Deli Help

I will be flying into O'Hare from San Francisco the third week in May to attend a graduation in the Princeton area - quick trip, fly in on Thursday and out on Sunday. Here is my request, on my drive back on Sunday I'll leave early and be driving I80 would like to find a Jewish deli to pick up several items and also if possible hit a polish store. The only Jewish Delis I'm familiar with are in the Skokie area and would like to avoid driving that far east.

San Francisco does not know what a real Jewish Deli is. Also a bakery would be nice, am burned out on sour dough bread. I've been away from Chicago for 5 years now.

Thanks in advance!!

If Skokie is too far east, Andersonville is probably even less convenient for you, but just for completeness, comments on a few North Side delis (and one or two downtown) are available in this thread. I've been to J.B.'s recently and little has changed, although the candy selection is much, much larger than it used to be. (And my assumption about the deli case and bagels was wrong; both are still present.)

On the off chance this ends up being your destination, M. Henry, a couple of blocks north of J.B.'s, and A Taste of Heaven and Swedish Bakery a few blocks south, all sell baked goods worth the consideration. (M. Henry's vanilla cupcake just might redeem every bad yellow cake I've ever eaten, I could be coaxed to say. It's made me believe in the genre again.)

One Polish place to stop is Bobak's. They have several stores around the area. The two I'm familiar with are in Naperville off 75th St and in Burr Ridge just south of the intersection of I-55 and County Line Rd.

The closest deli I've seen this far west is HP Schmaltz in Naperville (1512 N Naper Blvd Ste 152 - just north of Ogden Ave). Not a real Jewish deli but may have what you're looking for.

Here are links to the two places.

This link goes to a thread here on LTH about HP Schmaltz.

This link goes to Bobak's website.[/url]

Both Bobak & Sschmaltz look very doable for me. I'm bringing an empty suitcase with to purchase items that can't be found in San Francisco. Can you imagine not a sport pepper to be found?