Crema Pastry - A Call to Arms

All,

On the corner of Lincoln Avenue & Foster in the northern Lincoln Square neighborhood sits Crema Pastry. The name is somewhat deceiving, leaving some of the gems of this establishment hidden from the casual observer.

Crema sits diagonally across from the big, bad Dunkin' Donuts (I actually like DD, I just took some literary liberties to make this sound better ) and directly across Lincoln Avenue from Walgreens (which used to be CVS, which used to be Osco).

My friends, Crema itself, though on a busy commuter corner, is quite counterintuitively a hidden treasure. Crema suffers from a lack of easily accessible parking options nearby for the weekday auto commuter whilst getting slammed by DD with ample parking on the same corner.

I am a semi-regular at Crema, and my procrastination to post before today is bewildering to me. Crema is a nice, quaint, independently owned and operated "coffee shop plus". They offer the incredibly satisfying Intelligensia coffee as well as the special coffee standards, smoothies, tea, blended coffees, etc. However, the gold-standard at Crema, with apologies to Intelligensia (reason enough to come) are the scramblers. I come for the coffee, but I stay for the Western Scrambler.

Four scramblers are offered, including a vegetarian option (what a waste ) but I've yet to stray from my mistress that is the Western Scrambler: crispy bacon, standard scrambled eggs, perfect toast and wonderful homemade roasted sliced skin-on potatoes with Vidalia onions, parsley and basic spices. Incredible if you love your potatoes. I would go for JUST a plate of these babies (with of course a side of the crispy bacon).

All this for the paltry sum of $4.50. The large coffee is under two bucks as well. This with two complimentary re-fills and a free side of skim-milk - it's ashame the dredded acid-reflux monster necessitates that I take my coffee "wussified" these days - but such is life.

Abner is the proprietor of this fine establishment. Always postive, friendly, welcoming and generally hurt that he failed to recall my name. When I inquired about business I was informed it was "OK" which seemed to me a thinly veiled phasod for "not so well".

Recently, Abner included a selection of about 8 different lunch sandwiches on freshly baked bread for the gouging sum of $3.65. The bread looked wonderous - I'll be by for lunch later this week. Oh, my Western mistress won't take kindly to that affront - but fear not my lady, for you'll always be my favorite, if not my exclusive, love.

The baked goods, never my area of interest, looked promising: fudge brownies, various breakfast pastries, banana bread, etc.

All of this over the friendly vibe of golden oldies playing on the sound system.

A Call to Arms my friends!

So many of our local favorities are threatened in these trying times - it would be nice to save what I assure you will be one of our new favorites.

Won't you give Crema a try?

Bster

Why, yes I will. It isn't all that far from work. When I want to escape the confines of my little gray box, I'll be there.

Saint Pizza and I live just a few blocks from there and while we've often mentioned checking out Crema, we have as yet not gotten around to it. Maybe this thread will serve to prod us into it (finally).

You know, every time I see Crema I've wanted to stop in but it's always too late as I've already passed it by. But thanks for the friendly reminder. I will visit Crema in the next few days.

I have only been to Crema once. I've got to say that I was not impressed at all by the pastries, so I have not gone back. The savory offerings sound like they might be better. I'll have to give them another try next time I'm in the mood for a breakfast sandwich.

Hi,

Just recently I took a picture of the storefront from the car. I was planning to inquire if anyone had gone, so your post is really timely.

Regards,

I have not tried the cooked breakfasts, but the pain au chocolat is good, and very cheap at $1.25, especially considering that the quality of the dark chocolate used.
I brought 8 of them to an Easter brunch, and they were a hit.

That said, I'd give the ham and cheese triangles a miss. Ditto for the muffins.

Abner is capable of some really great work in fondant and pulled sugar.
He once showed me a birthday cake elaborately decorated with roses. The overall look was a little gaudy, but his skill and training were evident.