Category Archives: 1) Home Turf

November 15, 2011 · 2:56 pm

Chicago’s Printers Row, Evanston’s Dixie Kitchen

I had a little time to kill between meetings in downtown Chicago yesterday so I took a walk south down Dearborn past the beautiful old 19th century buildings of  the Printers Row area. The street is nicely laid out for architecture buffs, with helpful tourist signs en route that point out various design and historical details of the buildings you’re walking past. Next time, I need to walk along Plymouth Street and to the old Dearborn station. for more info see: http://explorechicago.org/city/en/neighborhoods/printers_row.html

Later we went to dinner at Dixie Kitchen in Evanston which continues to impress – affordable and such portions! My son had half of my husband’s red beans and rice with  sausage to bring back to his dorm room. I enjoyed my gumbo but gave up after eating half – and gave the rest to my son (who also couldn’t finish it.) Next time I’m told we need to try the burger place Edzo’s which is only open until 4 p.m. Davis Street Fish Market is a favorite of my aunt’s.

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November 15, 2011 · 5:09 am

Logan Square in Chicago – well worth a visit

We had such a good time in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood on Sunday, starting with a visit to the indoor farmers market at the remarkable Congress Theater, a huge wreck of an old auditorium where my kids have gone to several concerts. The farmers market is held in the small lobby – and had some great stuff in addition to veg and fruit including fantastic bread, baguettes, croissants and pain au raisin sold by La Boulangerie (a  shop closer to the square that also serves crepes and lovely little bowls of mousse); a English guy from Leeds who made homemade bangers and mash; and a woman who made fresh caramel.

Next store was a pop-up vintage sale – with several vendors. I got a fab green long wool coat with brown leather buttons from Austria for $24. Yes, it has a cape and yes, I look a bit like Julie Andrews in the Sound of Music. I also got some vases that I’m told were done by a Greenwich Village potter in the 1980s but look quite like Jonathan Adler’s modern day retro work.

We wandered through some other boutiques and ended up at the bar at  the restaurant/bar/inn Longman & Eagle, which was a lot of fun. I had the best Bloody Mary I’ve had in a long time (not that I have them often) and watched the alchemist/bartender using a medicine dropper, shot glasses, and fresh ground nutmeg to make various one-of-a-kind concoctions. Also watched people eating what looked like delicious hearty, fresh, inventive food including, oddly, a popular entrée that combines fried chicken and waffles (it looks better than it sounds.)

What I liked about this place was that was not only hip but inviting – with servers, bartenders, hosts who are genuinely welcoming and seem to really like their jobs.  Great ambiance too – we’ll be back for brunch if not dinner, where I”m told we should order many of the small plates. It also has several rooms for overnight stays, each uniquely and tastefully designed, starting at a very reasonable $75.

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November 13, 2011 · 4:04 pm

Indian food in Lincoln Park – (chicago)

Once we got a table – that’s another story – we had a good meal at Hema’s Kitchen on Clark, a casual Indian restaurant in Lincoln Park. The place was busy at 7 p.m. on a Saturday night and doesn’t take reservations – so we were trying our luck to begin with. My son and his college roommate were told they’d have a 2 hour wait. Five minutes later my 26-year-old stepdaughter arrived and was told the wait was 1/2 hour. Hmmm.  Then we heard something about a ten minute wait. So we took our chances and waited maybe 1/2 hour. No big deal.  Particularly good was the lamb and eggplant dish, the chicken tikka masala, the sag chicken. (There’s also a Hema’s on Devon, the Indian area.)

We walked down the street on a suddenly blustery evening to the froyo shop down the street (berrymoon?) to cleanse our palate…passing a much livelier cupcake shop also on Clark.

In Evanston we had some coffee at a cozy cafe – the Unicorn?

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November 11, 2011 · 4:34 pm

On tap for Chicago: Sharon Hayes, Logan Square Farmers Market, Clybourne Park, Chocolate etc.

Some ideas for our weekend in Chicago:

– The Logan Square Farmers Market Sunday from 10-2. The Congress Theater Lobby 2135 N. Milwaukee Avenue

– Clybourne Park, last weekend to see the Pulitzer Prize winning play at The Steppenwolf Theater.

– “Ann” – a play about former Texas Gov. Ann Richards Sunday through Dec. 4 at Bank of America Theatre, 18 W. Monroe St.; $20-$85 at 800-775-2000 and broadwayinchicago.com

– The exhibit all about Chocolate at the Field Museum. (From the museum website:Get a better understanding of where this sweet treat comes from — hint: it doesn’t grow in the candy store — when the popular exhibition returns to the museum, allowing visitors to explore the relationship we have with chocolate and its rainforest roots. Learn about the plant, products, history and culture through science and pop culture.)

– Sharon Hayes exhibit in the modern wing at the Chicago Art Institute. I don’t really understand what it is but that makes me even more interested. Something to do with performance art, video installations and free speech.  (From the institute’s website:The performance artist’s first solo show at a major museum in the United States features three recent moving-image and photo-based installations exploring the role of speech in personal and political contexts.) (more below)

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– This looks incredibly cool – alas we won’t be around when it’s happening.

Twilight Tour

What: A guided tour ($15) at the Driehaus Museum of how Chicagoans might have entertained after-hours in the late 1800s

Where: 40 E. Erie St.

When: 6:30 p.m. on the first and third Tuesday each month; the next tour is Nov. 15.

More information: 312-482-8933, ext. 21; driehausmuseum.org

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More on Sharon Hayes: From the art institute’s website:

The performance artist’s first solo show at a major museum in the United States features three recent moving-image and photo-based installations exploring the role of speech in personal and political contexts.

November 10, 2011–March 11, 2012
Galleries 182–184
Member Preview: November 9, 10:30–5:00

Overview: Over the past 15 years, American artist Sharon Hayes has been probing how speech—both public and private—intersects with politics, history, personal identity, desire, and love through her performances and multimedia installations. …she has tackled a diversity of issues and topics including the 1968 Democratic Convention, Patty Hearst and the Symbionese Liberation Army, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

This presentation, the first solo museum exhibition of the artist’s work in the United States …includes several recent media and object-based installations as well as a live performance. 

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November 6, 2011 · 4:40 pm

Pondering where to eat during next trip to Chicago

I don’t know why we don’t have a ready list of tried-and-true favorite restaurants to go to in Chicago – we certainly go there often enough and have been to many places, some several times. Still I always seem to have trouble deciding where to go next, maybe because Chicago has so many options and they keep growing and my family members have various preferences and opinions about where to eat.

That said, here are some ideas I’ve read about recently in Chicago Magazine – in Evanston and in Chicago:

– Fraiche, 815 Noyes ST. Evanston – for brunch: ginger scone, french toast egg dishes, lemon kiss cookie.

– For Vietnamese banh mi sandwich (baguette with pork, veggies, mayo etc.) – Saigon Sisters, 547 W. Lake St. or French Market, 131 N.Clinton in the Loop.(Description of their food sounds best – although most expensive.)

Del Seol (for bulgogi – korean rib-eye sandwich) – 2568 N. Clark St.

Bar Le, 5014. N. Broadway – veggie avocado sandwich.

Bun Mi Express, 3409 N. Broadway (although wary of the description of sliced pork roll as “b0logna-like”)

 

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October 10, 2011 · 11:40 pm

now for a little self-promotion…hot off the press: The New York Times, 36 Hours: 150 Weekends

A New Yorker cartoon recently summed up the typical contents of a blog that it’s: 1/3 how to sew, knit, cook, whatever, 1/3 kvetching of one variety or another and 1/3 self-promotion. Or some such.

With this blog, I’ve tried not to do much of any of that. But hey, what’s wrong with a little self- promotion – especially when, sadly, I won’t earn anything else  from the re-publication of two of my stories for the NYTimes  in an upcoming 774- page coffee table travel book.

So be on the look out for  The New York Times, 36 hours: 150 weekends in the USA and Canada which should be available in November I’m told and includes my stories on Oak Park (Illinois) and on Iowa’s Coast (yes, coast – along the Mississippi).  They’ve been updated since they ran several years ago – but not entirely by me.

Here’s some promo material:

The 740-page book includes the Times’ top 150 travel destinations, from cities and towns to natural wonders across America. Practical recommendations for the over 600 restaurants and 450 hotels is inside with color-coded tabs and ribbons to bookmark favorite cities in each region. Nearly 1,000 photos, most of them from The New York Times archive made it in, making it small enough to throw in your suitcase but big enough to enjoy from your favorite reading chair. The new illustrations by Times illustrator Olimpia Zagnoli of Milan, Italy look fantastic, and includes easy-to-reference indexes and detailed city-by-city maps,.  This will be TASCHEN America’s top title of the year.
 

The New York Times, 36 Hours: 150 Weekends in the USA & Canada
Hardcover, 16.8 x 24 cm (6.6 x 9.4 in.), 744 pages
EUR 29.99 | USD 39.99 | GBP 24.99 | JPY 5900.00

The best of the USA & Canada: The highly acclaimed New York Times travel feature finally available in one updated volume

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September 30, 2011 · 7:02 pm

A way to step foot inside one of my favorite new Chicago buildings – the Aqua building

I have long admired Jeanne Gang’s Aqua Building – ever since we glided by it on an Chicago Architectural Foundation boat tour along the Chicago River several years ago. Now comes word that I can get to see it up close and personal when the new Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel opens on 11/1/11 at 221 North Columbus Drive. The hotel will take up 18 floors of Gang’s 81-story tower with its distinctive white wavy-gravy balconies. By the by, I learned in an interview with Gang in the NYT that those  smooth white curved-floor balconies, irregularly shaped to create the rippled effect,  are not only for cool effect  but cool purpose – to produce energy savings. Each balcony doubles as solar shade for the room or apartment below – and interrupt the breezes whipping off the lake so balconies on higher floors are feasible. Not for nothing did Gang,a Chicago native,  recently receive a MacArthur genius award.

 

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September 24, 2011 · 3:58 am

Heaven on Seven in chicago – and Bookbinder’s soup on North Rush

So we’re at a party in Des Moines, talking to some people who used to live in Chicago and they go on and on about their favorite Cajun restaurant in Chicago, “behind Marshall Fields.”  So I find out from my sister in Oak Park that the restaurant, Heaven on Seven, is an old favorite and that my stepdaughter works nearby and that my meeting downtown is nearby so we have a luncheon date – my sister, stepdaughter and me last week at Heaven on Seven. I was initially confused by the name – given that it’s on Wabash. But darned if it isn’t tucked on the seventh floor of an old office building. And it was full of character and served a mean gumbo. Do wish they took something other than cash but whatever. I’ll be back. (The next day I happened to pass by a newer branch near Michigan Avenue.)

We also had a nice lunch at Gibson’s on North Rush – at an outdoor table set back from the street with an awning to block the growing chill and wind. Nothing fancy – tuna salad stuffed in an avocado and five bean soup. My aunt had  a thick chowder that hails from Philly’s famous restaurant Bookbinder’s. I couldn’t quite tell what’s in it but Wikipedia suggests it may be snapper soup, i.e. made with turtle meat. Really?

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September 23, 2011 · 12:53 am

Sometimes a restaurant can be a little too hip – chicago

So we tried out Urban Belly, this hipster spot in  the Avondale neighborhood of Chicago and although I appreciated what these young creative types were trying to do – to offer affordable innovative Asian food in a minimalist setting – the taste of the food just wasn’t all that good. Otherwise, the concept and atmospherics were okay – It’s a small storefront next to a laundromat in an unlikely little strip mall in an old neighborhood that seemed to now be primarily Hispanic and young creative (read penniless) class types. There were a few long wooden tables with square blocks of wood as seat. You order at the counter and then stake out a spot at a communal table. All fine. The food- we had chicken and mushroom dumplings, a cold marinated eggplant, short ribs (supposedly) atop rice, and udon noodles with fishballs and shrimp – was dominated by a sweet seasoning which didn’t do much for me. I prefer salty or savory or short of that, variety.

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September 20, 2011 · 1:57 am

Chicago restaurants to try….

I found myself taking six 19-year-olds out for lunch in Evanston, Illinois – upon my son’s return to Northwestern – which i was happy to do. But even happier when we went to Dixie’s – a fun Cajun place – that has a very parent-friendly menu of $6.95 lunch specials – including a good southwestern salad with grilled chicken, beans, corn salsa and a light creamy dressing and a sampler with little bowls of gumbo, jambalaya, and red beans and rice.
Now onto Chicago where E has these restaurants in mind:
This place is supposed to be great too, owned by the same people:
A combo of Asian and Mexican.

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