I have been rather neglectful of my blog in February, probably because I spent 2.5 weeks in Chicago and had a great time catching up with friends and hanging out in my favourite city. I had every intent of blogging- I took photographs of many of the restaurants and bars we were in- but only now am sifting through them!
615 W Randolph
I had already been out with one set of people, ran back to the hotel only to run out the door again. On my way out the door, to get into my Uber, I ran into a colleague and brought him along to try this place out. This bar is beautiful, and packed- even at 9.30pm. The challenge to visit was set by a friend- and it was definitely worth the experience.
I had already been out, so we just sat at the bar. My company for the night doesn’t drink, so he had tea, which was served loose leaf in a glass teapot with a glass cup.
I had wine and focaccia. The wine was a Spanish Rose, Alfredo Santamaria, “Pago el Cordonero”. I know nothing about wine, it was $11 and served in a beautiful mini carafe. It tasted good, which is always good! The focaccia though was just something else: “Deluxe” focaccia with taleggio cheese, ricotta, truffle oil and fresh herbs. $18. Totally worth it: crisp, light and just packed with flavour.
The challenge was accepted, and Avec is definitely worth a visit!
1927 W North Avenue
In terms of ambience, Piece is a very different place to Avec! This is sport watching-beer drinking- pizza eating. However, it’s not greasy pizza with poor quality ingredients: this is good pizza. I mean, really good pizza.
I’d been before, when I lived in Chicago, but it was great to go back. Honestly, if you are heading to Chicago for any reason, don’t eat “Chicago style pizza” and think that this is all the city has to offer (heavy, cheesy, deep dish pizza pies?).
At Piece you can either select from the menu or design your own pizza- pretty standard- but the pizza then comes out on the dish it has been cooked on, and sits on a stand on the table. Again, nothing that special. But it just tastes so good. So good. My friend Kim and I went for a red based pizza (yes- you can have white based, which is also delicious) with sausage and mushroom. The lighting is low, so the picture is poor. Needless to say though, it was great. A totally new discovery for me was the beer. Now, Piece does have a brewery, but we selected the Austrian Stiegl Radler, which is grapefruit beer. It was delicious, refreshing and actually quite low alcohol (much needed at this stage of the trip), which made it a bit like a “classy” shandy!
820 W Lake Street
The décor of this place is stunning: it’s almost like two restaurants. One open and bustling, with the chefs creating sushi theatre in a centre island on the ground floor, and then one downstairs which is dark, quieter and slightly seedy- in a chic way (with Japanese “porn” on the walls). We didn’t have reservations, so we got a typical “well…we can seat you downstairs, but only until 8pm…”. Eight o’clock came and went, and we weren’t moved on. Which was great, because we were having a good time! There were four of us, and we sampled from across the menus (both sushi and robata) as well as the main menu and a sort of “quick” menu.
Sarah, our waitress, was exceptional at describing the menu for us and we ordered an array. I had salmon from the “quick” menu, as well as Wasabi Salmon Sushi Rolls from the Makimono section of the menu. We shared Wasabi Rice between us. One friend had the Alaskan King Crab from the Hibachi section (photographed below)
The wine menu is also great. I had visited before for drinks and selected cocktails, but this time went for white wine- the “Infamous Goose”, New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. It was surprisingly good!
230 W Kinzie
I have written about Gilt Bar before. This time, I went for what was supposed to be an early dinner with someone, and it ended up being one of those nights with a long chat! I ordered the salmon- the photo isn’t great. Gilt Bar is moody and dark, making it hard to take photos, or read menus. One time, another friend pulled out her iPhone and had to use the torch function to read the menu. A waiter promptly came over, offering a softer light from a torch that wouldn’t spoil the “ambience”! Anyway, the point of this comment is that, yes, I took a photo of the salmon, but the flash makes it look a bit “bleurgh”. Rest assured, it tasted great!
So, a quick dinner- I had the Roasted Salmon with brown butter, lemon and crispy capers, my friend had the truffle pasta- hand cut noodles and pecorino- (which I have had before- delicious) and the Apple and Squash Salad with manchego and hazlenuts. Our chat got so in depth, we ended up ordering dessert which, as I have got older, I very rarely do anymore. It was delicious- American Diner style pies. I had Coconut and Mocha and my friend had Lemon Meringue. It was so good, I clearly wolfed it down before I had a chance to take the picture!
For drinks, I stuck with my favourite at Gilt Bar- a “Bees Knees”, which is gin, honey and lemon. A friend had recommended a Sazerac (rye, demerara and Peychaud’s) but I am still not up on my whiskey drinking. I’ve tried. I just need the sweetness to enjoy it!
441 N Clark
This was a new one for me. The Saturday I was due to leave, I was extremely hungover. Extremely. I had spent the night before closing down 2 bars with an English friend. (Bavette’s and Vignamaggio again…) A 3.30am finish and then having to pack 2.5 weeks worth of luggage meant I was not feeling at my best.
Cue Bottlefork. My lovely American friend, Elizabeth, proposed it as a location for a goodbye brunch, and it certainly did the trick. I was not prepared to let another drop of alcohol pass my lips. In fact, I still haven’t- over a week later! I was grateful for the coffee and the caffeine boost and I began the slow process of rehydration with some “Chef’s Huckleberry Lemon-Aid”. The “Aid” was required. This was huckleberry puree, lemon juice, syrup and soda. Delicious.
I needed something to stop the room from spinning and this place gave me the elixir I craved. Now, English people. Don’t judge. For brunch I had the Wood Grilled Ground Bacon Burger, served with Vermillion blue, shoestrings (super skinny fries) and the ominous “special sauce”. We also grabbed some “tots” to share, whilst Elizabeth had the Greek omelette or (“Omelet” as it is spelled on the menu) which was feta, tomato, spinach and tsatziki. She made it a little less vegetarian with a side of bacon.
