I splurged on tickets to see The Joffrey Ballet and It was worth every shekel
as expected. The dancing was superb, as always, and the program varied, from Twyla Tharp’s choreography to nine Sinatra songs to a perky piece by Jerome Robbins, an avant garde piece by John Adams and an intimate piece danced by a spectacular couple, choreographed by Gerald Scarpino, the joffrey’s co founder.

It is also always a treat to attend a performance at the elegant old Auditorium theatre at Roosevelt University, an 1889 beauty by Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler with its murals, gold leaf adorned ceiling, mosaics. much as I enjoy the spare design of the new theatre by Millenium park, it can’t compare to the old world charm of the auditorium. (“the greatest room for music and opera in the world bar none” according to Frank Lloyd Wright.)

We ate a very interesting light lunch at Mercat a la Planxa, a catalan-inspired restaurant (think barcelona) in The Blackstone Hotel, another elegant old turn of the century Chicago place known for its smoke filled rooms where local pols made their deals. My sister and I had a delicious thick soup arroz a la cazuela, with rice,bits of chicken, chorizo and shrimp; an interesting mixed greens salad with asparagus, avocado, green beans, shaved mahon cheese; and a one of a kind dessert – croquetas de xocolata, deep fried balls filled with hot liquid chocolate, each plopped in a little pool of carmel and banana marshmallow fluff.