Fraîche (CLOSED)

The Noyes Purple Line stop mostly services Northwestern students, and those local frat boys have been holding out on us with this tiny, blue-toned brunch café. With a seasonal menu featuring dishes like frittatas and gazpacho, the biscuity scones, fist-sized rhubarb cupcakes and electric-yellow lemon bars could alone keep the place in business. Thankfully, the owners dreamed bigger. Not just with the jaw-breaking whoopie pies—vanilla buttercream oozing between chewy, crumbly chocolate cookies—but with a comforting menu built from local ingredients. It’s the little touches—a smear of salty olive tapenade on the caprese sandwich; apple butter sweetening up the carved ham and cheese—that have us considering getting that post-grad degree.