The smell of coffee hits before anything else. Not fancy coffee. Real coffee. The kind that belongs to a Chicago morning and doesn’t apologize for it.
On the corner of Ravenswood and Balmoral, near Andersonville, Pauline’s carries a very specific kind of Illinois comfort. This is Midwest breakfast doing what it does best.
Coffee arrives hot. Potatoes come browned and tangled with peppers. The menu sticks to familiar classics because that’s the point. What makes the place linger isn’t just what’s on the plate…