3 Greens Market

Market time! 3 Greens Market is quite possibly the all time BEST mini market/cafeteria in Chicago! It offers the best variety for lunch options to please all palates. Actually as I am saying this I can exclude breakfast too, because ironically enough I came during the breakfast hours.

Obviously, since I was coming for the coffee, also another secret treat, the donuts! 🙂  

Are you intrigued yet? Or have you opened another tab and Googled 3 Greens Market?

Hopefully I haven’t lost you yet, here is what 3 Greens has to offer; a full 18 foot long FRESH cold salad bar, Dillman’s Pastrami sandwiches, Small Cheval, Green Street Smoked Meats, Metropolis coffee bar serving Doughnut Vault donuts.

Okay I think I covered it all! Options are literally endless, if you can’t find something you like on their menu then there is simply something wrong with you. That’s about all there is to it.  

Since I was visiting in the morning I had my eyes on the coffee and donuts, yumminess! My little secret about this place is they serve Doughnut Vault donuts without needed to fight the line, they are literally around the corner and open at 8am instead of 9:30am. (now my secret is out). Though it is not advertised on their site, when I showed up this morning people were sitting on the patio and in the coffeeshop half eating actual breakfast, pancakes, bacon and eggs. I assume this has to be only served in the morning hours and you need to request the menu for that. Still, looked delicious and worth coming back for.  

When you walk in the market is split in half, if you go to the left you’re hitting more of the “lunch” half with the salad bar, deli counter and burger bar. The seating and style for this portion of the restaurant is 60’s diner style, with the checkered floors red rubber seats.

Chicago loves their throwback themes, I have hit a few other coffee shops that pay tribute to a throwback era: Filter Coffee, Wormhole. 

There food all looks delicious, when we were showing up they were just pulling all the fresh veggies and salad toppings out, it was temping. What’s wrong with a salad for breakfast, seems healthy to me, I would never complain as I am a salad junkie!

But not to vier from the mission; coffee and donuts! We stuck to the right half of the restaurant, that is still a throwback to the 60’s with the low plush couches. The colors and all the decoration looked as if you walked into the living room of your typical American home in the 60’s. Paintings on the wall hung in goudy chunk frames, wood panels on some of the walls and the lamp fixtures all just scream trendy 60’s. They even repurposed a ping-pong table to be an actual table you can sit at, seen this done before at Sawada. This has become quite popular as well.

There is also a small mini-golf putting section! How fun is that, perfect way to kill some time while waiting for breakfast or just a way to come kill some time. 

If that or the decorations themselves don’t distract you enough the baked goods leaving up to the counter where you order coffee will, it’s as if everything was super-sized! For a baked good I would not complain about that at all. YUM!

I ordered an americano for the first time! I have been wanting to give it a try since they don’t use milk in the making of this drink. Best comparison to it would be a cortado but instead of steamed milk on top to make it sweet and creamy it’s mixed with a little bit of hot water to help cut the bitter espresso.

Pretty excited to give this drink a try, sometime barista use too much milk in drinks and I feel that truins or overs the espresso up too much, not a fan of that!

This was delicious! Americano’s are a very small drink, so not something you’re able to sip  while reading a book, it would cool off too fast. It was oh so delicious either way, still got some mini latte art in the steamed water mixed with espresso! How stinkin cute is that!!?

We of course ordered or donuts to go as well! Like /I said earlier those are always delicious, I got a coconut old-fashion….. I would eat that every single day till I die. Yup, its that good.

3 Greens Market was the perfect stop this morning, we wandered in at around 9am on a Sunday and it had not become over crowded yet, just a few people sitting in the back working on their laptops and a few families sitting up front and one couple on the patio, no one had started making their way to the lunch half of the restaurant yet. Understandably so, it would be a little early for a burger if you ask me. Others might object……  

There are a few other “lunch” styled markets in Chicago where they try to bring multiple places to one pit-stop, which I think is a really cool idea but certainly have the potential to get really busy. If you’re at all a morning person I highly recommend checking this place out before the lunch gets going, you will be able to come in and actually enjoy the atmosphere. I do want to make it back for lunch and see how that goes, also how could I turn down a salad bar of that proportion; I can’t.