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Orange - for breakfast - Chicago


Sweet Willie

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I had read the following information on Orange

Orange

3231 N Clark St.

Chicago, IL 60657

773-549-4400

Chef Dale Levitski creates inventive breakfasts for people who are just plain sick of the same old stuff. Items such as French Toast Kebabs (marinated in coconut milk, baked, then grilled and spiked with pineapples and strawberries) and Frushi (fresh fruit rolled in rice paper, topped with mint leaves or edible flowers) might just be intriguing enough to open those half-closed eyes.

Orange has a sister location at 75 W Harrison St, which is where I had breakfast a couple weeks ago. It opens at 8am, phone: (312) 447-1000.

This particular morning had the French Toast Kebabs, unfortunately very poor breakfast. There was no hint of the coconut milk, french toast was baked until dry, so not good at all. The best part were the strawberries on the kebabs that due to the baking almost became packets of warm strawberry essence.

A wide variety of fresh juices were offered which I really liked. Service was great.

I'll go back and try the Frushi sometime.

Another special they had which almost caught my eye were their jelly filled buttermilk pancakes, jelly changes weekly.

"I did absolutely nothing and it was everything I thought it could be"
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FWIW, Chef Levitski has been at Trio Atelier since it re-opened last August. Pretty sure he was at La Tache before that.

=R=

"Hey, hey, careful man! There's a beverage here!" --The Dude, The Big Lebowski

LTHForum.com -- The definitive Chicago-based culinary chat site

ronnie_suburban 'at' yahoo.com

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I ate there last June while visiting Chicago. Had some apple/pear juice freshly made- very refreshing. Ate tomato soup and grilled cheese- their version was superlative! The bread was a rich sourdough and the cheese was a very sharp white cheddar, grilled so that it leaked out the edges and burned into lacy brown crust. The tomato soup was homemade, subtly flavored with herbs, and creamy. My husband had an egg dish with spinach and mozzarella that looked good too. I will go back next time I'm in town!

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FWIW, Chef Levitski has been at Trio Atelier since it re-opened last August.  Pretty sure he was at La Tache before that.

thanks for the info. I have a 98+ page word document w/all these places I want to try in Chicago, I cut and paste quotes on the places I want to explore. (looks like this was a very old quote! :smile: )
"I did absolutely nothing and it was everything I thought it could be"
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I love the idea of an "inventive breakfast place" as long as I don't get raw fish (excluding oysters) first thing in the morning. The tomato juice and grilled cheese sounds spot-on, just as the kebabs sound spot-off.

Sigh. Jelly-filled buttermilk pancakes. What a brilliat idea.

Margaret McArthur

"Take it easy, but take it."

Studs Terkel

1912-2008

A sensational tennis blog from freakyfrites

margaretmcarthur.com

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FWIW, Chef Levitski has been at Trio Atelier since it re-opened last August.  Pretty sure he was at La Tache before that.

thanks for the info. I have a 98+ page word document w/all these places I want to try in Chicago, I cut and paste quotes on the places I want to explore. (looks like this was a very old quote! :smile: )

The landscape changes very, very quickly :smile:

That's why I always tell people to hit a place when it's hot. If you wait too long it'll end up not being the same experience. Some of the top places are only around -- in their peak form -- for a very short amount of time.

=R=

"Hey, hey, careful man! There's a beverage here!" --The Dude, The Big Lebowski

LTHForum.com -- The definitive Chicago-based culinary chat site

ronnie_suburban 'at' yahoo.com

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I actually had a VERY bad experience at Orange a little while back. I ordered an omelette with swiss, asparagus, and garlic (at least I think that's what it was) and it came to me with just about NO cheese whatsoever, huge raw chunks of garlic, and undercooked, hard, bitter asparagus chunks. Not only that, but I substituted the side dish for spring greens at an additional charge of $1, and they gave me about 5 leaves with an unremarkable dressing on it. Overpriced and overrated!

The frushi on the other hand sounds interesting, but again, I won't be back because it was the worst breakfast meal I have ever ordered.

-Elizabeth

Mmmmmmm chocolate.

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When the Orange on Clark first opened, it was very, very good - one of the best breakfast places I've been to. The menu used to change almost weekly and most of the stuff on there was great (esp. the puff pastry). Been back less and less recently - I still like it, but (apart from the pancake flight) the menu seems to be the same every time, and has been for the last couple of years. Takes the fun out of it a bit. Plus the food is just a bit more boring.

Had no idea that Dale Levitski was the chef when I first started going though - that explains a lot.

Edited by VeryApe77 (log)
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When the Orange on Clark first opened, it was very, very good - one of the best breakfast places I've been to. The menu used to change almost weekly and most of the stuff on there was great (esp. the puff pastry). Been back less and less recently - I still like it, but (apart from the pancake flight) the menu seems to be the same every time, and has been for the last couple of years. Takes the fun out of it a bit. Plus the food is just a bit more boring.

Had no idea that Dale Levitski was the chef when I first started going though - that explains a lot.

I haven't' tried Orange yet, but the idea of a "breakfast" place opening at 8AM seems awfullly weird to me.

"the only thing we knew for sure about henry porter was that his name wasn't henry porter" : bob

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Orange has a sister location at 75 W Harrison St, which is where I had breakfast a couple weeks ago. It opens at 8am, phone: (312) 447-1000. ... I'll go back and try the Frushi sometime.

I’m a little (ok, VERY) bothered when a restaurant does not have their signature item. Such was the case this morning at Orange on Harrison. No Frushi! :angry:

While I enjoyed my pear/cantaloupe juice (GREAT juice combination) I gravitated towards the steak benedict. I’m not normally an AM steak guy, but this morning I was.

An excellent cut of steak, prepared perfectly to my medium rare w/two poached eggs, hollandaise and a bit of balsamic reduction all sitting atop a thick piece of brioche toast. Great breakfast, hit the spot.

Now if I can only get to try this Frushi.

"I did absolutely nothing and it was everything I thought it could be"
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  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...
I’m a little (ok, VERY) bothered when a restaurant does not have their signature item. Such was the case this morning at Orange on Harrison. No Frushi!  :angry:

While I enjoyed my pear/cantaloupe juice (GREAT juice combination) I gravitated towards the steak benedict. I’m not normally an AM steak guy, but this morning I was.

An excellent cut of steak, prepared perfectly to my medium rare w/two poached eggs, hollandaise and a bit of balsamic reduction all sitting atop a thick piece of brioche toast. Great breakfast, hit the spot.

Now if I can only get to try this Frushi.

I hope you got your Frushi. If not, you're not missing much. Looks great, tastes alright. I'd rather have plain fruit with some honey or something.

As for Orange as a whole, we like it very much. I think we were just pleased it was something other then the normal breakfast fare. We ate at Anne Sather and were not impressed and would probably never go back. We liked Orange so much we ate there 3 times in 5 days.

We posted some pics of what we ate. Descriptions should come soon.

http://gfc.snekse.com/blog/food/2005/06/fr...-episode-ii.cfm

Gastronomic Fight Club - Mischief. Mayhem. Soup.

Foodies of Omaha - Discover the Best of Omaha

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This reminds me that somewhere in one of my old Cooking Light magazines, they did a feature story on Orange and the Frushi recipe was in there. I'll try to find it and post it here. I also think that Orange is not always as good as it was in the beginning but when I went with a 7 year old that wanted chocolate milk recently, the manager ran down the street and got chocolate so he could make it for her. I gotta give 'em points for that!

jb

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  • 2 months later...
I hope you got your Frushi.  If not, you're not missing much.  Looks great, tastes alright.  I'd rather have plain fruit with some honey or something.

no, I didn't, not yet. Went again for breakfast recently, found out that they no longer serve Frushi on weekdays, just weekends

"I did absolutely nothing and it was everything I thought it could be"
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