Blu Boy

Blu Boy Chocolate Cafe and Cakery popped up a year or so ago right downtown, next to the Buskirk-Chumley Theater. It's a cute little shop with friendly employees and delicious desserts. The location is really great, right in the middle of downtown. Perfect for an after dinner treat on the weekend or a sugary snack during the day.

Blu Boy is one of the few places in Bloomington to find cupcakes. They use a very rich, creamy buttercream which, while delicious, can get a little overwhelming. In the past they swirled the buttercream super-high, but have recently downsized, in my opinion, to a more manageable and proportional amount of frosting. See these cupcakes; Blueberry vs Cinnamon Hazelnut Chocolate. My favorite cupcake ever at Blu Boy was the Banana Chocolate. The cake was a light, moist white cake flavored with banana. And the addition of shaved chocolate to the buttercream was melt-in-your-mouth amazing. I also recently had a Cinnamon Hazelnut Chocolate that was fabulous. I've had a few underwhelming cupcakes at Blu Boy, with dry, crumbly cake, but overall they've been quite good. The flavors rotate so you never know exactly what will be available, usually there are 2-3 options.

Sweet Grass

Sweet Grass is a brand new Bloomington restaurant with a focus on Southern, Carolina cuisine. I tried it out last Wednesday evening with my friends Chris and Katy. The restaurant wasn't packed by any means, but it seemed like a nice crowd for the middle of the week. The waitstaff were very friendly and attentive. Although our waiter was a little slow to bring the check (he was busy closing up the outside dining area) he made up for it by splitting the check with no problem.

Chicago : Topo Gigio

My family took a long weekend vacay to Chicago recently and ate some delicious food. On Sunday we had tickets for the Second City Etc show "Not Working" (hilarious!) and decided to eat nearby before the show. I yelped a few restaurants in the Old Town area before we left but we really picked Topo Gigio because of the lovely patio. It was an excellent choice, the food was fantastic!

Shanti

There are now three Indian Restaurants in Bloomington, Bombay House, Taste of India, and Shanti. I've only tried the lunch buffet at Taste of India once so I'm not quite ready to give it a thumbs up yet. But if I had to pick a winner between Shanti and Bombay House, Shanti would come out on top. Christine would argue the opposite I think, she lurves Bombay House. At dinner time both restaurants are a bit more expensive than other ethnic restaurants in Bloomington. Entrees in the $9.99 to $14.99 range. Shanti wins at lunch though with cheap and filling lunch specials while Bombay House has a, ridiculously expensive, lunch buffet.

Chicago : More Cupcakes Redux

Last October I blogged about Chicago's More Cupcakes, and how I wasn't super impressed. Well, my friend Mariann got me a gift card to More for Christmas, so we decided to give it another go. And I'm glad we did! Not only was I much happier with the cupcakes we tasted this time, but the employees at the storefront seemed a lot friendlier (less pretentious!). The shop's owner, Patty Rothman, was there giving out samples and talking about all the daily flavors. She was super nice, enthusiastic and definitely made the experience that much better.

Chicago : Hot Doug's

I've been trying to get to Hot Doug's (The Sausage Superstore and Encased Meat Emporium) since last summer! I saw some special about hot dogs on the Travel Channel featuring the restaurant and was like 'Mariann, we must go!' But then we didn't and she went without me then bragged about how awesome it was. Well the stars finally aligned last Friday and it was awesome. My friends Katy, Ella, Ginny and I waited in line for over an hour and a half for our sausages but it was definitely worth it!

The Naughty Dog

A brand new hot dog restaurant just opened up in Bloomington called the Naughty Dog. Pretty cute name I think, and the food was pretty good too! Extra awesome were the coupons distributed with the weekly grocery circulars. Apparently there are also coupons in the local newspaper as well. An important thing to note is that The Naughty Dog is cash only (*** Anon commenter just reported that they are now accepting credit cards, but I have not confirmed***)! We popped in then right back out to make an atm run.