Do you have that place?

If someone were to ask you what your favorite restaurant is...your favorite place to grab a bite for lunch, commune with friends over brunch, or relax and enjoy a delicious hot beverage while you people-watch the yuppies strolling down the street...where would it be?

Well I don't even have to hesitate anymore to answer that. When I am meeting friends in the city, and someone queries where to meet, my reflex, knee-jerk reaction is to blurt out, "Why Julius Meinl of course!" And nine out of ten times, said friends don't even bother to put up an argument, or suggest something else, because really, IS there anywhere else that even compares? A resounding NO I say!

Why would one choose to hang out at such a generic, dime-a-dozen place as a Starbucks or Caribou when one could frequent the most beautiful, unique coffee-house in Chicago - an Austrian-based company with exquisite teas and coffees, delicious Austrian-style foods, lovely ambiance (did I mention they have live classical musicians performing on the weekends?), cozy lighting, walls lined with large windows,

and adorable little Viennese boys perched on various points of the walls?

Oh, did I mention that each table has fresh flowers, all the time, every day, (I'm sold)

and there is an entire WALL of various wonderful teas and coffees (doesn't the guy on the bottom right look like Wilson from House, MD?)

and large silver vats of exquisitely roasted high-end Viennese coffee beans

and an entire case of gorgeous, pastries, each more luscious than the next, pastries that make you forget that you are starving and you came here for lunch...really, you just want to order three pastries and wash them down with a steamy, smooth cup of coffee.

And oh, the coffee! and the tea! Did you know that each hot beverage that is ordered is served on a lovely little silver platter with a paper doile, a little gingersnap cookie, a glass of water (no ice, in the European style), cute little teaspoon (yes even the teaspoons here are cute) and an adorable little tube of sugar?

 Check out the orange mocha latte I ordered:

C'mon folks, does it get more fun than this? I mean really. This is probably the closest I will ever get to Europe.

And when I am there, sipping my hot beverage, chatting with friends and enjoying the ambiance, sometimes I think that just might be ok with me.

Here's to meeting with friends at Julius Meinl - a little bit of Vienna, Austria right here in our own home-town.