The Southern Cafe (St. Charles)
1590 E. Main StreetJ and I don’t get a lot of times to ourselves. Our lives pretty much running from ice rink to ice rink right now and all of our vacation time goes to traveling for competitions.
A co-worker of mine got married this past weekend in St. Charles, IL. We were invited to the wedding and we decided to go as it would be something good for just the two of us.
The reception was the Hotel Baker in downtown St. Charles. The price of a night at that boutique hotel was well out of our price range so we stayed at the Quality Inn a mile or so down the road.
We wanted to get up Sunday and morning and get back on the road home. With the time change, it made it about a four drive.
But first, we needed breakfast.
Right across the street from our hotel was The Southern Cafe. This kind of upscale brunch spot is in a shopping plaza on the corner of East Main Street and Tyler Road. There was clearly some kind of major overhaul to this plaza in 2020. In a previous life, this space was a Geno’s East and it looked nothing like The Southern Cafe does today.
We headed over to the restaurant just before 9:00 AM. When you walk in, there is a coffee bar right up front. You can come in and just get coffee without having to sit down and eat breakfast. This also where the host stand is. We were greeted right away then shown to a table in the main dining room.
The layout and decor of The Southern Cafe is really unique. It’s actually a two level restaurant with balcony type seating surrounding the main dining area. The color scheme is white with black accents. Wood floors make that white really pop. The furniture is all heavy wood tables and chairs. There is a very upscale feel to this shopping center brunch spot.
I started with a Pepsi while we looked over the menus but J went with a fancy coffee. I think it was an Almond Joy flavored drink but I don’t remember. I don’t drink coffee so I didn’t try it. Getting the fancy coffee here stopped us from having to make another stop at the nearby Dunkin’ before we headed for home.
I had a really hard time deciding what to order. The Southern Cafe’s specialties are…well, Southern food. Biscuits, chicken, waffles. There’s so much to choose from and everything on the menu sounded amazing.
I ordered the Dirty Bird Benny. This smashed potatoes, which I actually asked if I could swap those out for hash browns, topped with home made drop biscuits, a southern fried chicken breast, poached eggs, a Cajun cream sauce, and scallions. I’m not a big mashed potatoes fan but this benedict sounded so good so I’m glad they let me change the potatoes. The biscuits were the absolute star of this meal. They have a menu item where you can just order a basket of biscuits and I wish we had done so. These things were amazing. The chicken was also the kind of fried chicken you’d expect from a place that specializes in southern delicacy’s. This is easily one of the best benedicts I’ve ever had and it was really the drop biscuits that make it so special.
J ordered the Waffle Combo which comes with a Belgium waffle, two eggs, and bacon. She also added on an order of has browns plus fresh strawberries and blueberries to her waffle. The waffle was a big, fluffy, delicious Belgium waffle that is dusted with powdered sugar. She got the eggs scrambled but I don’t think she ever touched them because she had so much food in front of her. The bacon was nice and crispy. Just the way she likes it.
She knew she was in for a really tasty waffle when our waiter set down a bottle of syrup on the table. She picked up to move it and noticed immediately that it was really warm. They keep the syrup warm so it flows out easily. There’s even a top like you put in liquor bottles to control the flow. It’s just those kind of little things that make such a huge difference.
The hash browns were on a separate plate and came out with a really crispy top layer and a cooked through but still soft and pillowy underneath. She ate most of the plate and ended up taking part of the waffle and part of the hash browns home for L who polished off the waffle as soon as she got in the car with us back in Kalamazoo.
Our total for breakfast was right around $50 before the tip. It’s not a cheap breakfast but it is really good.
We totally skipped hotel breakfast to go across the street and get one of the best breakfasts we have had in quite a while. The Southern Cafe has two locations in the Northwest Suburbs. There’s this one in St. Charles and one about a half hour to the north east in Roselle. This isn’t an area of Chicago we go to very often but The Southern Cafe is a breakfast spot that is absolutely worth going a little out of your way to find.
SW Michigan Dining 