Chicago Archives - Food, Booze, & Baggage

Chicago~The Food

September 30, 2014 by Mariah 10 Comments

It was so good we ate there twice. The dishes are well conceived and much more than you would expect given the decor. Think again if you are expecting bar fare. P and I had breakfast there and then went back with R & T for lunch when Hot Doug’s fell through. I was so upset we did not get to try the famous Hot Doug’s, but the line was crazy and I could not justify spending 3 plus hours of our Chicago trip in it. For breakfast we tried the steak and eggs (upper right-beautiful presentation) and the fried chicken and waffles. My favorite dish at lunch was the bison sloppy joe with fried sage (bottom middle).

Bang Bang Pie

It’s a shop that sells pie…how can you go wrong? We were a bit disappointed that they were all sold out of their pastry crust pies but the other ones were still SO good. All of these were TASTY! Lesson learned: get there early for full pie options 🙂

Au Cheval

We went for the burger. We had read so many reviews and recommendations based on the burger here, we could not pass it up. And well, not the best burger I’ve ever had. It was good, but it did not blow me away. Look at that crazy thick bacon that came on it! I did really enjoy the bone marrow.

The Little Goat Diner

We went here for breakfast and I was a happy camper. P and I had stopped by the day before and had a piece of pie, which was delicious. The bartender gave us a little tip – if you get there early you can avoid the wait, and this was true. Our boat tour was at 10 so we got up for an early breakfast. All the dishes were great. My favorite was the banana, bacon, and peanut butter waffles.

Girl and the Goat

Oh, the hype is true. I’ve wanted to go to the Girl and the Goat forever, in fact it was my only criteria for the trip:) When R & T brought up the trip, the first words out of my mouth was “We’re in, if we can go to Girl and the Goat”. It was a food affair, and I was not disappointed. It was such a food affair, that it required pens and deep thought to choose our dishes.We even got a free appetizer! We also got great seats right in front of the open kitchen, but no sighting of “the girl”.

The Publican

This was another top pick to try for Chicago. The food was a complete win, with some interesting combinations. The atmosphere, was well, loud. Honestly, we were there for the food so it was fine, but I’m not sure what the restaurant would work for otherwise. I wouldn’t say it was good for a date or a business meeting, or anything where you want to have a good conversation. I was tickled that they offered genever (which I first had in Ghent). The unexpected winner was the nectarine salad, which had a surprising combination of flavors (first on the left, second row). We also tried blood sausage (middle, bottom row)!

Firecakes

Because….I’m obsessed. I made P get up early before we headed to Millennium Park and we grabbed some to take back to the room. I didn’t care we were having brunch in a few hours. I’m really glad we got to try them! The strawberry and cream one was my favorite, but they were all good (we also had chocolate and peanut butter, roasted pineapple and bacon, and coconut cream).

The Bristol

They had me at pastry board! The Bloody Mary was quite tasty, but I was not too impressed with the chicken and biscuits (we’ve already established I have a go-to brunch dish) 🙂 The benedict was quite good though.

Tete Charcuterie

Oh man, it was meat heaven. I’m such a sucker for charcuterie! The service was wonderful, and we were greeted so warmly. We got a free appetizer here too. If you are into cured meats this is a must stop!! I would love to go back and try some of their sausages too.

It was quite the epic eating trip, and I’m so glad we got to share it with Ryan and Tara! It is so good to have friends that are into food as much we are! They were such great sports with all my picture taking too!

For the other half of our Chicago trip, check out Booze & Views

Chicago~Booze & Views

September 23, 2014 by Mariah 13 Comments

At the end of July, P and I, along with our friends, Ryan and Tara (remember Tara) went to Chicago. It was a great trip and we had a ton of fun. P and I went up one day earlier, and spent 3 nights/4 days in the city. Both P and I had been to Chicago before, but this was our first trip together. Chicago is a fun town, with plenty to keep you occupied. I always wish for more time to explore. I love all the different areas to visit, each with it’s own vibe. Here are some of the places we visited on this trip:

Booze

Watershed

I just loved it! The drinks were great, the decor very retro/comfortable, and good service. I would have happily visited here every night of the trip (too bad we didn’t visit until our last night). Watershed is located through Pops and down the stairs, the two places have extremely different feels, so don’t be put off by the hustle and bustle of the upstairs.

Half Acre

Nice tasting room and friendly staff. We sampled all the beers they had available. I loved that they sold sample sizes! Good American style beers that were very refined. Just as an fyi, the tasting room is to the right of their beer shop/growler filling area.

DryHop

Neat space, and loved their beer tanks. The beer itself was creative but clearly rushed. Many of the ones we tried would have been better if fermented for a longer amount of time to clarify in color and taste. They offered a full menu and seemed like a popular spot to grab a bite.

Delilah’s

I would definitely classify this as a dive bar, but with a much better class of drink than PBR and Wild Turkey 🙂 They had a great list of bourbons and a good selection of local beers. Also, I love their sign! I had the Ancient Age bourbon, and really enjoyed it, SO smooth. The bartender seemed quite knowledgeable on his bourbons.

Views

Architecture Boat Tour

We decided to do a boat tour as part of our trip, and went with the Chicago Architecture Foundation River Cruise, as it got high ratings on Tripadvisor and Google. I was very impressed with how knowledgeable, professional, and efficient our tour guide was. Do not let the term “volunteer” scare you, this lady had it down. I felt like the tour covered a wide area and it was a neat way to see Chicago, plus learn a little about it’s history. The only confusing part was finding the boat, as they dock in different slots each time and the flags on the slots do not correspond to the tour per say. You need to look at the board at the information booth when you first come down the steps to find your assigned dock. People do really line up 30 minutes (or earlier) for the tour so don’t dilly dally if you want a good seat. We bought our tickets in advance, I’m not sure how readily available tickets are the day of; most of the tours we saw seemed full.

Millennium Park

It’s not a real trip to Chicago without going to see the “bean” aka Cloud Gate (the real name) and of course doing a selfie 🙂 Sadly, my camera battery died almost immediately. My last day in Chicago and I was with a dead battery 🙁 I have way less pictures than I thought I would of Millennium Park. We also went and watched the kids play in the Crown Fountain (I like to call it the spitting faces fountain). I can never remember the official names of any of the park exhibits. Crown Fountain is a neat attraction, but I’m totally skeeved out about the amount of pee and other bodily fluids that you know is floating around in there. I was not a happy camper when some woman (yes woman, not kid) splashed me on our way out.

The Signature Lounge at the 96th

Yes, I could have technically put this under booze, but you are going for the view not the drinks. This is a very touristy thing to do, but the views are great. It gives you the nice view without the time or money commitment of the Skydeck. All of the pictures above were taken with my iphone.

While we did not make it to any of these on this trip, I also enjoy:

Second City: the neighborhood is pretty neat and you are sure to be entertained. I personally love improv and it is fun getting to image some of the more famous faces of comedy doing their stint there.
The Art Institute of Chicago: it is pretty amazing, but you definitely need at least 2 hours just to skim through a fraction of it. Make sure to get a picture with the lions out front 🙂
The Chicago Lakefront Trail: if you have never seen one of the Great Lakes, this is a must. It is so weird to think of it as “just” a lake. Also, perfect for those of you who crazily 🙂 continue to exercise on vacation, great place for a run and a view.

We stayed at The Wit, which was an awesome, awesome location. You could not beat the location for ease of access to the L. The hotel was ok, but I was not a fan of having to fight through the club goers to enter and exit the lobby. Not my scene and I referred to the rooftop as D-ville. Also, let’s get with the program Wit, it’s 2014 not 2004, offer free Wi-Fi, not a free USA Today.

Tune in next Tuesday for….THE FOOD (aka the best part) 🙂

For other tips and reviews of Chicago:

Eat, Drink, and Be Lauren

Life According to Steph (which I have not read yet as I did not want it to influence my post)

Not Entirely Perfect (lives there)

Life Lately~Airplanes, Tea, & Sunny CA

August 14, 2014 by Mariah 19 Comments

Hello long lost interweb friends! Well, I took a bit of an unplanned break…but in reality it was very likely to happen. I was hoping that I would be able to get at least one or two posts out, but here we are almost 3 weeks since my last post…yikes!! So, I thought I would give you guys a little update on life lately.

Took a great trip to Chicago with great friends. There will be a full post on Chicago soon! Spoiler-alert…we ate a WHOLE lot.

Came back from Chicago and promptly got sick…like oh I feel like I’m dying sick. To be honest I’m still not 100% better yet 🙁

I’m now unemployed. I finished up work at the end of July. It’s weird not to have a plan work-wise, but I’ve been so busy, it hasn’t even been at the top of my list to worry about 🙂 I’m not planning on focusing on this bit of my life until after the move. The below picture is from our Chicago trip, I thought it looked very 1950s housewife like. Unemployed=Pretend housewife

Tara hosted an over the top, fabulous tea party. It seriously was a picture straight out of Southern Living. I don’t throw around the title, “hostess with the mostest” lightly…this proves my point! It was such a fun time with the girls. The food was SO good and per the usually we ate way too much. I really could not pick my favorite dish, they were all so tasty.

We just got back this week from our house rental search in San Diego. We have a lease…yay!! Thoughts on San Diego:

It’s really really sunny and I don’t just mean that the sun is out all the time. The sun is so intense there, it is so hard to describe, but the sun is just not the same intensity here in ole NC.
The people are so friendly and outgoing. I was shocked at how friendly everyone was.
I’m really excited about our move!! We will be moving in early September and I can’t wait to explore San Diego more!

I met Shannon from Brass Honey for lunch. This was my first blogging friend real-life encounter and I feel like it went great!! Honestly, after I got over my own internal, this is so weird anxiety (which was like a whole 5 seconds), it was just like meeting any friend for lunch. I felt so comfortable and we just chit chatted away like long lost friends. I might have dominated the entire conversation though…sorry S! I had so much fun, I completely forgot to document it. I cannot believe I don’t have pictures from our first meeting. Don’t worry I’m sure there will be plenty of pictures after the move, since I’m already forcing S into future activities 🙂

That has been pretty much it since my last post. I’m going to try really hard to get some more posts up. I have a ton of ideas, I’m just having a hard time sitting still and calming my mind enough to write. I also have lots of blog reading to catch up on! Missed you all!!

So, what’s new with you?