Baladoché

Establishment	Baladoché
Address	2905 North Clark Street Chicago, IL 60657 773-880-5090  1217 W. Devon Ave Chicago, IL 60660 773 761-8810 www.baladoche.com
Type	Tasty Treat Establishment

What could be better on a beautiful summer day than good gelato? How about if that gelato establishment also serves CA Scotch Chick's favorite Tasty Treat of all time, the Belgian Sucre Waffle? 

While strolling to the Duke of Perth, CA Scotch Chick caught the unmistakeable aroma of the caramelized sugar of a sucre waffle. This smell immediately evoked the CA Scotch Couple's fantastic time living in Leuven, Belgium. On their way to work every morning the CA Scotch Couple would pass a little sucre waffle stand and scoop up this amazing confection. She looked around, and sure enough, in the window of a nearby Tasty Treat establishment was a sign for sucre waffles.

A sucre waffle, also known in Belgium as a Liège waffle or a Gaufre, is a much sweeter denser waffle than folks in the US are accustomed to. It has little chunks of sugar inside (called pearl sugar), and it is cooked twice to caramelize the outside sugar. On a cold Belgian day, there was nothing quite like it. On a lovely Chicago day, there was nothing quite like it either.

If CA Scotch Chick had not responded to the enticing odor, she and her buddies would still have discovered Beladoché. It is a bit hard to miss. A very earnest young lady offers free samples from the window, and Baladoché has strategically placed Burma Shave type signs along both sides of Clark Street. Slogans range from "Donuts Meet Your Demise" to "Chocoholics Rejoice! You can now drink and drive." CA Scotch Chick's personal favorite was "Our coffee beans are so fresh, you'll slap them."

The Burma Shave Type Signs

And, not only were the coffee beans fresh, they were Illy coffee beans, some of the best coffee beans in the world. In fact, everything sold at Baladoché comes from Europe. The owner, Terrence Mootoo flies over once a month on buying trips. His whip cream is dutch. His gelato is Italian. His chocolate is Belgian, and his sucre waffles are made with real Belgian pearl sugar. 

The CA Scotch Couple and their buddies actually got to talk with Terrence Mootoo for a fair amount of time. Turns out he is a buddy of Drambuie Girl. They went to law school together – see, one can find a productive use for a law degree. Throughout the conversation, one thing stood out, Mr. Mootoo is passionate about quality Tasty Treats and about his business. 

The Enthusiastic Young Thing Giving Free Samples

The CA Scotch Couple and their buddies sampled the Illy coffee, various versions of the Sucre Waffle (which Baladoché calls Zücker Waffles - with little waffles as the umlaut), and the chocolate gelato (with these ethereal thousand layer wafers). Everything was quite good. 

The straight Sucre Waffle that CA Scotch Chick had was better than the Sucre Waffle with powdered sugar CA Scotch Gent had (the powdered sugar one was a bit dry). Both did not have enough of the little sugar chunks inside. Still, for being 3654.9 nautical miles from Liège, Belgium, Terrence Mootoo's version of the Sucre Waffle was close enough. In addition, while the gelato lacked the whipped consistency of the gelato in Europe and Québec City, its taste was right on. 

Their tummies full, CA Scotch Couple and their friends sincerely wished Terrence Mootoo success in his business and waddled out the door toward Drambuie Girl and the Scotch Colonel's home and more single malt whisky. Baladoché will be a stop on many future trips to Chicago.