Hello Travelers!

The wind is cutting through the NorthFace jacket; your mittens are wet and freezing wet from snowballs and your winter boots gave up hours ago - in short, you need to warm up, inside and out - time for hot food and a warm fireplace. Uncommon Ground Cafe has it all: a sprawling multiple-personality cafe, restaurant, gallery and music theater with a fireplace in one room and a pot-bellied stove in another, full of couches, window seats and nooks to while away the hours with a good book, a great conversation, and a drink. Vibrant day and night with a variety of people and conversations, Uncommon Ground is full of groups of friends chatting over a coffee or a beer, young families’ laughter coming from numerous groups. Someone in the corner is reading Sartre, and you feel like there’s dozens of conversations to be had and new friendship opportunities in every nook of this warm and comfortable find.

Breakfast is served daily, featuring the old standards and a few “Uncommon” specials: the Pulled Pork Benedict with Garlic Hollandaise dukes it out with the Farm Raised Chicken Breakfast Burrito; fresh Red Hen Bakery bread makes the basis of a delicious French Toast. With a full bar, you can augment your breakfast with a house-infused vodka or Pear Mimosa, too. For lunch, the Pork Belly Sandwich is perfect winter fuel: chunks of pork belly with onion marmalade, apple slices and arugula on a warmed baguette. Fresh soups change daily, as do dinner specials.

By far, the best feature of Uncommon Ground (once you get past the fireplaces) is the creative cocktail list: the Tree-tini is a seasonally changing martini, for which every one sold a tree is planted by Live-it-Green. The current flavour as of this writing is a Pear-infused organic vodka based concoction - who knew that being earth friendly would be so delicious! For those times when you really need a warm up, Uncommon creates special coffee and cider based treats: The Devil and Mr Johnson is a steaming bowl (yes, bowl) of espresso, steamed chai, vanilla-infused Makers Mark, steamed milk and whipped cream - dusted with cinnamon, of course. The Red Apple features steamed cider with a kick of bourbon. The identity-confused can check out the Jagger Meets Bowie: pimms no. 1, rose nectar, sparkling rose, blood orange, and a floating flower petal.

So come in, grab the coveted fireplace couch, and while away the afternoon the way a real Chicagoan would - out of the cold.

Have a warm and fantastic time!

Tai