Breakfast near DePaul that takes reservations

We have friends in from Austria and have a short window of time on Saturday morning near Depaul for breakfast. We don't want to risk standing in a long line and not getting seated. There will be seven of us. Any ideas for a breakfast spot near DePaul that takes reservations?

Perennial Virant, Cafe Ba-ba-reeba, and R. J. Grunt's all accept reservations and all open at 10 on Saturdays for brunch.

If you'll be eating much earlier than that, you can probably walk in to places that don't take reservations without any problem. My experience is that even the really busy places don't start encountering waits to be seated until after about 9:30.

Well, I don't know if they take reservations (altho they might make exceptions if addressed in Österreichisches Deutsch), but they do open at 7:00 on Saturday, and this would certainly be the place to ease your friends' transition back home:

http://northamerica.meinl.com/coffeehouse_southport/

Meinl on Southport isn't all that close to DePaul (and doesn't take reservations). But if you're going that far north anyway, one of my favorite breakfast places in the city is at the same intersection, kitty-corner from Meinl: Southport Grocery & Cafe. I love the bread pudding pancakes and the grown-up pop tarts. They don't take reservations either. So you could go to Southport Grocery, and if the wait there is too long, use Meinl as a backup.

My son went to depaul and lived in the area and we frequently had this problem. we abandoned the trendy brunch places like Toast as the lines would usually wind out the door. I love Southport grocery but its a tiny place and you are not likely to get in. There is probably only room for four people to stand and wait for a table there even if you had to. Meinl is nice but its more like a glorified coffeeshop, although it does have table service.

We hit upon the following places: Marcellos on North avenue.
I am not sure if they take reservations but as I recall they have parking on site. That was a big plus for us. The restaurant is sizeable and not cramped like some places are. They have a wide variety of food there.

https://marcellos-northave.foodtecsolutions.com/menu

The other place we would go to is Uncle Julios on North ave. they have valet parking and we once brought a family group there. Its a spacious place inside and they have large tables and is not cramped for a big group. they are also on north avenue just south of the depaul area.

http://www.unclejulios.com/locations.html

How about Clarke's on Lincoln Ave? http://www.clarkesdiner.com/

toria wrote:I love Southport grocery but its a tiny place and you are not likely to get in.

I agree that it could be a problem for a group of seven. With that many people, you could have a problem getting seated in a reasonable time at any place that doesn't take reservations, unless you can be there when they first open, or if they're so large that they have several tables available for parties that big.

Four Farthings at Lincoln and Deming is actually not bad for brunch and they are showing availability on Open Table for 7 at noon on Saturday.

OP wanted breakfast on a Saturday morning.

I can't think of anything except Ann Sathers on Belmont or Original House of Pancake at Clark and Armitage, or Floriole, but they need to arrive when the doors open.

Edited: Removed mention of Mitchell's on Clybourn since it is closed as noted below. Additionally, none of the places I mentioned take reservations.

N

Mitchell's on Clybourn closed in September, 2011. viewtopic.php?p=389492#p389492

ekreider wrote:Mitchell's on Clybourn closed in September, 2011. viewtopic.php?p=389492#p389492

Clearly I couldn't tell from the drive-bys I did on Clybourn.

Thanks

No kidding. another one bites the dust.

pairs4life wrote:

ekreider wrote:Mitchell's on Clybourn closed in September, 2011. viewtopic.php?p=389492#p389492

Clearly I couldnt tell from the drive-bys I did on Clybourn.

Thanks

Even a closer look might not tell you. When you drive by it on Racine (which affords a closer and longer look) you still see all the window decorations and signage undisturbed from their last day of business. And a lot of natural light comes into the place, so it doesn't look dark. The lack of bodies is really the only telltale sign.

cleanplateclub wrote:We have friends in from Austria and have a short window of time on Saturday morning near Depaul for breakfast. We don't want to risk standing in a long line and not getting seated. There will be seven of us. Any ideas for a breakfast spot near DePaul that takes reservations?

So where did you go? How was it?

We are going this weekend and are in a tough spot. We need to go be there by 9:00 which further limits our options. I am still looking. Also, just wanted to say thinks for all the great ideas. You all rock!

cleanplateclub wrote:We are going this weekend and are in a tough spot. We need to go be there by 9:00 which further limits our options. I am still looking.

That may actually make things easier. Of the breakfast places that don't accept reservations, most don't have waiting lines before 9:00. And I bet some of them might be willing to set up and hold a table at that early hour for a large group like yours if you call them in advance to ask. So you might want to consider giving a call to some non-reservations breakfast places (e.g. Toast, Bongo Room, Clarke's, Nookie's, or the Original Pancake House) to ask whether they can work something out for you.

nsxtasy wrote:Of the breakfast places that don't accept reservations, most don't have waiting lines before 9:00. And I bet some of them might be willing to set up and hold a table at that early hour for a large group like yours if you call them in advance to ask. So you might want to consider giving a call to some non-reservations breakfast places (e.g. Toast, Bongo Room, Clarke's, Nookie's, or the Original Pancake House) to ask whether they can work something out for you.

Actually, at that early hour, Nookies Too is probably a good suggestion. Are they still open 24 hours on weekends? I would call them and ask if they think a party of that size at that time would be a problem. They are probably pretty good at predicting traffic flow.

What about kingsbury street cafe? They are a relatively new place right across the street from the Lincoln park whole foods. They take reservations and I have heard good things about their breakfasts and brunch. Maybe a little more upscale than nookies and the like.

d4v3 wrote:Actually, at that early hour, Nookies Too is probably a good suggestion. Are they still open 24 hours on weekends?

Yes, according to their website.

abolt wrote:What about kingsbury street cafe? They are a relatively new place right across the street from the Lincoln park whole foods.

Leave it to Whole Foods to change the boundries of Lincoln Park for the first time in 150+ years. I guess the Clybourn Industrial Corridor is officially dead and buried. Remember back when there were actually hookers on Hooker street?

edit:Ok I guess it was actually real estate developers that started calling that area, south of North Ave, "Lincoln Park" (I don't know why this bothers me)

To be fair, some do call it "SoNo" (South of North).

gleam wrote:To be fair, some do call it "SoNo" (South of North).

That is way too New York.

d4v3 wrote:

abolt wrote:What about kingsbury street cafe? They are a relatively new place right across the street from the Lincoln park whole foods.

Leave it to Whole Foods to change the boundries of Lincoln Park for the first time in 150+ years. I guess the Clybourn Industrial Corridor is officially dead and buried. Remember back when there were actually hookers on Hooker street?

edit:Ok I guess it was actually real estate developers that started calling that area, south of North Ave, "Lincoln Park" (I don't know why this bothers me)

We've been on Mohawk b/w North & Division for over 10 years & the whole time Cabrini was there they still called the area Lincoln Park. If you had a truist, they called it Lincoln Park South. RIP Clybourn Corridor.

What about the restaurant? Any of you been there?

pairs4life wrote:We've been on Mohawk b/w North & Division for over 10 years & the whole time Cabrini was there they still called the area Lincoln Park. If you had a truist, they called it Lincoln Park South. RIP Clybourn Corridor.

I would consider anything east of Larabee and south of North to be Old Town. I saw some realtors are calling the area south of Humboldt Park "Humboldt Heights". Oh well, enough of this tangent. I guess it doesen't matter to the OP what a neighborhood is called.

BTW I looked up the Kingsbury Cafe. The breakfast menu looks interesting (with some healthy options), a little pricey for breakfast (but not outrageous). It opens at 9 AM on Saturday.

OP here. On nsxtasy's suggestion (and others), I stopped by Toast and spoke to their manager, Tyler. He said they could not formally take reservations but if I called that morning to confirm we were on our way, he would seat other customers so there would be a couple of open tables together to seat us. Unfortunately, later that afternoon I learned the father of a close friend died. Since the funeral was Saturday morning we cancelled our breakfast plans.

I was really happy with Tyler and his willingness to work with us. I'm also really happy to have gotten all the great input here. Thanks all.

Sorry about your friend's father CPC...

Only problem with your plan though is that you have to eat at Toast. Manager may be nice but the food just sucks. It's crowded because of location and a sheep-like clientele who don't know any better. Can't say it any other way. I will give you that it's been years since I've been but after 4 tries (back in they day, it was one of those places that everyone just had to go to) and not a single meal that wasn't crappy (my favorite was that they actually BURNT the toast every time i ate there!!!), I finally put my foot down and said never again.

What you might want to take from this though, if you end up rescheduling, is that if you ask nicely about accomodation, most places will probably try to help you if they can. See what they say at Nookies. It's not exciting but I've never felt like a chump for eating there.

So a quick follow-up. Mr. CleanPlate and I went to Salt and Pepper for breakfast today at 10:30 and got a booth right away. The counter seating was completely empty. Maybe it was the slightly colder weather, but there was no wait and plenty of seating, although I don't think they would have been able to accommodate a group bigger than 5.

I like Salt and Pepper but don't love it. The corn beef hash is kind of bland and so are the biscuits and gravy. Plus, a place like this that nurses the Sunday morning hang-over crowd ought to offer Huevos Rancheros.