No "Yolk-ing" Around

    My most memorable meal occurred on March 16th, roughly around noon. It was at what, to me, is the best restaurant in Chicago simply because of this particular meal, Yolk. More specifically, the one on Michigan Avenue. To start, Yolk’s atmosphere can only be described as a happy place. In fact, that’s similar to the way they portray themselves, as on their website it states “So what makes Yolk so special … it’s the place to see and be seen. It’s an experience. It’s fresh. It’s innovative. It’s sunshine and conversation. Add bright colors, smiling faces, and now you have something special.” Walking into Yolk and having a meal on any day I’m sure would have been amazing, but on March 16th, my meal at Yolk left an everlasting effect on me. 

   

    The context of my meal at Yolk started the day before. After some lengthy conversations, I had convinced my parents to bring a group of friends, Aakash, Brooks, Andy, Ian, and Ivan, up to Chicago for a few days to see the city and go skiing. We left early in the morning on the 15th, and when we got there, we were all convinced that the city might be colder than the Arctic. The winds there didn’t help the already low temperatures, and our plans for seeing the city looked bleak with the bad weather. That day, we trudged through a blizzard for miles, our shoes soaked to our socks and our fingertips colder than ever. We were miserable, to say the least, and after a tough day, we decided we would treat ourselves to a nice brunch the following day.

    The next morning we woke up early, wanting to make the most out of the few days we had in the city. We figured Navy Pier had some nice places to eat, so at 9:00 that morning we started heading over. Around 45 minutes and a mile and a half of walking later, we saw all of Navy Pier closed and under construction. Disappointed and starving, we walked around the city, looking for a place we could just walk into to eat. Soon after our Navy Pier fluke, the wind picked up, and although perhaps not as cold as the day before, we were once again freezing and needed some shelter. We saw Yolk a few blocks away and decided we were going to try and get a table there, and fortunately, we were able to.     

    Walking into Yolk, we all sighed a sense of relief, looking at all the warm colors around us and feeling the warmth that greeted our bodies. Immediately, all of us ordered some variation of cocoa or coffee to warm our bodies up, something we nicknamed “the elixir” because of the seemingly evident healing and strengthening properties it had. Afterward, we all ordered some combination of pancakes, french toast, or crepes. Those main dishes were all served with a side of sausage/bacon, potatoes, and eggs, and while that might seem like a basic meal, there was something different about it compared to every other time I’ve had that meal. My only guess is that it was cooked with immense amounts of love. That, or maybe everything tastes a million times better than it actually was because we were hungrier than we had ever been. The portion sizes they gave us seemed to fulfill our large appetites, and an hour or so later, most of us learned back in our chairs staring at the massive plate we had just emptied (I say most of us because Ivan ordered two meals and at that moment was starting his second one). The consensus from most of us was that it was the best meal we had ever had, simply because in the moments before that meal, we had reached a level of desperation seldom attained. Moreover, going out for a meal with friends always makes it more of an experience, and in a city such as Chicago, that experience is amplified tenfold.