Pulp Kitchen, Oakbrook Terrace

It all starts with an egg at Pulp Kitchen, where the staple forms the foundation for a gourmet brunch menu studded with organic ingredients. Artists within their chosen medium, the chefs fry seven types of benedicts and augment a host of classic bakes and scrambles with sweet-and-savory surprises such as the caramelized-pear, cinnamon, and cream-cheese omelet. The kitchen also dispenses decadent, housemade breads and crepes that are designed as a gateway for a habit-forming praline sauce—their own blueberry compote—or savory truffle butter. To satisfy more wholesome cravings, fresh fruit is pressed until it fills cups with antioxidant-rich juice, and nimble hands strip rich yolks from healthy scrambles and whole-wheat french toast.

Club sandwiches and half-pound grass-fed Angus burgers represent the direction of lunch dishes, most of which can be dipped in bowls of the neighboring diners' daily soup. The dining room channels an airy, Martha Stewart variety of farm chic, with playful sculptures of roosters strutting along taupe walls and tidy white moulding that matches the chairs.