My kind of town, Chicago is...
Since I'm home sick from work today, I think it's time to finally post my Chicago trip recap. I *finally* took the pictures off my phone and onto my system last night, which apparently was what was holding me back.
Saturday, January 9
Friday night I ended up faced with a choice - pack, make sandwiches, and stay up really late, or go to sleep earlier than really late and do all that in the morning. Well, I chose the sleep option, and it would have been fine...had I not popped awake at 4:45 and not been able to go back to sleep. I sat in front of the computer for a bit, then got about the business of packing up my clothes and making sandwiches for the car. At 7:30, we (my mom and I) left the house, picked up my friend, and headed north to Edison where I needed to pick up our vehicle. Thankfully, the rental car facility was located inside a hotel, as we were about 20 minutes early.
Luckily for us, the folks at National Car Rental opened a few minutes early. We asked what they had (we had reserved an SUV, since we were moving all of my friend's stuff), and we were given a choice between a Hyundai Santa Fe, a Ford Edge, and a Ford Flex. Right away, I perked up...I love the looks of the Ford Flex. It looks like one bad-ass station wagon SUV thing. Here's a picture of one (not the one we rented, sorry):
We examined each SUV, and determined quickly that the Flex gave us the most room for cargo. Since it was in a category higher than what we had reserved, the guy said he'd charge us $15 more. We immediately agreed, and were quickly on our way. A quick stop at my house to pick up the few things I was bringing, then to my friend's mom's apartment to get his stuff. A mutual friend and his wife met us there to help. We ended up with a little bit more than we could possibly fit, as I expected, but it wasn't a big deal. I should have taken a picture of the loaded vehicle, but I didn't. A stop for ice and a bag of pretzels, and at 11:30 AM we were on our way.
Because of snow that was expected along the optimal route, I ended up moving it further south than either of us would have liked. As a result, we drove to Chicago by way of Baltimore, Morgantown WV, Columbus, and Indianapolis. Considering it added about 2 hours extra to the trip, I decided it was worthwhile to not have to deal with potentially heavy snow on the way. We hit some snow in the mountains of Maryland and West Virginia, but it was nothing I couldn't deal with. Arrival at the apartment in Chicago was a little bit before 2 AM local time, making the drive a total of 15 1/2 hours. We were wiped out, but we decided it was best to unload the car right then, as opposed to waiting until early in the morning. By 3:30 I was in bed, but back up at 7:30, because the car needed to be downtown by 9.
Sunday, January 10
Once we got the car returned, my friend's brother said he'd take us out to brunch. First, though, a little info. My friend's brother works for a fairly high-end restaurant in Chicago that is owned by a larger company. From January through March, he gets 50% off the bill at any of their other restaurants, company-wide. Before setting out on this trip, he told us that we were in for an eating adventure. With that said, he took us to brunch at Hub 51. I forgot to take pictures here, but I do recall that I had an omelette, Rob had an egg sandwich (that was fucking amazing), and TJ (Rob's bro) had a hamburger. We also split an order of breakfast nachos (sounds weird, but they were amazing too), they both had drinks from the bar (I opted for OJ), and we didn't even crack $40.
The rest of the day was pretty ho-hum. Football playoffs were on, I ended up napping for a few hours, and Rob unpacked all his stuff. That evening, TJ cooked us a pork dish they had made at the restaurant one evening for an employee party, and it was amazing. I went back to bed around midnight and had a good night's sleep.
Monday, January 11
I woke up around 8 and got showered and dressed - Rob had to go up to Evanston for a job interview. He works for Barnes and Noble and needed to go meet a store manager in regard to a potential transfer. Once ready, we walked down to the corner, picked up breakfast at the dirt cheap and amazing Mexican bakery, and caught the bus a few blocks further down. The bus dropped us around the corner from the store, so we killed a little time exploring the neighborhood. He had his interview (which went well, but the manager left a bit to be desired), and we hopped on the train. While he was having his interview, I skimmed a book about Chicago restaurants looking for inspiration on where to have lunch. I found said inspiration in the form of an entry about Hot Doug's, the self-proclaimed Sausage Superstore and Encased Meat Emporium. I had seen this place on television and it had been on my list, so off we went.
After getting off the Red Line elevated train at Addison, we had a little wait for the bus, so I walked down the block and snapped this picture:
Yes, that is the Wrigley Field scoreboard you see there.
After a 10 minute bus ride and equal walk, we arrived at Hot Doug's. To start, I ordered a Chicago-style hot dog and an Andouille sausage, pictured below. After having both, I decided there was still room, and ordered their "Game of the Week", which luckily for me was antelope sausage. I should have taken a picture, but I forgot.
Andouille sausage at Hot Doug's
Anyway, after a walk back to the bus, my buddy decided he wanted to go back to the apartment to change clothes. As we were waiting for the train, however, he changed his mind and said we should go meet his brother, as he had a 2 hour break between shifts at the restaurant. After getting lost on our way, we finally met up with him at Osterio via Stato. We ordered a few beers and, even though we were stuffed, TJ ordered us some food - a small plate of olives, bread with EVOO and roasted garlic, and a Margherita pizza, pictured below. The pizza was about the size of a typical bar pie, but much, much better.
Pizza at Osteria via Stato
After that, we originally were going to go to Whole Foods in Lincoln Park, as TJ had raved about how large it was. By the time we got on the train, however, I was feeling pretty wiped out, so we decided to go back and chill out at the apartment. We hung out there for a while, and I got my energy back, so we went back out to the Whole Foods. Boy, was TJ right...the place was unbelievable. While we were there exploring, TJ called and said he got out of work early and would meet us there. I picked up some cheese for us to try, the Capriole Old Kentucky Tomme. Not cheap at $26.99/lb, but it ended up being damn good. We hung there waiting for TJ to arrive. Once he did I grabbed dinner from the pasta bar while they traveled around the corner to the liquor store. We got back to the apartment around 9, had a few beers, and just hung out til it was bedtime.
The skyline far off in the distance from the Fullerton Red/Purple/Brown line stop. That's Rob barely in the picture on the right.
Tuesday, January 12
Today we were able to take it easy until TJ got out of work, at 2 PM. We left the apartment about 1:15 and hopped on the train, meeting him outside the restaurant right as he exited. It was then off to Frankie's 5th Floor Pizzeria, which is inside the 900 Shops on Michigan Avenue, a super high-end mall. We each ordered a pizza - sausage, Sardinian garlic, and the Black Goat (goat cheese, black olives, and rosemary). All were good, but the Black goat was the best.
Garlic on the left, sausage on the right
After pizza, it was a 5 block walk to Big Bowl, a sit-down Asian restaurant. We decided to just order two appetizers and a main dish, and just split them up. We also had drinks - they brew their own ginger ale, so I had a Gin and Ginger, Rob ordered a Mai Tai, and TJ had a Martini. For food, we ordered shrimp and pork dumplings that were a special, thai beef lettuce wraps, and chicken pad thai. All the food here was amazing. I think I'd say this was my favorite place we visited on the trip.
Drinks at Big Bowl
Lettuce wraps, the best thing I ate this entire day
Dumplings
Pad thai
After there, it was off to TJ's restaurant, Ben Pao, for egg rolls and a little dessert. I failed to take pictures here, but everything was prepared in take-out containers and wholly unremarkable looking. However, it might have been the best egg roll I've ever had. The dessert was not impressive.
Our final stop was Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba!, for Spanish tapas. Even though we weren't starving, everything we ordered disappeared quickly. I recall that we tried a plate of Spanish artisinal cheese, a house plate of sausage and ham (pictured below), seared Spanish sausages, bacon-wrapped dates (amazing), and sea scallops (the second-best thing I ate that day). We also cleared two pitchers of sangria! We had planned a trip to another restaurant, but at this point we were so stuffed we couldn't think about any more food.
The house plate
We went back to the apartment and hung out, listening to music and figuring out the plan of attack for the next day. I had reserved a car for the day. My original plan was to visit a local casino, but I ended up not having the budget for that. The next idea was to drive to Milwaukee and check it out, but they had so many errands that needed to be done we decided to keep it somewhat local. Since they wanted to visit a Guitar Center and buy a new electric Guitar and amp, we said that we'd travel out of state if the guitar was available somewhere else, since sales tax in WI and IN were half that in Chicago. We had some more cheese (the Old Kentucky) and called it a night around midnight, since I had to get up early to get the car.
Wednesday, January 13
I headed out around 8:15, since I had the car reserved at 9. I went downtown alone - no sense in dragging my friend out with me if not necessary. I picked up the car, a Kia Amanti, and drove back to pick up Rob. I made a quick stop at the bakery (yummmm), and we were on our way. The first stop was The Home Depot, to pick up some things they needed for the apartment. Then, Target, for the same. At this point it was lunchtime, so we headed to Cemitas Puebla, without a doubt the best Mexican restaurant I've visited on this planet. I saw this place on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives and knew I had to go there. It's in a bad neighborhood, has an almost exclusively Hispanic clientele, and has great food. I opted for a cemita (sandwich) containing a marinated and breaded pork chop, cheese, and avocado, a taco with spit-roasted pork and onions, and a Mexican Coke (made with real sugar). I will eat at this restaurant every single time I'm in Chicago.
The cemita
We drove around the city for a while, since we had time to kill until TJ left work at 2. We picked him up and headed into Indiana, since that was the only place we could find the guitar in stock. After picking that up, we went to Steak 'n Shake, which is a Midwestern semi-fast food joint. which I had not yet experienced. Let's just say I don't plan on heading back any time soon. My shake was good, but the burger was mediocre at best. No pictures here, as they weren't warranted.
We went to Aldi to get them some cheap food, then headed back into Chicago. We had heard about an excellent cheese shop, the Marion Street Cheese Market in Oak Park, so we headed there. We bought three cheeses, a goat cheese called Wabash Cannonball by Capriole, Bandaged Cheddar from Bleu Mont Dairy in Wisconsin, and a stinky washed-rind cheese whose name I can't remember. After hitting the cheese shop, it was off to an Asian market, where we needed to do some food shopping, then to Jewel-Osco, for beer, soda, and crackers (for the cheese!). Once back at the apartment we unloaded everything and dove into the cheese. The Wabash Cannonball was fantastic, as was the cheddar. This was my first experience with a truly stinky cheese, and I can't say I truly enjoyed it. I'm not giving up on it yet, but I don't think it was for me.
The Wabash Cannonball
The Bandaged Cheddar
The stinky cheese
We were up til Midnight or so, but I needed to get up around 6:30 to prepare for my departure the next morning.
Thursday, January 14
I woke up and it was completely dark in the room. I said to myself "I hope I have more time to sleep, I'm exhausted". Then I heard an airplane overhead, which shattered that fantasy rather quickly. I looked at my phone, and the time read 6:28. I showered, packed, and off Rob and I went to return the car downtown. He rode the Blue Line with me to Jefferson Park, where he exited the train and I continued to the airport. I've already said what needs to be said about Thursday, so there's no point in rehashing it. My flight home was delayed a bit but we arrived at JFK on time and without incident. The plane was barely half-full and I had the exit row to myself.
That's about all I have to report. If anyone wants to know anything further about the trip, ask away!
Saturday, January 9
Friday night I ended up faced with a choice - pack, make sandwiches, and stay up really late, or go to sleep earlier than really late and do all that in the morning. Well, I chose the sleep option, and it would have been fine...had I not popped awake at 4:45 and not been able to go back to sleep. I sat in front of the computer for a bit, then got about the business of packing up my clothes and making sandwiches for the car. At 7:30, we (my mom and I) left the house, picked up my friend, and headed north to Edison where I needed to pick up our vehicle. Thankfully, the rental car facility was located inside a hotel, as we were about 20 minutes early.
Luckily for us, the folks at National Car Rental opened a few minutes early. We asked what they had (we had reserved an SUV, since we were moving all of my friend's stuff), and we were given a choice between a Hyundai Santa Fe, a Ford Edge, and a Ford Flex. Right away, I perked up...I love the looks of the Ford Flex. It looks like one bad-ass station wagon SUV thing. Here's a picture of one (not the one we rented, sorry):
We examined each SUV, and determined quickly that the Flex gave us the most room for cargo. Since it was in a category higher than what we had reserved, the guy said he'd charge us $15 more. We immediately agreed, and were quickly on our way. A quick stop at my house to pick up the few things I was bringing, then to my friend's mom's apartment to get his stuff. A mutual friend and his wife met us there to help. We ended up with a little bit more than we could possibly fit, as I expected, but it wasn't a big deal. I should have taken a picture of the loaded vehicle, but I didn't. A stop for ice and a bag of pretzels, and at 11:30 AM we were on our way.
Because of snow that was expected along the optimal route, I ended up moving it further south than either of us would have liked. As a result, we drove to Chicago by way of Baltimore, Morgantown WV, Columbus, and Indianapolis. Considering it added about 2 hours extra to the trip, I decided it was worthwhile to not have to deal with potentially heavy snow on the way. We hit some snow in the mountains of Maryland and West Virginia, but it was nothing I couldn't deal with. Arrival at the apartment in Chicago was a little bit before 2 AM local time, making the drive a total of 15 1/2 hours. We were wiped out, but we decided it was best to unload the car right then, as opposed to waiting until early in the morning. By 3:30 I was in bed, but back up at 7:30, because the car needed to be downtown by 9.
Sunday, January 10
Once we got the car returned, my friend's brother said he'd take us out to brunch. First, though, a little info. My friend's brother works for a fairly high-end restaurant in Chicago that is owned by a larger company. From January through March, he gets 50% off the bill at any of their other restaurants, company-wide. Before setting out on this trip, he told us that we were in for an eating adventure. With that said, he took us to brunch at Hub 51. I forgot to take pictures here, but I do recall that I had an omelette, Rob had an egg sandwich (that was fucking amazing), and TJ (Rob's bro) had a hamburger. We also split an order of breakfast nachos (sounds weird, but they were amazing too), they both had drinks from the bar (I opted for OJ), and we didn't even crack $40.
The rest of the day was pretty ho-hum. Football playoffs were on, I ended up napping for a few hours, and Rob unpacked all his stuff. That evening, TJ cooked us a pork dish they had made at the restaurant one evening for an employee party, and it was amazing. I went back to bed around midnight and had a good night's sleep.
Monday, January 11
I woke up around 8 and got showered and dressed - Rob had to go up to Evanston for a job interview. He works for Barnes and Noble and needed to go meet a store manager in regard to a potential transfer. Once ready, we walked down to the corner, picked up breakfast at the dirt cheap and amazing Mexican bakery, and caught the bus a few blocks further down. The bus dropped us around the corner from the store, so we killed a little time exploring the neighborhood. He had his interview (which went well, but the manager left a bit to be desired), and we hopped on the train. While he was having his interview, I skimmed a book about Chicago restaurants looking for inspiration on where to have lunch. I found said inspiration in the form of an entry about Hot Doug's, the self-proclaimed Sausage Superstore and Encased Meat Emporium. I had seen this place on television and it had been on my list, so off we went.
After getting off the Red Line elevated train at Addison, we had a little wait for the bus, so I walked down the block and snapped this picture:
Yes, that is the Wrigley Field scoreboard you see there.
After a 10 minute bus ride and equal walk, we arrived at Hot Doug's. To start, I ordered a Chicago-style hot dog and an Andouille sausage, pictured below. After having both, I decided there was still room, and ordered their "Game of the Week", which luckily for me was antelope sausage. I should have taken a picture, but I forgot.
Andouille sausage at Hot Doug's
Anyway, after a walk back to the bus, my buddy decided he wanted to go back to the apartment to change clothes. As we were waiting for the train, however, he changed his mind and said we should go meet his brother, as he had a 2 hour break between shifts at the restaurant. After getting lost on our way, we finally met up with him at Osterio via Stato. We ordered a few beers and, even though we were stuffed, TJ ordered us some food - a small plate of olives, bread with EVOO and roasted garlic, and a Margherita pizza, pictured below. The pizza was about the size of a typical bar pie, but much, much better.
Pizza at Osteria via Stato
After that, we originally were going to go to Whole Foods in Lincoln Park, as TJ had raved about how large it was. By the time we got on the train, however, I was feeling pretty wiped out, so we decided to go back and chill out at the apartment. We hung out there for a while, and I got my energy back, so we went back out to the Whole Foods. Boy, was TJ right...the place was unbelievable. While we were there exploring, TJ called and said he got out of work early and would meet us there. I picked up some cheese for us to try, the Capriole Old Kentucky Tomme. Not cheap at $26.99/lb, but it ended up being damn good. We hung there waiting for TJ to arrive. Once he did I grabbed dinner from the pasta bar while they traveled around the corner to the liquor store. We got back to the apartment around 9, had a few beers, and just hung out til it was bedtime.
The skyline far off in the distance from the Fullerton Red/Purple/Brown line stop. That's Rob barely in the picture on the right.
Tuesday, January 12
Today we were able to take it easy until TJ got out of work, at 2 PM. We left the apartment about 1:15 and hopped on the train, meeting him outside the restaurant right as he exited. It was then off to Frankie's 5th Floor Pizzeria, which is inside the 900 Shops on Michigan Avenue, a super high-end mall. We each ordered a pizza - sausage, Sardinian garlic, and the Black Goat (goat cheese, black olives, and rosemary). All were good, but the Black goat was the best.
Garlic on the left, sausage on the right
After pizza, it was a 5 block walk to Big Bowl, a sit-down Asian restaurant. We decided to just order two appetizers and a main dish, and just split them up. We also had drinks - they brew their own ginger ale, so I had a Gin and Ginger, Rob ordered a Mai Tai, and TJ had a Martini. For food, we ordered shrimp and pork dumplings that were a special, thai beef lettuce wraps, and chicken pad thai. All the food here was amazing. I think I'd say this was my favorite place we visited on the trip.
Drinks at Big Bowl
Lettuce wraps, the best thing I ate this entire day
Dumplings
Pad thai
After there, it was off to TJ's restaurant, Ben Pao, for egg rolls and a little dessert. I failed to take pictures here, but everything was prepared in take-out containers and wholly unremarkable looking. However, it might have been the best egg roll I've ever had. The dessert was not impressive.
Our final stop was Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba!, for Spanish tapas. Even though we weren't starving, everything we ordered disappeared quickly. I recall that we tried a plate of Spanish artisinal cheese, a house plate of sausage and ham (pictured below), seared Spanish sausages, bacon-wrapped dates (amazing), and sea scallops (the second-best thing I ate that day). We also cleared two pitchers of sangria! We had planned a trip to another restaurant, but at this point we were so stuffed we couldn't think about any more food.
The house plate
We went back to the apartment and hung out, listening to music and figuring out the plan of attack for the next day. I had reserved a car for the day. My original plan was to visit a local casino, but I ended up not having the budget for that. The next idea was to drive to Milwaukee and check it out, but they had so many errands that needed to be done we decided to keep it somewhat local. Since they wanted to visit a Guitar Center and buy a new electric Guitar and amp, we said that we'd travel out of state if the guitar was available somewhere else, since sales tax in WI and IN were half that in Chicago. We had some more cheese (the Old Kentucky) and called it a night around midnight, since I had to get up early to get the car.
Wednesday, January 13
I headed out around 8:15, since I had the car reserved at 9. I went downtown alone - no sense in dragging my friend out with me if not necessary. I picked up the car, a Kia Amanti, and drove back to pick up Rob. I made a quick stop at the bakery (yummmm), and we were on our way. The first stop was The Home Depot, to pick up some things they needed for the apartment. Then, Target, for the same. At this point it was lunchtime, so we headed to Cemitas Puebla, without a doubt the best Mexican restaurant I've visited on this planet. I saw this place on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives and knew I had to go there. It's in a bad neighborhood, has an almost exclusively Hispanic clientele, and has great food. I opted for a cemita (sandwich) containing a marinated and breaded pork chop, cheese, and avocado, a taco with spit-roasted pork and onions, and a Mexican Coke (made with real sugar). I will eat at this restaurant every single time I'm in Chicago.
The cemita
We drove around the city for a while, since we had time to kill until TJ left work at 2. We picked him up and headed into Indiana, since that was the only place we could find the guitar in stock. After picking that up, we went to Steak 'n Shake, which is a Midwestern semi-fast food joint. which I had not yet experienced. Let's just say I don't plan on heading back any time soon. My shake was good, but the burger was mediocre at best. No pictures here, as they weren't warranted.
We went to Aldi to get them some cheap food, then headed back into Chicago. We had heard about an excellent cheese shop, the Marion Street Cheese Market in Oak Park, so we headed there. We bought three cheeses, a goat cheese called Wabash Cannonball by Capriole, Bandaged Cheddar from Bleu Mont Dairy in Wisconsin, and a stinky washed-rind cheese whose name I can't remember. After hitting the cheese shop, it was off to an Asian market, where we needed to do some food shopping, then to Jewel-Osco, for beer, soda, and crackers (for the cheese!). Once back at the apartment we unloaded everything and dove into the cheese. The Wabash Cannonball was fantastic, as was the cheddar. This was my first experience with a truly stinky cheese, and I can't say I truly enjoyed it. I'm not giving up on it yet, but I don't think it was for me.
The Wabash Cannonball
The Bandaged Cheddar
The stinky cheese
We were up til Midnight or so, but I needed to get up around 6:30 to prepare for my departure the next morning.
Thursday, January 14
I woke up and it was completely dark in the room. I said to myself "I hope I have more time to sleep, I'm exhausted". Then I heard an airplane overhead, which shattered that fantasy rather quickly. I looked at my phone, and the time read 6:28. I showered, packed, and off Rob and I went to return the car downtown. He rode the Blue Line with me to Jefferson Park, where he exited the train and I continued to the airport. I've already said what needs to be said about Thursday, so there's no point in rehashing it. My flight home was delayed a bit but we arrived at JFK on time and without incident. The plane was barely half-full and I had the exit row to myself.
That's about all I have to report. If anyone wants to know anything further about the trip, ask away!