as usual, you all are way ahead of me. I went to Harner's for dinner the other day. They are in the midst of their Octoberfest. Pig roast offerings are every Friday in Oct. (besides the usual first Friday of the month). I had smoked pork butt, red cabbage and spaetzel. The pork, tender with juicy ribbons of fat, red cabbage done in a sweet sour style, and the spaetzel....oh lord....treated to a final browning in a fry pan. My sister had the chicken pot pie which caused her eyes to roll up in her head with pleasure. I'll make breakfast someday, but I'm going back for dinner!

Hi,

I wish I knew of this place when the Moms were still kicking in high gear. They would have really loved this place.

The Small Household Exchange met here today. While it may be the furthest we have ever gone for a restaurant, I am so glad the food was worth the trip.

I don't know if this is a menu item: I would go for the salad bar. They had several throwback salads I have not had in years: ramen noodle cabbage salad (with very finely slivered cabbage), brocolli with cheddar cheese and raisins held together with mayonnaise, one of those 1950's salads that are really a dessert: vanilla pudding with Cool Whip folded in with fresh berries on top. Their brocolli cheese soup was finished before I had an opportunity to taste it, though the chicken macaroni soup was fine for second choice.

The bread basket offered had banana bread and fresh roll style immediately identified by Food Nut, which I hope she will fill in the blanks about.

I ordered their dipped chicken, which I was wondering how it might compare to Rip's Tavern in Ladd, IL. When we ordered our meal, the waitress warned there is a 20-minute wait for fried chicken. It was well worth the wait for half a chicken portioned as a wing, leg, thigh and breast. I ate everything but the breast, which I tried later at home. I am not a fan of chicken breast, because it tends to be over cooked. When I finally sampled some about six hours after cooking, the meat was moist because it was not overcooked.

Harner's dipped chicken is not the same as Rip's. While Rip's looks obviously dipped, not so Harner's. It's been a long time since I tried Rip's, but my memory suggests I like Harner's chicken better.

Sides offered were fresh green beans and broccoli with cheddar cheese sauce. I went with the broccoli, which was cooked to very soft. While I prefer a little more fight left in my vegetables, I can see the Moms just lapping it up.

They had a lengthy parade of starches to select from, I ended up with wild rice. It wasn't really wild rice, it reminded me of the type Rice A Roni might offer. Next time I would go with the mashed potatoes, instead. I was tempted to order a side of the sausage gravy. From just now reading past reports, I am sorry I never did.

At the checkout counter, they did not offer mints. They offered fresh from their bakery Mexican Wedding Cake cookies, which I thought was yet another clever plug to check out their bakery.

I really want to go back here again sometime.

Regards,
Cathy2

I did enjoy our visit! What a bakery. This place has charm in a good way. The cookie at payment was an example of this. Really great bang for your buck on the full chicken dinner.
I've been meaning to get to Hank's Farm Ottawa and wonder if it's similar to Harner's--it may be a notch fancier, though.

My thoughts:

-I incorrectly identified the rolls. They were shaped in the style of butterflake. I doubt they used butter though, perhaps shortening. Many recipes on the internet, but the dough I make like this is from a recipe I found years ago called "Georgene's fluffy rolls" which are sweet and soft: https://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/ ... uffy-Rolls
This one looks interesting, if fussy: https://newengland.com/today/food/bread ... -fan-tans/

-The salad bar was fresh and relatively plentiful. I could just go for that EASY. Macaroni salad prepared this way is a down home favorite of mine, not to mention the purple bean salad with egg. The veg to add to the greens was lacking in many areas, but I love salad bar (hard to find) and this one scratched the itch--an indulgence for sure.

-The chicken was not the star after the bread basket and salad bar, but it was freshly fried and nicely seasoned, I thought. One quarter of it remains and will be had for brunch today without complaint.

-Bakery -- Expensive! The rolls are 6 dollars a dozen. Still, I bought some twists and they did deliver, but STILL! There were a few coffee cakes left of limited flavors at 2:45p near closing, so I left with almond and it tasted like a sticky bun made with almonds. The dough is flakey and chewy at the same time, if not too sweet, with ample almond filling--a little went a long way and by the way it is huge at $9. The chocolate donut had nice soft cake inside with a outside crunch which I love, but the chocolate frosting only tasted of sugar. My palate at that point in the day was on overload, so I would give those another try in the future for sure.

Will return here. A good time was had by all. Their donuts and fried pastries are discounted in the time before closing. I had the breaded pork tenderloin. It was good but its not as good as some you can find at the Czech restaurants. Its worth a return I'd like to try the salad bar as well as the chicken, plus Frank loves real corned beef hash. I loved the view of the river with ice floating by.

I was damned pleased with the whole meal and glad I foisted it on the Dinner Exchange crew. There's not much I can add but I thought the bakery prices were pretty good. I paid less than $10 for a slice each of peach and cherry pie, a slice of creme de menthe cake, and two doughnuts (although those were half price after 2pm). It was hard not walking out with a full pie, more of that pudding stuff Cathy2 mentioned (really a trifle, there was angel food cake under there), marble rye, danish...

And of course I tried a cookie. Delicious!

Now that I see the title of this thread: I seriously want to go back for biscuits & gravy. If they use the same gravy as they do on their taters...

-edited after seeing Toria's review-
If you can get a view of the river, take it.

Just polished off the chocolate-topped doughnut. Holy cow. Still fantastic, nearly 36 hours after it was made, most likely.

electric mullet wrote:This unassuming large cabin of a bakery and restaurant on the west bank of the Fox River serves up a wickedly good version of biscuits and gravy.

This is still true, I was extremely pleased with the biscuits and gravy I had this past Sunday morning.

Place was hopping at 8:30am, with lots of takeout going on, restaurant was ~75% full, probably very busy after church lets out