Caffe Baci

This a chain with several locations in the downtown Chicago area and has been one of my favorites for about 15 years.  There is a location in the building where I currently work and I could seriously eat both breakfast and lunch here every day if my wallet and waistline could afford it.

 

The breakfast menu has the usuals: omelettes, bacon, sausage, sweets.  My favorite is the veggie fusion: egg whites, veggies and low cal cheese.  You can substitute fruit salad for the side of potatoes if you’re feeling extra guilty (or not) that day.  The yogurt, granola and fruit parfait is a old standby or just fresh fruit salad in a cup.

 

For lunch, there are a ton of sides available.  You can order three sides as an entrée.  The side salads include fruit salad, tuna, chicken, couscous, pasta, vegetables and bean salads.  There are lettuce-based salads, too.  Their Caesar is a favorite of mine.  The sandwiches are some of the best in the city, in my opinion.  My two favorites are the JoJo Special and the Classico.  The JoJo Special has prosciutto, fresh mozzarella, artichokes, basil and tomatoes.  The Classico is filled with Italian meats: salami, mortadella, capicola with provolone, tomatoes and giardiniera.  All the sandwiches are excellent.  The individual pizzas are baked to order.

 

I’ve ordered catering from here for various office events in the past.  The food is always consistent with the vegetable lasagna as a stand-out.

 

There are daily specials.  The specials are not always Italian, but always good.  Sometimes there’s a Thai special, or Spanish or Mexican.  There’s also a pasta special, pizza special, two soups of the day (the pasta fagioli is my personal fave) and a ½ sandwich and soup option.  The soup and ½ sandwich special is worth every penny, as the soup is usually so filling, I eat the sandwich for another meal and get two meals for the price of one.

 

For dessert, there are cookies, tiramisu, dessert bars and the best lemon bars I have ever had.  There’s also gelato prepared in-house, usually about 4 or 5 different flavors available.  The coffee is very good, too, just the right combo of bitter and smooth.

 

Caffe Baci has been around for a long time.  The food and service have always been consistently high quality.  Once I wrote a review for a credit card points program and the only criticism I had was that the website didn’t state when they stop serving breakfast.  Within a day, I received a personal email from management telling me I was right and they would correct this.  That’s an example to me of how much they care about their business and a reflection of why they have survived all this time.

 

http://www.caffebaci.com/
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