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I am looking for a best breakfast place in Chicago . Funkyness encouraged since I am of the Friendly Toast, Portsmouth, NH school.

Artisinal breads

First of all I think one should never 'steal' off another's plate. Silverware incl chopsticks were originally weapons to defend one's food, so permission should be asked before reaching over, unless permission was firmly previously established.
I have a problem with 'plate envy' so I may choose to order the same thing as another, because why order something else, only to then desire the other's plate more than my own. So right on @ksimmy. I usually interview my table mates before I make a choice, unless I had one of those lucky days where I have a craving that the restaurant can fulfill.
I am happy to have you share, and may put the brakes on if you are eating most of mine, and none of yours (which I don't desire either).
I can't stand all that germ phobic behavior of 'you can have that corner, I didn't touch it'. If you are that phobic you are unsuitable for sharing I think.
I love family style because my preference is usually a little taste of everything. Getting Chinese take-out with my mate is a challenge 'cause he just orders and eats his one or two things and doesn't want any of mine. (He is a reluctant sharer-but has been trainable.) So that's makes for less variety. I solve this issue by ordering 3 dishes for me, me, and me and eating the leftovers for lunch over a few days. Problem solved.
Sharing is nice but what is even nicer is respecting people's eating preferences incl wether they share or not (and not incl. someone forbidding for you to order the same as them).

My Mutter's Kohlrabi recipe: Peel the kohrabi, cutting off all the woody bits too. Slice or cube, boil just covered in salted water for about 10 minutes, set aside some of the cooking water and the kohlrabi and make a roux with butter and flour in the bottom of your kohlrabi pot. Whisk it into a white sauce with some of the cooking water. Add kohlrabi, add freshly ground white pepper and salt to taste. I think of it as 'kohrabi farmstyle', so that goes with the CSA share, right.

Black licorice cats paws (Katjes Katzenpfo:tchen) from Germany. I bring back about 10 bags each time. There is no US substitute!

Cooks Illustrated gets my vote too. But, after reading this I might switch to Cooking Light for a year or so.

Love these tips, many of them indoctinated in me by my grandmother, who had it figured out from living through two wars in Europe. And she never even heard the term 'carbon footprint'.
Hey, Cooks Illustrated did one of their science experiments to see how to best clean fruits and vegetables. They tried antibacterial soap (yuk), water, and a 1/3 vinegar with 2/3 water mixture. The vinegar/water mixture killed the most bacteria. So I keep it around in a spray bottle under the sink. When I wash grapes in a bowl of water I also add a splash of vinegar to that too. Works great.
I keep a linen towel for drying dishes and a terry cloth towel for hands and counters in my kitchen. The paper towels are stored out of the way and last me about 6 months per roll, just used for things like cat throw-up. I have a collection of linen towels from my travels. A nice keepsake and very practical. Excellent gifts for your friends too if you are a traveler.

I like Barritts Bermuda stone ginger beer, which comes in cans. They carry it at my liquor store in Cambridge and we drank it a lot with the rum in St. John's
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_xpH_4P0-1xo/SUVHpzBy5fI/AAAAAAAAAgs/9ziPzPmXFNg/s512/100_0979.JPG

Oops, wrong link above for the recipe, but now you know where to buy Bitter Lemon, also very good with Pimms Cup.
Here is another Pimm's Cup recipe:
http://www.chow.com/recipes/10279

On second thought I wonder why you "need to convince my spouse that "fancy" flavored ice cream." Let your spouse stick to the basics. Nothing wrong with that.

This makes me think of when I worked at Med-o-lark overnight camp in the 80s. They had a rule that you were 'on' when you were on the grounds. So when you were off you'd stay away from the campus so that you could relax. Maybe this is good advice in the restaurant business too. If you are on the floor you should be expected to be 'on', otherwise go do your paperwork in the back where you might be slightly less comfortable but able to singularly focus on your paperwork.
However, I would consider such an arrangement something that is made part of the establishments's culture by the management (so if they are usually fine with you sitting at the bar doing paperwork than this whole thing is their own fault).
Also, yelling at someone in front of other people is always tacky!!!

If you can find unpastreurized, unhomoginized milk (like at your local farm straight out of the cow) you can make your own Quark by curtling it with lemon juice (see Wikipedia reference above, I think it touches on this) I did it once, it was good but of course full fat unlike all the different grades you can buy in Deutschland and Österreich.
In Germany we eat most of our Quark on the wonderful bread with jam on top (there is also a school of jam underneath, but I think you taste the sweet more when it is on top).
This site has a recipe that is more complex (and auf Deutsch), and an ad for a Quark maker ($45)
http://www.germancorner.com/recipes/hints/quark1.html

SEND HER A LINK TO THIS PAGE!!!
Make the brownies, don't make the brownies, don't go the BBQ---this you have to decide by following your heart,
My thing would be that I'd want to communicate my feelings about the rudeness and if I am feeling passive aggressive I'd do it by
SENDING HER A LINK TO THIS PAGE. Caution, this might end your friendship though.
If she is a close friend you have to come clean about this really bugging you, bugging you enough to start this page!