Campus Chronicle

"Everything is made from scratch," said Laurene Hynson, owner of Sweet Maple Café on Taylor Street. It's not southern food, Hynson said, but the menu includes southern-inspired favorites like grits and homemade biscuits for breakfast or a fried chicken sandwich and homemade potato chips for lunch.

Tired of huge family style Greek restaurants on Halsted Street? You know the type—as big as Blockbuster, serving busloads of customers with standard Greek fare. Instead there is Artopolis, an exciting new dining experience on Halsted. In Greek, "Arto" means bread and "polis" means a gathering place, like the ancient agora in Athens.

Established in 1996, Bacci Pizzeria is family owned and operated by the DiDiana Family. The original Bacci Pizzeria is located in the heart of Chicago's Little Italy on Taylor Street. Bacci Pizzeria offers homestyle cooking at reasonable prices. The pizza dough and pizza sauce are made fresh daily with only the finest ingredients, and of course, their very own secret recipes.

Bacino's on Clinton is located in the west loop, only blocks from UIC's east campus. Known for its Spinach Heart Healthy Pizza, Bacino's on Clinton serves stuffed and thin pizzas, calzones, pastas, panini sandwiches, appetizers, delicious desserts & cookies.

Nestled inside an office building off of busy Halsted St. lies the Barrel Café. Featuring an impressive yet modestly priced menu, homestyle cooked everyday lunch specials, a full bar, and live entertainment on weekends, there's more here than meets the eye.

Just a short walk west of the UIC library, you can find some of the best burgers and hot dogs the city has to offer. The food is very inexpensive (two hot dogs with fries for next to nothing!), and is cooked fresh right there as you wait. Carm's also serves all types of delicious submarine sandwiches from small to three footers.

Once upon a time around Polk and Laflin Streets, a local Italian woman made some very popular submarine sandwiches. Now, a generation later, her daughter Michelle continues the family tradition on Taylor Street. The good news is that there is even more variety with tuna, corned beef, salami, chicken salad and other tasty sandwich combos.

Damenzo's on Taylor Street is a great place for quality Italian food at inexpensive prices. This place sells a ton of pizza (literally) every day. But that's not all they serve. There is a variety of budget priced entrees such as ravioli, BBQ Ribs, or eggplant parmesan to fill you up.

Flat Top Grill's "create-your-own stir-fry adventure" is a great concept and an experience for the taste buds, plus the unique "interactive-dining" leads to the overall fun of this place. Also, you're invited to make an unlimited number of stir-fry creations for one low price.

So you say you like Thai food eh? Well Hi Ricky has that and much more. Everything from the before mentioned Thai, to the rarer cuisine of Indonesian, Malaysian, Vietnamese, Singaporean and even a few Chinese influences can be found on the Hi Ricky menu. Their menu has a wide variety of items to choose from.

Located on Taylor in Little Italy sits the kick-ass coffee house known as Jamoch's Caffe. During the week the cafe is packed with students, police and locals. It's a great place to study or chat with friends. For breakfast the espresso eggs are a delicious choice served on a croissant, bagel, or english muffin.

Jimmy John's is good stuff. By the owner's admission, the menu is not extensive, but the food is truly top-notch. Jimmy John's bakes its own bread and, if it sits longer than four hours, they sell it as day-old. All of the cold-cuts and vegetables are of the best quality and not expensive.

LePeep Grill located at 1000 W. Washington Blvd. Is the West Loop's best-kept secret for breakfast and lunch. Opened in January of 1999, this west loop location boosts a kaleidoscope of creative and wholesome cooking to satisfy even the fussiest of people.

This restaurant has preserved more of the Westside's ethnic flavor than the Jane Addams Hull House. For more than 50 years, Manny's has served hundreds of thousands of folks who are loyal to hearty ethnic cooking. With the demolition of Maxwell Street, this ethnic eatery is one of the last remnants of immigrant cuisine.

Pepe's Mexican Restaurant has been around for over 27 years, a veteran compared to some of the other Taylor Street restaurants. That tells you how pleased the UIC community is with the excellent food that Pepe's has been serving. Pepe's menu features typical Mexican fare: tacos, burritos, tostadas and nachos, but extra care and attention is given to the food preparation so diners don't feel as if they are eating at a restaurant chain.

istrict, Pizza Villa offers a menu that is easy on the wallet. For a quick, low-priced lunch, try the "giant slice" of pizza. This is a huge slab that's bigger than a snow shovel. The slice and drink is just a little over three bucks. For the bigger appetite there are sandwiches of all kinds—-meatball, turkey, eggplant and more.

Pompei is a Little Italy success story. In 1909, Luigi Davino started a bakery on Loomis St near Our Lady of Pompeii Church. Many years later, his family moved the bakery to Taylor St. near Laflin where countless UIC students continued to enjoy Pompei's diverse menu.

Rick's Bar and Café, a staple in the university community for over 15 years, located on the corner of Taylor and Western, is a place where everyone feels like a regular. The atmosphere is friendly and fun and there's always something going on. People seem to make friends easily at Rick's.

One of those "where-everybody-knows-each-other's-name type of bar. This little bit of Ireland has been lost on Western Avenue since 1936. Go find it. Actually, it has been found by folks for 50 years, and plenty o' green beer has run through its taps along with Michael O' Shea's and the rest of the Parnell brews.

A relative new comer on the fringes of the university community. Sin Fronteras serves up some of the finest Asian and Mexican cuisine. A beautiful interior, courteous fast service and of course there fantastic food makes Sin Fronteras a must. Sin Fronteras is open seven days a week, and does offer a 10 percent discount with UIC I.

A neighborhood original going back around 50 years, the Patio is still a favorite among students, police & truck drivers. The Patio is a great place to pick-up food when you're on the run. Italian beef and sausage sandwiches are their specialties. But their Polish sausage, combos, pizza puffs, and hot dogs are pretty darn good too.

Located in the West Loop area at the corner of Morgan and Washington and just a 10 minute walk from UIC's University Hall, stands Wishbone. With an eclectic menu boasting what they coin as Southern Reconstruction Cooking, every portion is a hearty filler.

There will be no more wobbly tables or horrible lighting in the new coffeehouse on Taylor Street. "I did not feel the lighting in here (before) was good for students to study," former University of Illinois at Chicago student Brian Koh said of his new coffee shop, Café-nated In Little Italy.

"Opa!" Most of us are familiar with this exclamation. Between Madison Street and Van Buren Avenue in Chicago, there is always an "opa" to be heard. This is Chicago's Greektown, where the festivities are as good as the food serves. I have always wanted to check out a restaurant in Greektown, so I took a friend of mine and went.

One of Taylor Street's newest addition is a little treasure named BeviAmo. Located on the corner of Taylor and Loomis, upon entering, the world outside disappears. There aren't enough words to do justice for BeviAmo other than it has to seen firsthand. BeviAmo appeals to all of the favorite senses: it's visually intoxicating, comfortable, inviting and entertaining.

Buckets of Beer on ice, domestic bottled beer, and the huge sandwiches are not the only reason Illinois Bar & Grill should be a must-stop on your list of local drinking establishments. Illinois Bar & Grill has a unique atmosphere, blending modern and antique.