No point in checking. Fannie's ist kaputt! Lovely Dining Companion works walking distance away and broke the news to me many months ago. (Indeed, I had posted on its demise on Valentine's Day http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=7166&highlight=&sid=7a538d9f81d66ba35c2dd9bbf6c42b18, noting that it was for sale. The notice engendered many views but virtually no reponse at the time.) I particularly bemoan the disappearance of its pastrami. Of many things regarding its demise we are uncertain (though it appeared from her investigation that they just had had enough and wanted to close for good), but of its demise alone, there is no doubt.

Sic transit gloria mundi.

BTW, (I apologize if somebody got to this before me; I did scroll through the thread but didn't see) King David's bakery on Howard is no more; a big FOR RENT sign in the window.

I was pleasantly surprised by BB's bagels, which I discovered on a search on GrubHub, of all places (just not the sort of place you expect to find bagels, but apparently they deliver) I had the best challah I've ever bought in a store - almost as good as the grandmother-made challah somebody brought to Thanksgiving dinner once, which I swear was made with butter. Their challah has a kind of pleasantly stringy texture almost like a croissant.

(kinda not related to the recent posts, but fwiw..)
If anyone likes H&H bagels, I believe they are available at Gordono's Pharmacy across from the Jewel on Broadway, in Edgewater. Its a neat, old style pharmacy/deli/soda jerk stand. Nice to see places like them still around.

Upper Crust Bagels in Deerfield (835 Waukeegan, in the same strip mall as Dear Franks hot dogs) does a good job of the dense and doughy NY style bagel, though not as dense IMO as NYB&B or H&H. I often stop there on the way to work for a bagel and cream cheese.

NYB&B's are also available at Treasure Island on Broadway, in Lakeview.

Now, has anyone ever tried a Montreal style bagel? Its a totally different animal. Sweet dough, big hole in the middle, crispy crust and loaded with seseme seeds. They are soooo good!!! They sell them at the airport in Montreal, for anyone who ever finds themselves there, to bring some home with you. Also, in Boca Raton, where a lot of french-Canadians winter, there was a bagel restaurant, appropriately called Montreal Bagels, which did a good replication of a true M'real bagel. But I think it has now since closed.

Gordono Pharmacy
5501 N Clark St
Chicago, IL 60640

JoelM wrote:Upper Crust Bagels in Deerfield (835 Waukeegan, in the same strip mall as Dear Franks hot dogs) does a good job of the dense and doughy NY style bagel, though not as dense IMO as NYB&B or H&H.

See here for last year's LTH bagel tasting results. Upper Crust's pumpernickel got top rating, but its others didn't fare too well.

I grew up Jewish in NY and moved to Chicago for college. My family could not understand how I could venture into the land of goy and Lender's. However, I must say that Orly's bagels in Hyde Park truly reminds me of home. The owner spent time apprenticing at H&H bagels in NYC and his study shows. My roommates and I (1 other from NY and 1 worked in a bagel shop) agree that these are the real deal.

Orly's Restaurant
1660 E 55th street
773-643-5500

JoelM wrote:(kinda not related to the recent posts, but fwiw..)
If anyone likes H&H bagels, I believe they are available at Gordono's Pharmacy across from the Jewel on Broadway, in Edgewater. Its a neat, old style pharmacy/deli/soda jerk stand. Nice to see places like them still around.
[...]
Gordono Pharmacy
5501 N Clark St
Chicago, IL 60640

I'm happy to share the Gordono's/JB Deli/Pudgie's love, but they still have their sign advertising NYB&B bagels, along with NYB&B mentions in the hideous electronic marquee. I haven't been in there in a couple of weeks, so I haven't had opportunity to ask.

Thanks for this lead. I'm excited to check it out.

I can't help but laugh at the "land of goy and Lender's" line. There are few places in the world that have a Jewish community and cuisine like the NY metropolitan area. If that's the standard, you'd never leave NY (and there are some who certainly take that to heart). Having said that, Chicago is certainly far from a land of Lender's (as this thread makes clear). (Unfortunately for you, many of the best places are on the north side/suburbs, quite a distance from Hyde Park.)

I hope they understood that, food aside, you're going to Chicago because of the University of Chicago...a place Columbia couldn't hold a candle too. I know this is a food board, not an academic board, but I my experience on the east coast was that many couldn't comprehend the idea that a school in the midwest could be anywhere near as good as an Ivy League school. Anyways, sorry for that digression. I know they made the goy-and-Lender's comment in jest.

efrenchman wrote:I grew up Jewish in NY and moved to Chicago for college. My family could not understand how I could venture into the land of goy and Lender's. However, I must say that Orly's bagels in Hyde Park truly reminds me of home. The owner spent time apprenticing at H&H bagels in NYC and his study shows. My roommates and I (1 other from NY and 1 worked in a bagel shop) agree that these are the real deal.

Orly's Restaurant
1660 E 55th street
773-643-5500

Ordered 15 bagels yesterday and each and every single one of them was somewhere from disappointing to awful. The bagels were more of a light baguette like texture that got stale quickly. A couple of the bagels were even missing holes.

We bought these bagels Sunday morning so they were all fresh and we got multiple flavors.

Aside from the bagels I was a surprised to see the addition of corned beef and pastrami to menu along with about a dozen flavors of cream cheese.

They could not tell me where the corned beef originated but I tried a sample and found it a little subdued for my preferences but decent.

third coast foodie wrote:Ordered 15 bagels yesterday and each and every single one of them was somewhere from disappointing to awful. The bagels were more of a light baguette like texture that got stale quickly. A couple of the bagels were even missing holes.

That is a great shame. I was there on 4/7 and the bagels were the usual pretty good. Please keep us posted.

Statler wrote:

third coast foodie wrote:Ordered 15 bagels yesterday and each and every single one of them was somewhere from disappointing to awful. The bagels were more of a light baguette like texture that got stale quickly. A couple of the bagels were even missing holes.

That is a great shame. I was there on 4/7 and the bagels were the usual pretty good. Please keep us posted.

My last few stops there have been within the expected parameters, too.

=R=

third coast foodie wrote:Ordered 15 bagels yesterday and each and every single one of them was somewhere from disappointing to awful. The bagels were more of a light baguette like texture that got stale quickly. A couple of the bagels were even missing holes.

We bought these bagels Sunday morning so they were all fresh and we got multiple flavors.

Aside from the bagels I was a surprised to see the addition of corned beef and pastrami to menu along with about a dozen flavors of cream cheese.

They could not tell me where the corned beef originated but I tried a sample and found it a little subdued for my preferences but decent.

Which location?

I swing by the Lincolnwood location at least once a week in the early morning. Usually I get a bagel with cream cheese or margarine (depending on how healthy I want to appear to be). I've never been disappointed.

Beans & Bagels on Rockwell and Leland gets there stuff delivered daily from NYB&B, and I have had at least a bagel per week there for more than a year now. While's there's definitely some variation in quality, I still think it's the best bagel in Chicagoland, and I have not noticed any dropoff recently.

Were these "Kosher for Passover" bagels?

third coast foodie wrote:Ordered 15 bagels yesterday and each and every single one of them was somewhere from disappointing to awful. The bagels were more of a light baguette like texture that got stale quickly. A couple of the bagels were even missing holes.

Not really clear if TCF is talking about New York Bagel and Bialy on Touhy or one of the other bagel joints in the thread.

If it is NY B&B let me add that I've been a regular, and satisfied, customer for years and, while there is slight variation, never experienced anything close to what TCF describes.

Enjoy,
Gary

Must chime in here, NY B&B in my experience has always been outstanding, a blissfully tasty alternative to all the chains here that don't even boil the bagels. And for musicians, the all-night hours are great on a Saturday coming home from a gig in the northern suburbs, a little detour onto Touhy to snag Sunday morning breakfast.

trpt2345 wrote:Must chime in here, NY B&B in my experience has always been outstanding, a blissfully tasty alternative to all the chains here that don't even boil the bagels. And for musicians, the all-night hours are great on a Saturday coming home from a gig in the northern suburbs, a little detour onto Touhy to snag Sunday morning breakfast.

What he said. LOL

Back in the day, the location on Dempster in Niles (across from Lutheran General) was NOT open 24 hours but after a night at Doc Weeds, the aroma of those freshly baking bagels was insanity inducing. We used to stop in and plead for a bagel or two. Usually they were nice and tossed a few our way. Man, that was something like 25 years ago.

third coast foodie wrote:Ordered 15 bagels yesterday and each and every single one of them was somewhere from disappointing to awful. The bagels were more of a light baguette like texture that got stale quickly. A couple of the bagels were even missing holes.

This was the 4714 W Touhy location which has been my mainstay for bagels since the late 80's. See my last post here http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=8232&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=150

I have since called to ask if there was new management and was told no.

Again I don't really know what to say other than I was really surprised and disappointed. No one among the crowd thought much of the bagels and the 3 of us who regularly eat NYBB agreed they were sub par.

I certainly don't want to disagree with establishment about the place and it would take a lot more than 1 bad experience to make me anything but a fan, but there was something amiss this past weekend and the bagels combined with the expanding menu and and the addition of some new people in front made me wonder if something changed.

third coast foodie wrote:Again I don't really know what to say other than I was really surprised and disappointed. No one among the crowd thought much of the bagels and the 3 of us who regularly eat NYBB agreed they were sub par.

Maybe the usual baker called in sick that day.

In kind of a double post about breakfast & New York Bagel & Bialy, since our office moved from next to Manny's in the South Loop to Skokie, I've been getting my proper fill of lox & bagels at Annie's Pancake House on Oakton in downtown Skokie. A 'too big' lox plate for $8.95 and a 'just right' lox sandwich for $6.50, with lox actually being better than Manny's, which truth be told was hit or miss. I would surmise that they use NYBB because of the flat & long bialys offered there, and I gravitate towards them rather than bagels because I was told (maybe urban legend) that they contain less 'Weight Watchers points' than bagels.

But, as an experiment, I went to Kaufman's & picked up 4 bagels, some low-fat chive cream cheese, a quarter-pound of nova & brought it all back to the office. Thirteen bucks for everything, and I'll get two lox sandwiches out of it with 2 bagels and cream cheese left over.

Bottom line is that Annie's gives damn good value, but Kaufman's has the best nova around, fine bagels too.

Annie's Pancake House
4900 W. Oakton St.
Skokie, IL
(847) 675-7562


Kaufman's Deli
4905 W. Dempster St.
Skokie, IL
(847) 677-9800

I'm a lunchtime regular at Annie's. Never a bad meal.

Dave148 wrote:I'm a lunchtime regular at Annie's. Never a bad meal.

What do you typically order? Any daily specials?

G Wiv wrote:

Dave148 wrote:I'm a lunchtime regular at Annie's. Never a bad meal.

What do you typically order? Any daily specials?

Anie's does a very fine job with eggs. I stopped in last week and was a little surprised to find that they offered a special of very respectable matzoh brei, which I ordered with salami and onions.

When I'm in a red meat mood, their chopped steak special with grilled onions is pretty good. The lunch special insert dosen't have a lot of stuff that interests me. There's enough choices on the regular menu to keep me happy. I'm also a fan of their julienne salad.

My boss is there every day for lunch and digs the chopped steak w/grilled onions as well. Huge portion, good quality ground beef, plenty of juice.

I'm partial, either at breakfast or lunch, to their skirt steak, which is Grecian-style with garlic & oregano. Again, high quality meat, at least an 8 oz. portion. And their roasted Greek potatoes sop up the juice when you cut the steak. Side salads always come out cold, and their creamy Garlic dressing is excellent.

Funny thing is...for the specials...the default is to give you roasted potatoes and rice. That's not the Mediterranean diet!

Yeah, I noticed that as well. I usually order coleslaw in place of potato.
I've never had the skirt steak. I'll give it a try sometime.

jnm123 wrote:Funny thing is...for the specials...the default is to give you roasted potatoes and rice. That's not the Mediterranean diet!

As you probably know, Annie's is Greek owned and potatoes and rice are SOP for many Greek meals.

Add the bread basket and you have...<ahem>...

The Starch Triumvirate!

Interestingly, the travel/cooking shows based in Greece show the cuisine heavy to protein-based items like olive oil, feta cheese, meat/fowl/fish & herbs. Starches as a rule are farther up the pyramid.

jnm123 wrote:Add the bread basket and you have...<ahem>...

The Starch Triumvirate!

Don't forget pasta (macaroni in pastisio, greek spaghetti, etc.). At a recent dinner for two at Central Gyros, there were four different starches on our table. Three on one plate (rice, potato, pastisio):


Central Gyros combo plate (there's a dolmade hiding behind the 4-inch high pastisio)

Best,
Michael

My recent addiction to the pastrami sammy to GNR winner NY Bagel and Bialy is now explained. While on my 6th visit to this fine establishment at 3 a.m. this past Sunday, all was made clear. A handwritten sign on the wall stated that they serve "pastrami from Manny's". The man behind the counter informed me that they've been carrying it for a few weeks (the corned beef is still Vienna he says).

I've posted in other threads about the fantastic tenderness and flavor of the pastrami at this place, and how it can be a religiuous experience if properly nesteled between a toasted bialy, with a crude slice of onion. I tend to top mine with a touch of mustard and (sorry!) a touch of mayo, which I believe tones down the bark of the yellow mustard and allows the pastrami to take center stage.

If this joint didn't already win you over with its fantastic lox and cream cheese sammies, then it will with the pastrami. I've already made my twin brother and a buddy fellow crackheads over this place. You should do the same for the ones you love.

New York Bagel and Bialy
4714 W Touhy Ave
Lincolnwood, IL 60712
847-677-9388