One of the things I love about the Chicago restaurant scene is the proliferation of all day breakfast places . When I lived there, I thought this was how every city was organized because doesn’t every neighborhood need a breakfast joint that serves eggs and pancakes all day? I would argue, yes. Of course they do. But apparently not everyone agrees with me and the closer you get to a downtown area in certain cities, the more scarce breakfast places become (Pittsburgh, I’m looking at you. Please open a decent diner downtown and don’t make me go back to Cherries Diner with the crabby waitresses and terrible coffee in styrofoam cups, although I do enjoy the window

*end parentheses*

That said, Meli’s is a nice breakfast place in the Greektown neighborhood of Chicago.

When I see that a place is a cafe, I usually think of great coffee and pastries and bad egg sandwiches cooked in a microwave. But Meli’s is a restaurant with a giant menu and a vast selection of options, like this scramble of bacon, kale and goat cheese.

They also have a juice bar, so I got juice. How about that?

Green, clearly: wheatgrass, pineapple, something something? Don’t clearly remember. And then I let it sit long enough to separate the grassy part from the juicy part. It was still pretty good…

And there you are, Meli’s Cafe: Breakfast near downtown Chicago. Don’t cross town to get here but if you’re here, stop in.