Just read (in my son’s Northwestern alumni mag) about a fun way to experience Chicago – by bike, visiting various food outposts. A Northwestern Alum opened Fork and the Road, which offers these tours – after a test run with a giro del gelato (you guessed it – a bike tour that braked at five gelaterias in the Windy City). From the website (www.forkandtheroad.com) it looks like the tours are over for the year. Here’s hoping they start up again next spring. The 2010 tours’ themes included dumplings, international BBQ, and Mediterranean Cruise. (Don’t see mention of the gelato tour…)
Category Archives: 1) Home Turf
Northwestern University – around and about
We’ve been at Northwestern off and on this weekend to see our son during parents’ weekend and to, alas, watch Iowa lose, narrowly, to Northwestern’s football team. A few finds:
– Not bad sushi at the student union
– Very good hot chocolate and an enormous tuna melt sandwich at Clark’s – an unassuming good-value coffee shop on Clark street near campus. Great place to warm up after you’ve been sitting in the rain and cold watching two teams of young men bang into each other for hours while middle-aged men shout nasty words from the stands.
– We followed Northwestern’s instructions and didn’t bring our car – and were glad of it. The El took us directly, if not swiftly, to Evanston. Free shuttle buses (the buses were labeled “Positive Connections”) arrived quickly to transport us from campus to the field which was so much smaller than Iowa’s (or Michigan’s) – really a treat. Our seats were in the 11th row so we could see the football game just yards away, up close and personal. It was like being at a high school game.
– Earlier in the trip, we went to Nightwood in the Pilsen neighborhood which alas was disappointing. My $15 hamburger – the least expensive thing on the menu – arrived medium rare (I ordered and was promised rare). I sent it back and the new one was about the same. (At which point, I split it with my brother – who didn’t eat most of his chicken because it was undercooked.) Too bad because there were good things about the place – a very attentive waiter, welcoming ambiance, some good entrees and hors d’oeuvres, tasty deserts (including a free one the waiter brought me as “a gift” because of the hamburger problem.)
Return to Andersonville (Chicago)
We didn’t get a chance to explore Andersonville after dinner last night so we returned this afternoon and glad we did. Lots of interesting design stores – mostly furniture but also clothing and odd ball “repurposing” shops that take old typewriters and TV and do amazing new things with them. The store Transistor specializes in this and the guy working there was a good host, showing us how these crazy electronic instruments that some artist/musician made up work and make sometimes horrifying noises. Also liked to the Scout that restores old furniture and The White Attic, which does the same thing with furniture that is so familiar from my childhood but looks somehow new.
Wish we’d had more time to wander – really liked the Alamo Shoes there too. The space felt like the shoestore of my youth but with a much better selection!
Filed under Chicago
Andersonville at last – Chicago
Finally made it to Chicago’s Andersonville neighborhood last night- unexpectedly. The restaurant my sister had booked for a family gathering was there – didn’t realize this until we were trying to figure out what neighborhood we were in and lo and behold, there were Andersonville signs on the lampposts. The restaurant was good – anteprima. My cousin S’s entree was my favorite – the carbonara with wonderfully crisp, crunchy, salty bacon. Ymmm. Also very good was the chocolate mouse type dessert. Nice ambiance – rustic, low-key, lots of gay couples. Reasonable prices.
Filed under Chicago
Chicago Architecture Foundation/Aqua building
I’ve been recommending things to do/see in Chicago to friends and family and realize I neglected to blog about my visit last September to the Chicago Architecture Foundation, near the Art Institute on South Michigan Ave. Several interesting tours leave from the place – and it has one of the best gift shops I’ve come across anywhere, full of great stuff on architecture and design – especially clever architecture T-shirts. Also forgot to mention one of my new favorite buildings in chicago – the Aqua Tower by Jeanne Gang. I was mesmerized by it a few years ago when I spotted it during a Chicago Architecture Foundation boat tour. The New Yorker gave it a thumbs up too recently. see :
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/skyline/2010/02/01/100201crsk_skyline_goldberger
Filed under architecture, Chicago
Chicago’s Andersonville
Andersonville has been on my to-visit list for some time and now comes another nudge from the NYTimes Travel section which featured this Chicago neighborhood in its recent Surfacing column – so now I must get there. Highlights include Scout (a high-end flea market of sorts, 5221 North Clark); in fine spirits (wine shop/small plates wine bar, 5418 North Clark); Anteprima (a rustic Italian restaurant, 5316 North Clark); Transistor ( an art gallery/music store/book shop/performance space, 5045 – you guessed it – North Clark).
Clearly it’s all happening on North Clark.
Chicago design
Hardly a day seems to go by without a story about some ultra-stylish hotel, restaurant, or boutique in Chicago – and here’s another one from last week’s NYT sunday T magazine – about Ugo Alfano Casati’s two-story gallery in “Chicago’s trendy meatpacking district” – full of midcentury and contemporary pieces w/simple, elegant design. see casatigallery.com. Doubt much of it is in my price range judging from the $58,000 bookcase and $12,500 floor lamp.
The guy eats at a Mexican restaurant called Salpicon (salpicon.com) – maybe it’s not as expensive as the stuff he collects.
Filed under Chicago
chicago restaurants – more!
More Chicago restaurant recommendations – from my sister who’s lived in and around the Windy City for a long time:
· La Sardine (French/small) – http://www.lasardine.com/
Publican – a favorite of the chefs – large tables/communal eating
The Purple Pig – small but awesome food – small shared plates http://thepurplepigchicago.com/ (located on Mag Mile)
Night wood – very cool and hip in Pilsen – great food
Prosecco – great Italian http://ristoranteprosecco.com/home.html; Very good. nice quiet setting.
Frontera/Topolobambo –
Spiaggia Cafe. Very nice. A Barack and Michelle favorite (although they go to the main restaurant, not the cafe).
Sepia. Very good. http://sepiachicago.com/ (This one I was trying to remember last week while in Chicago – been to several times and liked.)
Filed under Chicago, DINING, Uncategorized
Some more restaurant finds in Chicago – and one hotel
I have been to Chicago more times than I can count but never stayed in a hotel – thanks to an abundance of generous relatives who live in and around the city – until last Sunday night. A friend called at the last minute inviting me to join her in Chicago for a one-night trip after her son couldn’t join her as planned. She’d already paid for the hotel and the bus tickets.
We stayed at the Chicago Hilton across from Grant Park – a grand old hotel with an enormous lobby with a high vaulted ceiling, lots of marble columns, chandeliers, sweeping carpeted staircases, big ballrooms. There’s also a photo display of scenes from Obama’s victory night party taken in and around the hotel. Our room was comfortable, spacious and clean. I slept surprisingly well, for a hotel stay. My friend found some sort of deal for $161 a night – about $100 off the regular price.
For dinner, we went to the new trendy The Girl and The Goat – opened by former Top Chef winner Stephanie (can’t remember her last name) on Randolph Street. Fun and good small plates. Next time I’ll try the meat entrees – this time I stuck with vegetarian because my friend is a vegetarian and we shared plates. We had the chickpea fritters, cauliflower and squash ravioli plates – all very complicated, flavorful dishes, surprisingly large portions for two people. The chickpea fritters were our favorite – because they tasted nothing like what we thought chickpea fritters would taste like. Not heavy and gritty. Instead light and creamy – more like polenta. Place was loud and dark but we were at a table where we could see and hear each other for the most part. Our server seemed disappointed we ordered so little (plus one drink apiece.) Oh well.
We ate breakfast the next morning at an old coffee shop – the Artist’s Cafe – on Michigan Avenue that has a storied history (visited by many Balanchine, Baryshnikov etc.) not to mention great hashbrowns and attentive service. Then onto the explore the Art Institute, new wing and old, and Millennium Park and saunter along Michigan Avenue where we ended up eating at the FoodLife food court in Water Tower place which was surprisingly good- although had almost too many choices. You get a little plastic card when you arrive and use that to record what you’ve bought, then pay when you leave. Good system although you can lose track of how much you’ve spent. My friend and I ultimately ended up with soup – shrimp and lobster bisque for me; Mediterranean lentil for her. Both good. And I had a fresh squeezed orange juice and my friend had coffee-flavored gelato.
We bought sandwiches from Potbelly around the block from Michigan avenue near DePaul University’s downtown campus – surprisingly good low-mayo tuna sub that worked well to eat on the megabus back to Des Moines.
Names of those restaurants in Chicago and Evanston
Okay – here’s the names of the places we ate at during recent trip to Northwestern:
– Mario’s on W. Goethe – a low-key neighborhood place near my Aunt’s Apartment near Astor and Division. The seafood pasta in a light broth-based sauce was very good. Meatballs with meat sauce also a hit.
– Melanthios Greek Char House on North Broadway in Lakeview Restaurant. Good char-broiled octopus served with little but oil, garlic and lemon; big greek salad minus lettuce; yummy moussaka. Huge portions. We shared everything. Good service by a waiter who loves the series “The Wire” which we’re also knee-deep in. And we ate outside at tables along the street. Not quite Athens but close enough.
– Dixie’s Kitchen in Evanston – I had the mini-southern sampler special for about $6.50 – a bowl of gumbo, jambalaya and red beans. Gumbo my fave but all good.
TakeBetsywithyou 