A tree-shaded street in Evanston with brick apartment buildings. Photo: Eric Fredericks from Rancho Cordova, CA, United States / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
Eater Chicago published a list this week of the most iconic sandwiches in the Chicago area, and an Evanston breakfast counter made the cut. Sarkis Cafe, at 2632 Gross Point Road, was named for the Loretta, its best-known order.
Eater organized the list so that there was a sandwich for every occasion and appetite. The Loretta filled the breakfast slot, which suits a place that has been serving the morning crowd for decades.
What goes into a Loretta
According to ABC7 Chicago, the sandwich is built on a toasted French roll with bacon, white cheese, onion, green pepper, tomato, mayonnaise and seasoning, finished with melted cheese on top. It is named after one of the cafe’s original customers. Other house sandwiches follow the same plan, including Jeff’s Special, which pairs two cheeses with a fried egg and bacon.
A family-run counter since 1965
The cafe dates to 1965. Its founder, Sarkis, came from Armenia and was known for his cooking and his big personality. In 2000 Jeff Cramin bought the business from him. Cramin died suddenly after about a year and a half, and his wife, Marla, took over. She kept it going with her children and longtime employees, and the cafe stayed in the family.
In a part of Evanston dominated by residential blocks and small commercial strips, Sarkis is the kind of place regulars return to for the same sandwich they ordered years ago.
A mention from a citywide food site puts a modest Evanston cafe in the same conversation as Chicago’s better-known sandwich shops. The Loretta’s reputation, though, was built one breakfast at a time on Gross Point Road.
An order people know by name
A sandwich earns the label iconic less through novelty than through repetition. The Loretta is plain in concept, built from ingredients any short-order cook would recognize, and it has become the item people mention first when they talk about the cafe.
The cafe’s history supports that. It has changed hands only once, from its founder to the Cramin family in 2000, and the family kept the place running after Jeff Cramin’s death. A menu that stays put for decades, run by people committed to it, tends to produce the kind of signature item that lands on a list like this.
For Evanston, the mention was a reminder that the city’s dining reputation is not confined to downtown restaurant rows. Neighborhood spots with a loyal morning clientele and a single standout order are part of what local diners go looking for.
Cafe history and sandwich ingredients are from ABC7 Chicago’s profile of the cafe.
Rachel Lindqvist covers community life, the lakefront, dining and the arts for The Evanston Edge.
