Fraiche Bakery

The last few days have been everything spring should have been in Chicago, except it's now July. Yesterday I went on a gorgeous walk through Evanston starting with lunch at Fraiche cafe and bakery on Noyes St, and ending at Regenstein for a practice session.



Fraiche (pronounced "fresh") is a great local cafe and bakery with the most amazing brioche French toast I've ever tasted. It's stuffed with an almond paste concoction and topped with sliced almonds and powdered sugar. Heaven in my mouth. They also have awesome quiche, usually two flavors a day, which rotate. I've never had exactly the same quiche twice. Pictured above is a roasted tomato, chive, and blue cheese quiche with pickled onions (a strange choice). Both breakfast and lunch items are served all day and they brew a mean batch of Metropolis coffee.



We also ordered a mini chocolate cheesecake, which was gone in an instant...



And a "Twix bar." Both were delicious, but the best pastry I've had there was a Horchata cupcake made with real horchata, a Mexican rice milk drink, and a hint of cinnamon. They just redid their menu, making sure to keep the almond french toast, so now I have some new things to try. First on the list is their sweet potato hash with blue cheese.



Our walk then took us past a house on Orrington which lets its super friendly feline roam free. This little (big) guy's name is Sidro and he comes trotting towards us when we approach. His solid gray coat and sea-foam green eyes make an eerie combination but in reality he's clean and friendly and brightens our day.



We took the long way to Regenstein, cutting through Shakespeare Garden.



And there are bunnies EVERYWHERE!



They come in all shapes an sizes, and especially like to frequent the lawn of Regenstein and the vegetable garden on top of Norris.



This little guy probably just ate some leaves from a cucumber plant. Yum.