5 Places in Lakeview for Delicious Cheesecakes!

Strolling past the colorful Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago, you’ll not only find amazing restaurants and pubs but also some adorable eateries serving cheesecakes. Whether you’re in the area for a Cubs game, a vibrant party in Boystown or a biking spree through the Lakeshore drive, slow down and visit these five places to satiate your cheesecake cravings.

1. Bittersweet Pastry:
   
   
   At this petite European-style pastry shop and cafe, the menu includes a variety of fine pastry, delicious cakes and lunch options and obviously – Cheesecake. They change their cheesecakes depending on the seasons and holidays. While there’s a carrot cheesecake for the winters, the eggnog or the peppermint cheesecake take over during Christmas. At present, they’re serving the vanilla sour cream cheesecake with fresh fruit. Pastry Chef Judy Contino says that she likes to brûlée the top of this cheesecake to add another texture and dimension to this wonderful dessert. A full cake usually costs around $24 while a slice is priced at $4.
   
   

   

   Vanilla cheesecake with strawberry topping at Bittersweet Pastry

   
   
   Address: 1114 W Belmont Ave, Chicago, IL 60657
   
   
2. Chicago Diner: 
   
   
   This vegan restaurant has won over many people’s hearts for creating an array of vegan and vegetarian options. If you’ve been going to the Chicago Diner for their burgers and bowls, don’t forget to try their raw vegan cheesecake from the desserts menu. Pastry chef Cindy Soto uses tofu, soymilk, lemon, cardamom, sugar and vanilla to create this divine cheesecake in different styles for different seasons. They’re currently serving the vegan turtle cheesecake made with caramel pecans and chocolate. Soto prefers using fruits - lime and lemon or the strawberry cheesecake for the summer. The cheesecake is priced at $6.50. 
   
   

   

   Vegan turtle cheesecake at the Chicago Diner

   Address: 3411 N Halsted St, Chicago, IL 60657
   
   
3. Molly’s Cupcakes:
   
   If you think that Molly’s Cupcakes is only popular for its cupcakes, you’re wrong. This modern bakery serves a variety of small cheesecakes in a rounded container to give them the “cupcake look.” There’s the chocolate ganache, the turtle, cherry jelly and the regular plain cheesecake. Front house staff Raine Roberts says that they bake about 12 cheesecakes every day and it’s rare to have any left overs. A mini cheesecake costs $4.50.
   
   

   

   Cheesecakes in a cup at Molly's cupcakes

   Address: 2536 N Clark St, Chicago, IL 60614
   
   
4. Pick Me Up Café:
   
   The one reason the Pick Me Up Café is increasingly popular among youngsters is its late night hours. This café serves a variety of appetizers, lunch, dinner and shake options but is also loved for its desserts. They don’t bake their cheesecakes in-house but serve the snickers, caramel-apple and the plain cheesecake almost every day (and night). The snickers cheesecake is a mix of cream cheese, dark chocolate, caramel and peanuts on a graham cracker crust and is the most popular among the cheesecake options. A cheesecake is usually priced at $4.   
   
   

   

   Pick Me Up Cafe sign outside the restaurant

   Address: 3408 N Clark St, Chicago, IL 60657
   
5. Cheesie’s Pub & Grill:
   
   Tucked between many cafés and restaurants right off the Belmont CTA station is Cheesie’s – popular for it’s grilled cheese sandwiches, soups and craft beers. But not many talk about it’s hidden secret: Cheesecake Bites. This dessert appetizer is like a deep-fried cheesecake ball filled with banana’s foster cream cheese. The outside covering is crumbled grahams. The bites are topped with powdered sugar and served with strawberry or chocolate dip. The taste is not too sweet or overpowering and the dipping sauces make the whole experience even more flavorful. One serving consists of 9 cheesecake bites and is priced at $4.50.
   
   

   

   Cheesecake bites with strawberry and chocolate dip

   
   
   Address: 958 W Belmont Ave, Chicago, IL 60657
   
   
   
   

   

   The insides of a cheesecake bite at Cheesie's

   
   
   
   
   
   

Five Takeaways from a tour of the Levy Innovations Lab

Street-side food joint replica at Levy Innovations Lab

As soon as I entered the Levy Restaurants’ Innovation Lab, I could already feel that it was special. Sections of the walls were painted with inspiring and stimulating words and it looked like a well-organized combination of a bar, a dessert-cart, a street-side food joint, a lounge and a spacious and vibrant kitchen.

Salad Counter at the Levy Innovations Lab

Dessert cart replica

The next few hours at the location were a mix of meeting chefs Robin Rosenberg and Joe Flamm and the Director of Communications Jennifer Sutherland - along with a tour of the innovations lab, Spiaggia restaurant, the private dining area and the different kitchens.

The conversations with the wonderful people we met at Levy gave me an insight into the food industry and helped me understand food trends, choices, decisions that chefs make and the value of different aspects of the restaurant business.

Here are my five takeaways from the experience:

Making everything from scratch is the key:

Chef Rosenberg continuously stressed on the efforts they take to make things form scratch. It is definitely labor-intensive and sometimes even time-consuming but it helps Levy restaurants to not be dependent on value-added items and to serve food that’s fresh and real.

Spiaggia private dining kitchen area

The use of seasonal fruits and vegetables is important to cook tasty food:

Seasonality is essential. The chefs emphasized on their different menus that are based on the different seasons. I really liked how Chef Rosenberg said, “Why fight it? Buy it in season. Feature it in season.” He also added that in the summer he loves using watermelon, strawberry and blueberries but his mantra is to use what’s great at the time.

Jennifer Sutherland (left) and Chef Robin Rosenberg (right) addressing students

Always look for that special touch that forces people to come back: 

Food with a twist usually stays in people’s memories. Chef Rosenberg said that a restaurant’s concept can be the same but they can still continue adding little surprises in their special menus. In this competitive food industry, innovation, variety and change is crucial to sustain and to give your diners reasons to love your restaurant.

A close-up of the wine section at the Spiaggia restaurant

 Storytelling is inherent to food: 

Jennifer started out as a food blogger before joining the Levy brand. She told us that when writing about food, we need to find our voice. Food bloggers need to have a point of view, a personality and a special theme along with sharing a little bit of window in their personal life. What’s the story behind the food they are featuring? What is this blog bringing to the food community that no one else can?

Pie and bread in jars at a corner of the Spiaggia cafe

Go local and go small:

For the chefs at Levy, local is so important. It connects people to the place and to the food. People are proud of where they live and they want to eat produce from their region and their farms. Also, the new trend is small portions. People want a lot of variety, they like trying more stuff.

Chef Joe Flamm talking about Italian food and cooking

For most diners, eating out isn’t a necessity any more. It’s an experience, a memory that they are building with everything that they order and eat. At Levy, the chefs and the staff help these food memories become more special and more beautiful.

A sign in pointing in the direction of Cafe Spiaggia

One day at the Taste of Chicago : EAT!

Cheesecakes at Eli's Cheesecake Company at the Taste of Chicago.

The Taste of Chicago, one of America's premier outdoor food festival, set off this year from July 6-10. I decided to dive into Chicago's food scene by trying out different foods at the festival. To bring you all closer to the Taste, I decided to work on a short video highlighting my day at the Taste of Chicago 2016.

Musings of a food-enthusiast

When Food Reporter Steve Dolinsky addressed our class last Monday, he talked about the idea of communicating with different communities through the language of food. 

Food connects people. 

I remember writing a blog post for a travel website last year where I talked about the way I connected with different cultures and locations through their authentic cuisine.

“Food is the gateway to the bona fide culture that a place clings to,” I wrote. “It embodies a sense of relationship, a sense of identifying with the spirit of a region. For that reason, food forms such an essential element of the idea of travel. It has made the world so accessible and understandable.”

Dolinsky said the same: You cannot become a food reporter without becoming a traveler, without opening your heart and your taste buds every time you move out of your city, state or country. Ethnic cuisine has become an essential part of our food choices today. People in Chicago, where I live now, not only eat hot dogs, deep-dish pizzas or burgers but rather devour in Nasi Goreng, kimchee, dosas and lasagnas. But, to really understand a culture and its cuisine, we ought to travel and eat.

Colorful macaroons. Source: Michael Stern/Flickr

About three years ago I hadn’t been to another country even once, and today, I have already visited ten countries, traversing through a number of cities in each, some of them more than one time. As I travel, I make it a point to try the cuisine the place has to offer. I love staying in “home stays” where I can live with a family in a part of their home. I love talking to people. They are they key - to a place, to a culture, to a society and to food.

For me, a real traveler also needs to be a real explorer of food. That’s how we realize that the universe has lesser boundaries than we envisage. We can come closer to the billions of people in the world by opening ourselves to vivid food experiences without confining our taste to what we have grown up eating.

Next time you travel, take risks and eat all that the natives eat. Don’t just be a tourist, be a traveler, an explorer and a foodie.

Cheesecakes on a truck (or a stick)

Aunty Vee's food truck

Painted in blue and red with a jolly pink cupcake caricature, Aunty Vee’s dessert truck isn’t hard to find among more than 50 food trucks at the Chicago Food Truck Festival. Stacked in boxes and refrigerators inside the truck are upside-down cakes, frozen cheesecakes on sticks and deep-dish cookies in a variety of colors and flavors.

Some upside down cakes are loaded in a box inside Aunty Vee's food truck to be sold at the Chicago Food Truck Festival

While Navena Moore, more popularly known as Aunty Vee, scuttles around the truck to prepare for the festival, I sneak a peak at her most recent creation, “Cheesecake on a stick.” This distinctive dessert is created by freezing a regular cheesecake for about 24 hours and then slicing and coating it with a layer of white or milk chocolate ganache or Nilla wafers. Moore says she specializes in signature items and for her this creation is “an epitome of a creamy dessert” almost perfect for summer time.

Sonia Lipov, a first-timer at Aunty Vee's tried this key lime cheesecake on a stick and said that it was "amazing" and it "gets colder in the middle."

Her son, Kamal Holmes, pulls out five different flavors from the freezer: the banana cream pudding, key lime, chocolate caramel cream, cookies and cream and strawberries and cream. Each cheesecake ice cream is conveniently packed in a plastic covering to keep it intact, which makes it look less appealing than an average cheesecake. I decide to try the banana cream pudding variant just because they tell me it’s the most popular.

Aunty Vee offered these five types of frozen cheesecakes on sticks during the Chicago Food Truck festival.

I take off the wrapper. The gold-colored triangular dessert looks irresistible as the Nilla wafer crumbs cover the frozen cheese cream on the inside. I try to hold it close to the box to keep it from falling on the ground and take the first bite. The crunchy wafer crust blends with the cold sour cream and melts in my mouth leaving a lingering taste of bananas, sugar and cream. 

The banana cream pudding cheesecake on a stick looks irresistible.

The dessert has a rich and smooth consistency and isn’t as frozen as I expected. It’s slightly hefty to hold all the time but is light and fluffy on the inside that makes it easier for me to savor it without feeling too stuffed. This cheesecake ice cream reminds me of a banoffee pie (an English dessert pie made of bananas, cream and toffee) but the experience is precisely like eating a satisfyingly cool banana cheesecake from a stick: an ice cream that doesn’t melt.

Priced at a decent $6, the frozen cheesecake on a stick is one of the most refreshing and soothing things I have tried this summer.  

Where to find Aunty Vee’s?

Usually at Clark and Monroe, Jackson and Van Buren, Adams and Wacker or at food festivals around Chicago and its suburbs.

Check Aunty Vee’s Facebook page or Twitter handle to find more about the food truck schedule.

Cheesecakes and stuff!

The first thing you need to know about me is that I am obsessed with cheesecakes. The crispy crust, wispy sour cream and refreshing toppings soothe my senses. Cheesecakes top the list of comfort-desserts for me. Hence this blog: a place where I’ll talk about cheesecakes, different flavors and styles, food-trucks and restaurants and chefs and recipes. Welcome to the Cheesecake Machine!

  A cheesecake among berries and a strawberry. Source: Stuart Spivack (http://bit.ly/28XJ1LI)