Tim Dolan

I'm more confused about the $10 possibly-alcoholic lemonade. The line about slapping any vegetarian friends was great.

I was only able to fit in a trip to Harry Caray's during my trip. Besides, two steakhouses probably would've been a waste of a great restuarant city. I guess that doesn't matter however since my only other true Chicago eating experiences was some deep dish. Anyway, Harry Caray's has to be classified as a true, old-school steakhouse. Fans of avant garde cuisine might dismiss the steakhouse as uninteresting. Well, you don't go to steakhouses for interesting cuisine, you go for the classics. And that is what Harry Caray's delivers. Between three of us, we ordered the 23oz porterhouse, the 18oz dry aged ribeye, and the 13oz filet. All came out med rare as ordered, and all were very high-quality steaks. I had the ribeye and I thought it was about as good as it could be. It wasn't the best steak I ever had, but it reached my expectations. My friends, who aren't really into food that much, were definitely impressed. It was definitely a nice, laid back place where you can get a great steak with zero pretention.

I'm finally recovered from my hangover from my 4 whirlwind days in Chicago. What a town. As I expected, my trip quickly devolved from a somewhat structured plan of attack to an uncoordinated mess of spontaneous binge drinking. Let me say that nothing supports spontaneous binge drinking like Chicago deep dish. I managed to get pies from Giordano's and Due's. Both were good, but I liked the Due's pie better. Due's had more of a handmade feel to it, while Giordano's kind of felt like it came off of an assembly line. If that makes any sense. That probably sounds bad, but it was still a good pie. I can completely understand the debate between all of the deep dish establishments and I wish I was able to try more of them. I came away with the feeling the Giordano's was a fine example of Chicago deep dish, but that there are much better places in town. Due's, in my opinion, was a step up, and it reached my preconcieved notion of what a true Chicago deep dish pie is supposed to be.

My recollection is that many, but certainly not all, of the "big name" Chicago style pizza places have sauce that is chunkier than what you'd find on standard thin pizzas. More importantly, though, the pizza served at the national Uno's chain is quite different and much worse than what you'll find at the original Uno's and Due's. I have never met anyone who liked the pizza at the national chain, much less someone who liked it after trying pizzas at any of the main places in Chicago. I don't know the Philly market well enough to know if there are decent "Chicago style" pizza places there, but they do exist outside of Chicago. ← Yeah the Uno's out here sucks to the point that I figured it couldn't possibly be indicitive of the original. Philly is a slightly lacking pizza town. We certainly have some good stuff, but not true Chicago style places. I'm probably just gonna hit Geno's East or Lou Malnati's once I get out there, whichever one I come across first.

Possibly the Public House.

Quick question. Me and a friend stopped by a Pizzeria Uno out here in Philly in order to gain some perspective on what we might expect from the pies out in Chi town. On the menu it seemed to point out that the sauce for their deep dish pizza was "chunky style", meaning that there were literally chunks of crushed tomatoes in the sauce. I was not a fan of this style. Do all of the other authentic Chicago deep dish places use the "chunky" style sauce as well, or just Uno's?

Man you guys sure know how to get the most out of a trip. Excellent pictures too.

Taking a page right out of Phil A.'s playbook, I got some roast pork noodle soup and fried dumplings for takeout. Awesome awesome awesome. They just looked so good in the pictures I had to try some for myself. I've been on a Chinese kick for a few weeks now and this is the first time I've gotten takeout from somewhere other than Szechuan Tasty House. The fact that if I catch 76 at the right time I can be up and back in 30 minutes has rendered all of my local takeout/delivery places inadequate.

Really? The farm guy goes with the mic vs. the grill???

There is a full page ad on page 17 of today's Daily News that says "Save Rick's Steaks & The Reading Terminal Market". It lists a petition that has been signed by 52 of the shop owners in the Market. A very nice show of solidarity, I think.

If the size of the burger is a problem, try the burger at the Society Hotel at 3rd and Chestnut. They don't serve up a massive burger like most places but it's still pretty killer. Also, if you got some of the Rouge burger down you shouldn't have too much of a problem with the normal offering from Standard Tap. Good Dog is out of the question.

Not sure. I do know that it was bought around a year ago by someone who owns another bar in Northern Liberties . The name is actually "Liberties U.S. Hotel", or something along those lines.

Grabbed a burger from the U.S. Hotel on Main St. last week before Thursday's Phillies' game. I'm a big fan of the Hotel, they've had a good burger for a long time. Just as I thought they were gonna step their game up, this burger was held back because it was overcooked. Ordered it med-rare, came out med-well. It was still good, but if they can nail the correct temp it will be just shy of great. I loved the fries. Thicker than normal and with the skin still on, sprinkled with kosher salt and black pepper, and smothered with fresh minced garlic. I couldn't stop eating them. You definitely have to be a fan of garlic, but who isn't?

I had probably the best Valentine's Day dinner I ever had there. Katie made my girlfriend a champagne cocktail (pommegranite and something else puree? Deeelicious) that she still talks about. Good times. I'm sure you'll let us know where you land. Best of luck.

Eating jellyfish scares me just cause I'm a wuss.

Awesome. I'll be in Chicago in August. Definitely stopping by.

Going up to the top of this thread, cold jellyfish? Really???

Had a surprisingly good burger at Kildare's on Main St. last night. I wasn't going in with any expectations, I was just insanely hungry, but this burger was damn good. Cooked perfectly medium rare, nice and juicy, served on an onion roll. It came with those wide steak fries, which I'm not a fan of. It was nothing ground breaking, but it's nice to know another good place for a burger close to where I live.

I think that portion size is definitely more of a preferential thing. For instance, I love John's cheesesteak, and it's a monster. But I don't like Mama's, which is just as big. I also love Dalessandro's and that's smaller than both. But really that has more to do with quality than anything else. So for two items that are closer in quality I would say that the double standard at Standard Tap is just as big as the Rouge burger. I like the ST burger much better. Which would I like more if they had a smaller counterpart? Well, the double standard is simply a larger version of the original, and I normally get the double. So as to your original question; it certainly doesn't make you a weirdo, it just means you know what you like.

There are two standout places in my neighborhood for water ice. Rose's on the corner of Pechin and Roxborough Ave, and Overbrook's on Main St. Actually, they used to be called Overbrook's but I believe they were bought out by Cafe Zesty which is across the street. I haven't had any of their stuff since the change over so I can't comment, but Overbrook's was damn good. Rose's also has a small fleet of refurbished mail cars with the steering wheel on the right side. They're painted yellow and roam the 'hood suring the summer months. Good stuff. There is also a few Rita's around but I think Rita's is crap.

Dude, there is a place is Philly that has your name written all over it. www.ansillfoodandwine.com

In response to the original question, a good analogy would be would you serve someone who came into a bar already completely shitfaced? You know it could turn out to be a bad situation, right? Same thing with an already screaming baby. Babies and drunks can be an awful lot alike, as I'm sure we all know. The analogy holds across the board. If a guy walks into a bar sober and has too much to drink, he gets cut off. If a baby comes into a restaurant sleeping but wakes up in the middle of dinner and starts wailing, then the parents should at least walk the kid outside. If a guy goes to a bar, has some drinks, has a good time and handles himself well, then he can stay as long as he wants. Same thing with a kid. Long story short, a kid is a customer too. If they get disruptive, then they should be asked to leave, just like anyone else.

Right here my man. I've been trying to pimp that thing for a while. I failed to mention it by its name on the menu, though, which may be the problem... http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...dpost&p=1372545

Any new news on Cooperstown? I'll be up there next weekend, a trip to Ommegang is definitely in order. I'll be heading up with myself and three other carnivores so vegetarian options are not neccessary.

Wow, Coke's marked up like wine at a restaurant. I can deal with the food prices though. What's a cheesesteak or roast pork at Front and Oregon, $6.50? I can deal with a dollar conveinience fee to get a Tony Luke's roast pork at the stadium. When Geno's was there (now it's Rick's) they charged the same price as their 9th and Passyunk location for the first year, then moved it up 75 cents the next year. I heard they moved out because of the high rent being charged by the ballpark.