Andersonville Dessert Crawl | chicago foodie girl

9.24.2012

Andersonville Dessert Crawl


There are so many things I love about Andersonville: the adorable shops, the fabulous restaurants, the blend of the old Swedish community with the new, and of course, the fantastic festivals. While Midsommarfest is definitely one of those not-to-be-missed summer staples and the Dinner Crawl will leave you stuffed with all sorts of deliciousness, I think my favorite festival of them all is the annual Dessert Crawl. It takes place late September/early October and always seems to happen on one of those absolutely perfect autumn days. There's really nothing like eating yourself into a sugar coma with friends while strolling through Andersonville on a lovely fall day. :-)

The seventh annual Dessert Crawl took place yesterday and as usual, it did not disappoint. They changed things up a bit this year by offering a choice of three routes rather than the normal two - while it made the decision of which route to take even harder than usual, ultimately it turned out to be a good move as it thinned the crowds out a bit. After much ooohing, ahhhing, and deliberation, Diana and I finally chose the Ice Cream route, as Diana was fixated on the Vanilla Panna Cotta and I couldn't get the idea of chocolate Kahlua soup out of my mind. We were only a stop or two into it when we both declared that we had made a brilliant decision - this was definitely the best Dessert Crawl yet!

Stop #1: Choice of gelato & choice of sauce from Grown Up Kid Stuff and bacon bourbon baklava at Urban Orchard

I chose the pumpkin spice gelato drizzled with the GUKS Original Chocolate sauce. Holy deliciousness! The gelato was spicy and paired perfectly with the sweet chocolate. The bacon bourbon baklava was even better than the awesome baklava I sampled at Baconfest earlier this year (and that's saying a lot because those Baconfest desserts were all incredible!).

A quick break from the indulging to visit one of my favorite parts of the neighborhood: the Swedish Horse! :-)

Stop #2: Chilled chocolate soup with Kahlua from My Private Chef
This was the dessert I was looking forward to the most and the one that ultimately was my favorite of the entire crawl. It did not disappoint in any way - in fact, it was even better than I had imagined, thanks to the addition of the little hazelnut cookie. I could have inhaled a vat of this amazing soup if only I hadn't needed to leave room for seven more desserts! :-)

Stop #3: Brownie bar at Ranalli's
The brownies were dense and fudgy (exactly the way I like them!). I topped mine off with raspberry sauce, whipped cream, and white chocolate shavings.

Stop #4: Pumpkin bread & coffee at Starbucks
It wasn't anything new/out of the ordinary (I already indulge in it a bit too regularly), but you really cannot go wrong with pumpkin bread! 

Stop #5: Pumpkin gingersnap ice cream & a frozen brownie at George's Ice Cream and Sweets
This was my second favorite stop - the soup beat it out just by a *tiny* bit. The ice cream tasted like pure pumpkin and the addition of the gingersnap/chocolate combo was brilliant. I loved every bite of this and will definitely stop by again!

Another break from the sugar: a visit to the always adorable Puppet Bike!

Stop #6: Panna Cotta shooters with strawberry lime compote & spiked apple cider at Vincent
After five previous stops, it was nice to encounter these light, refreshing shooters. The Panna Cotta was perfect (it has such a gross consistency when it's too liquidy). I also loved that they were little shooters - so much fun!

Stop #7: Fried Twinkies at Hamburger Mary's
It wasn't terrible, but... well, it was a deep-fried dessert and as I mentioned earlier this year, I am just not a fan. As with my previous experience, I found that the high grease factor overpowered the flavor of the Twinkie.

Stop #8: Cannoli at Johnny Brown Bag
While the cannoli wasn't anything special (it was good, but it was just a standard cannoli), I was super excited to stop by JBB because it just opened & I wanted to see what it was all about. It smelled *amazing* in there - I must stop by soon to try one of their paninis!

Stop #9: Brownie bite, cookie bite, and chocolate bonbon at JB's Deli
JB's is a cute little old-fashioned deli/pharmacy with delicious pastrami sandwiches and random sweets (the bonbons are the best!). It was the perfect place to end the crawl - we collapsed into a booth, nibbled on the last treat of the day, and tried not to talk about how many calories we just inhaled. :-P

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5 comments

  1. OMG. That looks like SO much fun! I want to do something like that, but we never have fun food festivals here. :(

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  2. I sat here and cried! I so want to go to that.

    It is all mazingly wonderful. And you even got to horse around a bit, so to speak.

    Now, I'm going to bed hungry! Sigh!

    ReplyDelete

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