Southport Grocery & Cafe

What a bummer. We waited a while which was fine. The service was awful from the clueless hostess to the super rude waiter who seemed to want to be anywhere else but there. He actually hit me in the face when grabbing a menu from the neighboring table and didn’t acknowledge the fact that he almost gave me a black eye.
I ordered eggs over medium, sausage and bacon. The sausage was practically raw, but I didn’t complain. The bacon was pretty underwhelming, almost as if it was cooked then reheated a few hours later. It was very strange!
My breakfast date was very excited to try this place and equally underwhelmed with our experience. From the reviews it sounds like other’s have had entirely different experiences, so maybe we wandered in on an off day. Too bad.

Small space, usually a long wait if you go on the weekend after 10am. Before then you are okay. The food is AWESOME, but sometimes the service is rude, not sure why.
They have a cupcake pancake. Pancakes made with cupcake batter. Unbelievable.

This place is phenomenal. The owner is great. Food is top notch. I highly recommend this as a «must stop here» destination.

Considering the extremely long wait for a table, I had high expectations. The space itself was cramped and loud. They were sold out of many of the baked goods which was pretty disappointing. Service was slow and not overly good. My food was okay – I don’t even remember what I ordered, but I do remember thinking it was a little pricey. Overall is was a pretty blah experience. Probably would save my time and go somewhere faster and cheaper.

I just dined at Southport Grocery today for breakfast and I give this place a solid 3.5 stars.
Food
* Ham & Grits — was delicious indeed. The ham was soaked in the maple syrup type substance that not only smelled amazing, but tasted amazing as well. The grits were so so and didn’t really add to the dish. 4 stars
* Hash — my dining companion added bacon to this dish and said it was very good. 4 stars
* Bread Pudding Pancake — this was sadly disappointing. The pancake was bland, but thankfully the vanilla anglaise gave it some flavor. 2 stars
Drink
* Hot Chocolate — was pretty much all foam and little liquid go actually drink. The cube shape marshmallow was good though. 2 stars
Seating
* I wasn’t a huge fan of the seating situation here. The tables are so close together you can hear every word the people next to you are saying.

This little spot is so consistently phenomenal. Clark and I ordered carry out this time around and picked up our breakfast sandwiches on our way to watch the Browns finish out their (heartbreaking) season. We couldn’t wait the hour+ wait to sit, but we were dying for those homemade English muffins and sausage.
Clark picked up the food while I grabbed coffee down the street and we snacked on our breakfast inside the Southport Brown Line stop. They didn’t include any utensils or napkins, which we seriously needed (the egg is a perfect medium fried egg, so it’s still runny, but not overwhelming), so that proved a bit of a challenge. I think we were both so hungry and excited to be eating the food that we didn’t care all too much. (I even stuck my bare finger in the red potato mash for a little taste because I just had to.) Even the cheese stayed melty on the sandwich despite Clark’s walk from SPG to the Brown Line! I was delighted.
Would you believe the adult pop tart was easier to eat than the breakfast sandwich? I think it was my favorite one too… blueberries, this time of year.
I love that SPG continues to provide such fond, funny memories with their delicious and tasty and perfect and yummy and incredible food.

Had been on my must go chicago brunch list for awhile now given high Unilocal reviews, and the fact that i’ve seen it on blog lists. Sad to say that i found the food overrated, and there was not one item that we ordered that i found worth coming back for. On the plus side, the service was very good. The waitress was friendly and helpful.
We ordered:
baked french toast — was not what i expected when this came out in a ramekin instead of slabs of toast slices, but that’s my fault. This is essentially a bread pudding, not french toast as i was imagining. It was alright, but I wish the cheddar flavor and come through more.
crab omelet — i love cheese, but this was too much goat cheese! took over the dish and couldn’t taste anything else.
savory pull apart — was surprisingly not savory. almost tasted like a pre-​frozen dish that was heated right before serving.
coffee — I don’t know if there was something wrong with the batch, but it was the worst coffee I have ever had, and i’m not bougie with my coffee (i’m fine with diner’s, gas stations, etc.). We sent it back once and the next cup tasted the same. The cashier was nice and took the coffee off of our bill.
i’d be willing to give OTHER items a try if someone else in a group really wanted to try this place, but wouldn’t opt to go to Southport Grocery myself again.

Overrated & cramped are the words I would choose for the experience
The hyped up bread pudding pancake was a FAIL. Completely undercooked. Its one thing to have a batter-​ish taste and flavor to your pancake but to chew through uncooked batter ?
All we got is a «that’s how it is supposed to be»

Every time I stay in Chicago, my best girlfriend Steph M. never disappoints when it comes to taking me out to good eats! She brought me here on my last day in town for an awesome breakfast. We sat down at one of the tables, half of the restaurant is a grocery store with a counter filled with pastry and bread. The menu was simple but had fun items to choose from like cupcake pancakes, or a seasonal hash. Steph went with that breakfast sandwich which had a lot of sausage on it, and I had a hash that was a special. We each were overzealous about the biscuits and jam, and ordered a few. Needless to say, we were stuffed and instantly regretting the amount of carbs we had between us. There was a really yummy jam that paired with those biscuits and I can’t remember the name! There is no price on memories such as this and I would do it all over again. I do think this place is better for smaller groups of 2 since its more of an intimate, cozy setting. I would come back here for another girl brunch next time!

Southport G&C is a cute, hip spot and my first dining experience on my virgin trip to ChiTown. When you walk in, there are a few baking racks full of fun goodies including popcorn, candies, spices, etc. There is also a small baked goods window. The cruffin had me at hello. We sat inside and were greeted by a super friendly man. I ordered the Southport Cuban, and others at the table ordered the hash and chicken salad. I’ll have to say, mine was my favorite (the best). The Cuban wasn’t your typical pork on pork action, but layered with brisket and ham and an in-​house creamy dijonaise. Besides the meat being to die for, there were also a variety of pickled veggies and what seemed to be spring mix in the sandwich. I loved it. I had the lemon broccoli salad as a side, and that was OK. I feel like I should have gone all the way and just ordered chips along with my hefty sandwich, but a lady has to watch her figure… Ha!
Forgot to add, we did order a cruffin to start with. And it was everything I could imagine from a croissant muffin. Buttery, flaky, and soft inside with a light sweetness of preserves strewn in the mix.
I’m glad this was my first stop because it’s given me a great first impression of Chicago!

Brunch here was kind of flat. Whomp whomp… especially after a 30 minute wait.
The highlight: that Metropolis iced coffee served up in a mason jar!
The lowlight: the rest of my meal! I was super excited to try one of the bread pudding pancakes, but it was lackluster. It tasted mildly like cinnamon because it was topped with cinnamon butter, but other than that, it was rather bland. My entrée was called bruschetta, and it just tasted like it was made from several prepackaged ingredients: crostinis + mediocre chicken sausage + chopped tomatoes and basil (ok, I know those didn’t come out of a box). It reminded me a little of cafeteria food. (Ouch, yes…)
P. S.: also took home a red velvet cupcake with goat cheese frosting, but the cake was way crumblier than I prefer. The frosting definitely delivered on the goat cheese!
Note: after finishing your meal, take your number to the counter inside to check out and pay.

This is a cute, trendy little place. Small outside patio and limited, close seating inside. Hubby and I started with the chipotle chicken soup (we were disappointed that it was just a simple vegetable soup) and shared a club sandwich. The sandwich was good and I liked the chipotle mayo (pretty sure that’s what it was…) that they used. It was plenty big to share.
Hubby liked their motto and thought they did it well «Modern, simple, fun»

$ 23 for this slop (2 biscuits and got 1) with gravy & 1 underdone pancake. Should be ashamed of serving this.

Great little place. Not a huge menu but all the food was excellent. The quiche was big for the $ 4 or so and so was the tasting salad.
Their homemade sodas were very nice. Whole place not over priced either which was good. Great service and very friendly.
Recommended although there were a lot of children (2 years and under) in here for some reason.

Delish. Love the whole concept of grocery/​café. We were quoted a 20 minute wait at 10 in the morning on a Saturday, but it was more like a 10 minute wait. They take down your number and text your cell when your table is great.
I had the hash with brisket which was flavorful and delicious— you betcha I finished every piece of brisket. My guy got the bruschetta, and we had a single bread pudding pancake. The bread pudding pancake tasted a bit raw— too mushy and batter-​like in the middle.
Great service though— absolutely loved our server.

Yummy in my tummy. Southport Grocery has the most amazing bread pudding pancakes in the world. I love them. I could devour these things every single day but then I would weigh about 500 pounds and be dead. But seriously, they are so incredibly delicious. They make me very happy.
Aside from those heavenly pancakes however I am only mildly impressed with Southport. Their food is good yes, but it’s not exactly mind blowing like their bread pudding pancakes. Definitely tasty, just not magical and something that I would immediately start telling all my friends about.
So come prepared to be wowed over their bread pudding pancakes and satisfied by everything else that you order!

I got the Our Club for take out (turkey, bacon, avocado, apricot compote on challah). The sandwich very satisfying — a decent size and jam packed with turkey. The mashed potatoes as a side were also a great choice :) Inside they have a lot of different food options for purchase, including dressings, jams, spices, etc. They have very unique products — things you wouldn’t find in a normal grocery store.
This is my second time coming to Southport Grocery and it’s a delicious, quick option if you’re on Southport. I will definitely be back!

Great place for brunch! Went late morning on a Thursday and was seated right away. The waitress was super friendly!
My friend and I ordered the sweet and savory French toast and the Elvis chunk waffle. We also split a single cupcake pancake, which was AMAZING. Highly recommend the cupcake pancakes. Both the main dishes were really good too. The mustard sauce with the French toast and ham is a nice touch. I recommend not putting all of the peanut butter and bananas foster stuff on the waffle, it’s a little overpowering. The waffle by itself is really tasty.
Overall, great food and great service! Will definitely come back again.

We came here on a Sunday for brunch. As expected, the wait was an hour, but it was a pleasant wait because they used an online app to update customers on their position in line and texted when the table is ready. All restaurants should adopt this strategy.
The food was delicious overall. I had the bruschetta while my friends had the bread pudding pancakes and the brisket and gravy dish. All yummy!

Conflicted a bit on this one… can’t believe I haven’t reviewed it! Loooong time customer after living on Southport forever…
The stuffed french toast is usually apple, not the blueberry you may have seem on the tv episode that aired.
Brisket and biscuits leaves much to be desired. I used to love it but the «biscuit» is now this flat, hard thing that is impossible to cut through even soaked in gravy.
I do love the cupcake pancake and the bread pudding one as well, both awesome. I still have love but a few items have changed for me. I wonder if I’d still love the sweet and savory french toast like I used to…

I would love to give this place 3−½ stars, but that’s not an option and so I’ll err on the conservative side. My lunch of a turkey sandwich with side salad was very tasty. Great crunch on the multi-​grain toast, good flavors inside and a nice salad. But it was nothing I couldn’t get in many other places like it in Chicago.
Meanwhile, the raved-​about cupcake didn’t impress me in the slightest. The cake itself was dry and relatively flavorless, and I need the frosting to even enjoy the one bit I took. I did buy, however, some sort of peanut butter cookie sandwich thing (was it a graham cracker cookie with PB filling? It was in August and the memory is hazy) and that was very good.
For me, three stars means nothing bad, but nothing I’m dying to return to. That’s Southport for me.

We came for the bread pudding pancakes. True to their name, these cakes were gooey — a cross between a barely-​cooked pancake and a center slice of bread pudding. Topped with a mound of cinnamon-​sugar butter and served with a side of vanilla anglaise, a single could satisfy even a hearty appetite.
As delicious as the pancakes are, our hearts (and stomachs) belong to the shareable plates. A sizable square of veggie quiche toes the line between eggy custard and fluffy omelet — the way a quiche should be. A generous helping of spinach filled ours, and handfuls of melted cheese topped it. Then there was the pop tart. To be clear, the café’s pop tart is a loose interpretation at best. A griddled and not-​too-​sweet bready wrap houses homemade preserves, mascarpone and vanilla walnuts. Chewy, melty and crunchy. Knife and fork necessary.