This was virgin territory for both Matt and I, and we were both SOOOOO excited to get into and explore Chicago! CHI-TOWN!!
Fortunately we know a guy who knows a guy, you know? (Mob Talk) Actually, I had requested a “Must Do/See/Eat” list from my good buddy Andrew Brentan who hails from this Windy City. He was the perfect city guide! Here was what he suggested and we did:
1. Hackney’s on Harms for a rockin’ burger on Rye bread and a crispy curly onion loaf. CHECK!
2. Al’s #1 Beef on Taylor. We each ordered an Italian Beef with hot giardenara (Matt) and mild (Bree) with some really tasty fries and some cheese sauce to dip them in. I also put cheese sauce on my sandwich (Blasphemy? I don’t know, but it sure made it good! Cheese makes everything better when you are a pregnant woman who craves dairy –though one could argue that there is no actual cheese in a cheese sauce…). CHECK!
3. 2 Pizza joints:
A. Giordano’s Pizza. This was my favorite. I L.O.V.E.D. the salad and especially their dressing– I could bathe in their house dressing. But that was not why we were there: the pizza was INCREDIBLE!! I mean really really great! Some of you may know that both Matt and I prefer our pizza on a thin crispy crunchy crust and Chicago style pizza is anything but. This crust was still super crispy though and there was enough cheese on this pizza to give a lesser person some serious lactose issues! It was so good! Oh, and just to add to the experience they had a Bull’s game on the TV! It was cold and raining outside, but warm delicious smelling inside –it doesn’t get much better than that! Did I mention that I loved this place? :) FINGER LICKING CHECK!
B. Lou Malnati’s. Okay rumor had it that this place was the best, and maybe we caught it on an off day. Or maybe it was poor ordering, but this pizza didn’t do a lot for me. We went to the original location and the service was fine, my salad was fine and the pizza was fine. Nothing that makes a girl rave (see above). If I lived in the area I would try each one again before finalizing my decision. But since I don’t I have to give this place a “Meh, good not great” rating. MEH CHECK!
4. Big Star has some really yummy tacos. I can just hear all of you SOCAL peeps now, but wait! This place really was super good. Sure it was $3 for a taco the size of a Tijuana street taco, but the ingredients and flavors were legit! The place reminded me of San Antonio a lot with the decor and the menu. It clearly is a place to go, drink, drink, drink, socialize, drink and sit on a sunny (still windy) Chicago day. When we walked up (at about 11AM) the door guy asked for our ID’s and asked if we were there for drinks or food. “DRINKS??” I said. “We just woke up. Anyways, we’re here for the food.” (I realized later how judge-y I sounded, but I had not realized it was Saturday and could not believe the amount of people sitting around getting blitzed before noon.) OLE CHECK!
Matt and I also spent our 2 year anniversary in Chicago. April 21, 2010 was the day I walked down the aisle toward him and toward our future RV’ing life. So we took the day and honored it.
We hopped on public transit and went straight into the city. We walked Millennium Park, checking out a little of the Art Institute and “The Bean“. We then walked over to Navy Pier and walked for what seemed like hours down the pier only to see that we had only gone 1/2 way. I was sorta tired by then so we stopped and ate (surprise surprise!). After Navy Pier we made our way back to the RV for a nap.
Our anniversary night was majorly awesome! Matt had made us reservations at the original Morton’s Steakhouse. This was by far the most attentive and courteous dining experience of our entire stay. We were greeted with a “Happy anniversary” from the hostess, and after being sat we noticed that they had personalized our menus! Seriously! I was so touched. Our Server, who greeted us by name, was awesome and the food was even better! They took a photo of us and put it in a little frame where they had written us a happy 2nd anniversary message and brought us their legendary hot chocolate cake on the house. It was romantic and perfect.
After dinner we had an hour or so to walk from Morton’s over to the Second City stage. The show started at 11pm and went about 2.5 hours (thank goodness for my nap earlier). We both knew Second City is a sort of breeding ground for Saturday Night Live, but we had no idea how extensive their alumni list was! The show was AMAZING! Super funny and the entire cast seemed like they could slip right in with Kristin Wiig for any taping. We are both excited to see if any of them go on go SNL, or what we may see them in in the future.
After the show we jumped in a Prius cab just like regular Chicagoans and made our way home to our sweet waiting bed. The day and night was EPIC. <3 ANNIVERSARY CHECK!
What could possibly follow a day and night like that you ask? Well, I’ll tell you. And it was also EPIC!
Enter Tracy.
Matt met Tracy many moons ago over the phone discussing a website that he had some questions about (designs? coding? colors? I don’t know!). They have kept in touch and so when we were heading in he called her up. Being a busy working woman who owns her own company she couldn’t hang with us right away, but did offer her office parking space as our perma-home while in the area. HOW COOL IS THAT!!??!! (It’s cool!) When she did meet up with us though we made a night of it. :) We ate a a local Italian place where we sat for a couple hours talking and enjoying the food. Tracy is wonderful people! In fact, all Chicago people are pretty great! I’ve never met a person from Chicago I didn’t like, and Tracy explained that it’s because everyone from Chicago are really just small town people.
After dinner, we piled in a cab and headed to Blue Chicago to meet her beaux and to catch some live music. The musicians (Mike Wheeler Band) seriously brought down the house. I especially like the upbeat, love centered, 70’s vibe beats of Peaches. Her sound was old school blues. She mixed in some Beatles and even a little Lindy Hop for those that wanted to dance (Ourtake, you guys would have LOVED her!!) Sometime after midnight we hailed a cab to take us to our respective homes.
DINNER WITH FRIENDS, CHICAGO BLUES SCENE, HAILING CABS: CHECK CHECK CHECK!
Then next morning we woke up slowly and said our goodbye’s to the city. I don’t know when, but I do know that we will be in Chicago again. WE <3 CHICAGO!
xoxo
Breezy City Girl
PS. I really don’t get how Chicken in a car, car won’t go spells Chicago!
PPS. Who knew that Lake Michigan was such a pretty blue! My closing shot is the first time I every put my toes in Lake Michigan! :)
