Last month, my good friend Peter Sakoufakis, along with his brother Nick Sakoufakis and father Tom Sakoufakis opened up Eggsperience Pancakes & Café in Long Grove. And because I really care about the readers of this column, I felt it was my civic duty to go there with a bunch of girlfriends (including Peter’s wife, Dina and my sister, Julie), taste-test as many menu-items as possible and report back to all of you.

Well, let’s just say my experience at Eggsperience was beyond scrumptious! The first thing I noticed when I walked in Eggsperience was the perfect shade of orange and yellow (my two favorite colors) on the walls. The girls and I loved the bright and open atmosphere, which was enhanced by really stylish light fixtures, fun tiles on the walls and lots of large windows.

While perusing the extensive menu, a few of the gals ordered specialty coffees which came in such a cool-looking mug I almost ordered one, too. And I don’t even like coffee. Then we got down to business. There were six of us so we decided to split six main dishes plus one more for dessert.

Here were our favorites:

1. Eleni’s Egg White Delight (Eggsperience’s most popular dish). Holy cow, this was unbelievably huge, light, fluffy and very tasty. This is a totally healthy meal when one’s not trying six other dishes at the same time.

2. Tommy Boy’s Skillet. The skillet was layered with bacon, sausage, ham, potatoes, cheese and eggs and was definitely not on my Weight Watchers points plan.

3. A loaded hash brown side dish with green peppers, cheese and onions. Yum!

4. Eggsperience Chicken Salad Wrap. We all agreed this was one of the best we’ve ever tasted. Besides the chicken, it included cranberries, golden raisins (which usually scare me, but not so in this dish!) and roasted pecans. It was incredibly delicious and not too mayonaisy.

5. Stuffed Chocolate French Toast. We couldn’t resist this one. It was a perfect end to our very serious taste-test.

After our meal, I spoke with owners Peter and Nick Sakoufakis. “Eggsperience has the spice of The Glen location but it’s more the flavor and layout of the Bannockburn location,” says Nick. “We’re extremely proud to be part of the Long Grove community and we look forward to building a lasting relationship with our new and surrounding communities.”

"As a family, we're thrilled to have opened up another location in a great community!” says Peter. “It's been an exciting experience."

Eggsperience Pancakes & Café is located at 3970 Route 22 in Long Grove and they are open from 6:00 am to 4:00 pm seven days a week. Eggsperience also caters and has a large take-out menu. For more information call 847-550-0771 or go to www.eggsperiencecafe.com. To contact me about an idea for a future column, go to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

© 2007 Susan Dubin, Buffalo Grove, Illinois