Event Recap of Andersonville Dessert Crawl

You know I love food fests right? In all shapes, sizes and forms. I've been to more than one person should in a lifetime (and I won't have it any other way), but last weekend, I went to Chicago's Andersonville Dessert Crawl for the first time. Thanks to the generousity of Foodseum and the Andersonville Chamber of Commerce, I was gifted a pair of passes to check them out.And, oh boy, did I have a blast!

We started at the Swedish American Museum at Clark and Foster and headed north, eating and laughing all the way. An hour and a half later, we had looped back to the museum, with sugar-madness in our eyes. Here is what transpired along the Caramel Apple Route:

We stop first at Candyality and indulged in some chocolate covered turtles. I love pecans and caramel, so this was amazing to me. We next walk down to Andersonville Antiques, ate some cookies baked by Swedish Bakery while browsing the wonderful knicknacks found in the store. You guys, they have amazing, unique rings here for TEN DOLLARS! I'm definitely going back here soon. Also, as a kid, we would always get our birthday cakes from Swedish Bakery. They have this amazing strawberry jam kind of cake that I was hoping would be available, but alas, Swedish Bakery isn't open on Sundays :(

We weren't sad for too long because we then head on town to Vincent and had some coconut custard with brownie brittle. The hot cider was an extra $5 which we opted out of because we had to save room for the next course: Thai Sweet Banana dessert at Noodle Zone. It's a good, but was missing the tapioca balls that I am use to in this meal.

Next, we crossed the street and headed back south. We stopped in Renalli's and were greeted with a cheesecake bar with make-your-own-toppings. Naturally, I went crazy over the toppings, adding chocolate and caramel, and whipped cream, and strawberries and pineapples. It was pretty amazing. Also, at Ranalli's, I discovered that this place does happy hour really well, with decent deals every night. It is now on my list of great places to go with friends!

Afterwards, we went to Potbelly's and were given 3 pieces of straight-from-the oven cookies. I've always loved their cookies, especially when warm and soft and sweet! Then off to a bar we went. At Simon's Tavern, my first thought was "Oh, there's a lot of people here drinking for 2pm on a Sunday." But I guess the bar is that cool. They were totally decked out in the Halloween spirits, with dismembered doll parts strewn all over the walls. Doll eyes watching us as we slurp down the Swedish Rice Pudding made next door at Svea Restaurant.

Though topped with lingonberries, it had a very overbearing corn taste. I quickly finished that and moved on to the next dessert - Coffee Brownie and Coffee Chocolate at La Columbe. I love the addition of coffee to the desserts; it brings a very satisfying crunch to the stuff. And of course, since I was at La Columbe, I had to get a latte on draft. I mean, their coffee on draft is so good, its a crime to walk in there and NOT get one.

We chilled for a bit, then made our way down to Cantina 1910 and had Stuffed Concha. This was the absolute climax of the dessert crawl. It was a crunchy cookie pastry filled with airy whipped flan that was oh-so-smooth. I wanted a dozen of it to bring home.

We walked further down to a culinary store and had some strawberry shortcake at Wooden Spoon. You guys, this store was SOOO CUTE! It was like a small dollhouse. And they have a grill in the back and a party house in the way back and an amazing garden. I wanted to stay here forever, but we had to finish up at Giordano's, where we had super delicious cannolis. I love cannolis and these were some of the best ones I've ever had. What a way to end the dessert crawl! I will be sure to go again next year!