Little Branch Cafe Adds a Dinner Menu, We Gasp with Pleasure

By Anthony Todd in Food on Mar 31, 2010 3:20PM

We've been in love with Little Branch Cafe since our first visit last year. Their excellent location, cozy atmosphere and tasty menu had us returning again and again, to the point where we'd tried most everything on the menu! When we heard that the cafe was expanding into the dinner hour, we knew we had to try it.

We'd been to Little Branch to try some of their cocktails, but the menu has been expanded and enhanced. We loved the Rainy Manhattan, a combination of bourbon, vermouth and apfelkorn that had us begging for the recipe. Best of all, their cocktail prices are quite good - for a well-crafted cocktail, we paid $8.

On to food! The menu consists mainly of comfortable food, well-executed. The open-faced beef sandwich took us back to our childhood, though our mother never made truffle mashed potatoes. The Croque Madam Crepe was an interesting variation on the classic sandwich, with a great savory bite. Their take on Chicken and Waffles, a cornflake-crusted chicken breast and a pumpkin sage waffle served with bourbon berry syrup, is calling out to us. We won't be able to resist for long.

For dessert, we stuck to the basics - a fresh-from-the-oven chocolate chip cookie, covered in excellent vanilla gelato. Does it get any better?

Little Branch Cafe is located at 1251 S Prairie Ave.