S.L. Wisenberg's The Adventures of Cancer Bitch came out this month in paperback from Tortoise Books to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the original release. Her hilarious tackling of serious subjects brings levity to her writing and engrains her readers even deeper into her true-to-life tales. Wisenberg is the editor of Another Chicago Magazine and acclaimed "a Chicago literary icon" by Hypertext Magazine, and I had to know where she liked to eat. For all that writing, one needs sustenance. Wisenberg let me in on her love for Italian, hatred for eggs, adoring a cappuccino so much she got married there, and how a mooch is always frowned upon.
It's first thing in the morning, coffee or tea? And who does your favorite brew?
Cappuccino in the morning if I go out, decaf-banana-soy milk-hazelnut smoothie if I stay in. The best textured cappuccino foam in town is at Intelligentsia Coffeebar, but if I don't feel like walking for 20 minutes or so to Broadway, I'll go to Ritual Coffeehouse on Irving Park. There's no awning, and more than once I've passed by it and have to turn around. It has wooden tables, vinyl on the sound system, and a calm vibe. Another favorite place within a mile is Osmium Coffee Bar on Belmont. It's decorated like a high school boy's dream of a bedroom--murals of surreal machines. The baristas never rush you when they're taking your order. Nice outside space in back.
For the most important meal of the day aka breakfast, where do you go and what do you order?
If I were going out, I'd walk to the Bourgeois Pig Cafe by DePaul and maybe get a blueberry scone and decaf cappuccino. If they let me order lunch at breakfast time, as they have in the past, I'd get an East of Eden sandwich, which has hummus and olives. I don't like most egg dishes, and I'm happy to eat lunch and dinner food for breakfast. In Cancer Bitch, I have an entry entitled "Happy," about going to the Pig about two weeks after my mastectomy. On that day, I took a blueberry buttermilk scone upstairs to eat as I graded papers. It was the same room in which we got married in 2004. It was just my husband and me and our mothers, both widows, and the rabbi. The owner let us use it for free because I promised it wouldn't take longer than 15 minutes. I brought him some of our flowers later. People look at photos from our wedding and think we were in the rabbi's study. I wrote the book in a lot of different coffeehouses. I list them in the acknowledgments: Emerald City Coffee by the Sheridan L (RIP), Cafe Avanti (RIP) on Southport, the Pig, Letizia's Natural Bakery on Division, Dollop on Clarendon, Osmium and Kopi Cafe in Andersonville.
Are you a grab-and-go lunch eater or a slow sit-down type? What's your place and order?
If I'm not eating lunch at home, I would go to the Chicago Diner, one of the few businesses that's still around from when I first moved to Lakeview, in the late 1980s. I'd get quinoa chili and jalapeno corn fritters. Maybe a small salad. This summer I was taking exercise classes on Diversey, and I wandered into Strapoli Pizzeria and All-Day Cafe, relocated from Venezuela, where the family had a restaurant for 40 years. When I was there, the son was in front taking orders and the mother was in the kitchen. The pizza is Neapolitan, with a very thin crust with chewy edges. It's made to order. You can stay there all day. They didn't have decaf and sent me down the street to get some and welcomed me to drink it there. My husband was impressed with the leftovers and we ordered a few pizzas when our book group met at our house and we didn't feel like cooking. Everyone loved them. If I'm downtown, I really like going to the Goddess and the Baker on Wabash. I like the avocado toast, which doesn't, thank goodness, come with a gooey egg on top. They often have good vegetarian soup. It's next to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the clientele seems to be a mix of students and tourists.
Afternoon pick me up? Snack? Caffeine or happy hour? Where is your favorite spot to jump start the evening?
For an afternoon meeting, I'd go to Kopi and get miso soup, or else one of the baked goods on display. Iced decaf cap. I like sitting on the floor at a low table by the window. The back patios is pleasant in the summer. It's either a good thing or a bad thing that they don't have wifi. It's not so great for a business meeting. I like browsing their store in back, where they have clothes and jewelry. After the launch of my first book, The Sweetheart Is In, at Women & Children First Bookstore, I had a reception at Kopi just up the street. It was very nice though there were moochers.
Dinner time, what place or meal brings your day to a close the right way?
Our go-to place in the neighborhood for a nice dinner is Coda di Volpe (tail of the fox, a variety of white grape) on Southport. It was cute when Foxtrot was across the street, so there was a corner of foxes. I would get focaccia, which is better than any other focaccia I've had anywhere, including Italy. It's very light and comes with truffled ricotta, which is surprisingly good on it. You get a sharp knife to cut through the browned top. Last time I was there, we got the focaccia, my husband and I each had our own chopped Italian salad, and we split the casarecce with walnut pesto and squash blossoms. Their pizza is fantastic, too. Also Neapolitan. And we drink prosecco. In summer it's great to sit on the sidewalk. We have a foodie friend from Philadelphia we've taken there twice, and it more than passes muster with her.
S.L. Wisenberg's books and other published writing can be found on her website, SLWisenberg.com. To purchase a copy of her recent paperback release, The Adventures of Cancer Bitch, visit tortoisebooks.com.
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