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We've compiled the best of the best in Logan Square - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.
Locals worship Lula Cafe, a neighborhood favorite that has been serving modern, seasonal dishes (and a cult-favorite brunch menu) in a spacious location with counter seating and an intimate dining room since 1999. The food is stellar, with menus that change frequently and champion farm sources. If you want to take home a memento of this special space, grab a copy of chef/owner Jason Hammel's Lula Cafe Cookbook on your way out.
If you thought sausage gravy was as creative as biscuit toppings get, you obviously haven’t been to Bang Bang. The buttery, fluffy specimens here serve as a base for an assortment of tasty accompaniments, like herbed ricotta with roasted seasonal veggies. Cap it off with a slice of pie from the rotating selection. On fine days the large, tree-fringed yard is the place to be.
Huge flavors come roaring out of the tiny kitchen at Giant, where chef Jason Vincent takes crowd-pleasers like pasta, vegetarian dishes, and American classics and cranks the umami up to an 11. Beverage director Josh Perlman pairs diners with interesting wines from small producers without an unwanted chaser of snootiness. No matter the evening, a festive air seems to prevail.
Hand-rolled truffles are the signature item here; some flavor combinations are staples while others change with the seasons, but all are highly inventive. (Goat cheese walnut or peanut butter coconut curry anyone?) For many, the real star of the show is the absurdly thick hot chocolate topped with homemade marshmallows.
Chef Brian Motyka’s menu favors locally sourced meats and produce, so expect the offerings at this hip gastropub to change with the seasons, with options ranging from bar snacks to substantial entrées, all with clever twists. Chase your meal with one of more than 100 whiskeys on offer (one of the thoughtfully curated flight options is a good way to sample a few), or swing around to the back bar for a nightcap; late night, it serves a small menu of elevated drinking food (wild boar sloppy joes, vegan “sour cream” and onion dip) that’s exactly perfect after an evening on the town.
Chef Fabian Hernandez Blanco serves some of Chicago’s most soul-satisfying Italian food at this cozy and convivial Logan Square Piedmontese restaurant. The pastas are flawless and come stuffed and topped with seasonal accompaniments, while the hearty meat and seafood main courses pair perfectly with the Northern Italian wine list—save room for the classic Italian desserts or order a bittersweet digestif to end the meal.
A 1920s-era marble bar salvaged from a Milwaukee drugstore anchors this darling dining room in Humboldt Park, where the young and young at heart flock for old-fashioned sodas and malts. No mere one-note, the shop also serves an all-day breakfast menu, warm and cold sandwiches, and tempting pastries.
Indian flavors drive the menu at this merry all-day spot on the northern fringes of Logan Square, but this isn’t your grandma’s tikka masala (even though that might be her calico upholstery in the quirky industrial-meets-cottagecore dining room). Instead, Zeeshan Shah and Yoshi Yamada take a witty approach to familiar dishes, sealing butter chicken into calzones and dressing French toast in halvah and gulab jamun syrup.
