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germuska

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Everything posted by germuska

  1. Actually Spoon is in Lincoln Square. Uptown is due east, at the lake. Budacki's would be considered to be in the Ravenswood neighborhood, although it is technically within the Lincoln Square Community Area. Pardon my pedantry
  2. FG definitely doesn't take reservations for groups of 3. Lunch can be busy there, but you can often get into Topolobampo without reservations; in fact, the only time i have eaten at T. was when we couldn't get seated at FG for lunch. I like FG, but I think you're better off using the second meal for something else, whether Topolobampo, one of Chicago's numerous other "upscale mexican" restaurants, or something else entirely. I'd probably say "something else entirely." Do you mean Al's Beef at Wells and Ontario? Or Mr. Beef at 666 N. Orleans? Scandalous as it may sound, I've found Portillo's to have a better beef than either, although note that Al's locations are franchises and many people who rave about the original Taylor St. location discount the River North location. (In light of our Chicago compatriots' research [1][2], I defer on any absolute judgments.) 720 S. Michigan isn't really "near the Magnificent mile," in downtown terms. The "Magnificent mile" is generally considered the stretch of Michigan north of the river (~400 N.) up to where it feeds into Lake Shore Drive (~1200 N.) At 800 address numbers to the mile (a reliable metric citywide), you'd have about a 1.5 mile walk to the Mag Mile. Obviously, it's just a short cab ride.
  3. I am pretty sure that Heartland also participates in the Evanston Farmers' Market, which is open on Saturday AM. And this LTHForum thread has been used to announce a few opportunities to buy Wettstein organic meats in Oak Park during the off-farmers-market season. I imagine they'll be more focused on markets for the summer, but you may want to use the "watch this topic" feature at the bottom of the page (you have to be logged in to sign up to watch threads.)
  4. This recent thread has several suggestions. Here's a long-running thread I found on Cleveland Asian restaurants just paging through the Heartland thread index a few pages. Here's a thread from last year where Michael Ruhlmann solicited opinions on Cleveland's Best Restaurants About a year ago, Hungry Magazine did a nice rundown of Cleveland restaurants. I haven't lived in Cleveland for many years now, and my visits back are usually brief and I haven't had many chances to explore any place I've learned about from those threads, but I'm going to try harder next time I'm back in town.
  5. That map is great, Edsel! But I have to admit, I think Phnom Penh is going to be my first shot. Mom lives in Bay Village and I love hole-in-the-wall asian, and as far as I know, we don't have any Cambodian here in Chicago. I'm going to have to look into coming out for the eGullet gathering since it's in Cleveland this year...
  6. As a Cleveland expatriate who goes home to visit once in a while, it would be really great if folks could post addresses when they talk about places. I'm much more likely to remember to go check a place out if I know it's within striking distance when I'm visiting my Mom for a quick weekend. Addresses or not, I'm subscribed to this thread and looking forward to hearing more about what's been going on since I've been away...
  7. Just to be blunt, those are pretty much totally at odds. The Gold Coast is packed with a lot of quality upscale places (plus a lot of places that are probably not worth their prices) but it's not where you'll find "neighborhood places, ethnic restaurants, and dives." Albany Park (the North Kedzie nr706 mentioned) may be the neighborhood you want, except it's not very convenient to the Gold Coast via public transit. It has a high density of mexican and middle eastern, is near a lot of Korean (or maybe includes Korean depending on how you read the neighborhood boundaries) I know someone who moved to that neighborhood substantially based upon the food options. I think my neighborhood, Rogers Park, has a pretty impressive collection of little places, particularly along Clark Street (last fall a group of us spent an afternoon exploring some of them and we're going to try to finish up the ones we didn't make it to in a couple of weeks. ) RP is not generally considered a food destination, but it's not a bad place for neighborhood options.
  8. FWIW, I misspoke before. The chocolate-oriented shop directly across from Tank is Peter's second business on Argyle Street, Sweet Passion If I recall correctly, La Patisserie P is more about pastry than chocolate, and has a bit of asian-style baked goods mixed in with the European style things. No reason you can't go to both, of course...
  9. Over on LTH, Rene G posits a style characteristic of Northwest Indiana Some nice photos too! Steamed Cheeseburgers seem pretty local to Connecticut. Here's a Roadfood discussion thread on it. Green Chile cheeseburgers are characteristic of New Mexico. Fritas are characteristic of heavily Cuban parts of Florida. See George Motz's Hamburger America film and John Edge's Hamburgers and Fries book for more. Took to long to write this -- lots of people covered this turf. But anyway, hopefully the links are good for something.
  10. I have no idea if he "plays in the same league" as the other chocolatiers mentioned here, but there's Patisserie P on Argyle Street, a modest spot that has the benefit of being right across from Tank Noodle and right at the end of a dense block of Vietnamese and Chinese restaurants, groceries, bakeries, and shops. The one time I went in there, the proprietor and a staff member were making chocolate right in plain sight at the back of the shop. It also has the benefit of being extremely convenient to public transportation, as the Argyle stop on the red line lets you off smack in the middle of all of the fun.
  11. They probably still expect more than chef's whites, but Joho has a more casual spot, Brasserie Jo which you might want to check out. Re Italian Beef, the original Al's on Taylor Street is probably the most convenient to your orbit, but there are lots and lots of options. This blog post recaps Skillet Doux's in-depth investigation of the matter, or you could see what the LTHForum members found in their series of beefathons.
  12. My suggestion was based more on the fact that the Chicago Spice House is a 15 minute cab ride from your hotel (less if traffic is light, and you could reasonably walk it if the weather isn't as bad as you've been warned) The Penzey's in Oak Park would be a somewhat more involved train ride (green line), although Oak Park is not without its charms, especially if you like Frank Lloyd Wright. (I love his Unity Temple, which is just down the street from Penzey's, but I don't know what their tour schedule is like. If you get that rare beautiful spring day, walking around OP looking at FLW architecture would probably be pretty nice.) I don't know too much about food options in OP, although I've heard that Petersen's is a good spot for ice cream sundaes. The only other area Penzey's is in Naperville, which is not a trip you'll be making without a car. There was a Chowhound thread on comparisons between Spice House and Penzey's just last month... I've never shopped at Penzey's, but I'm a long time fan of the Evanston Spice House location. I imagine you'd find them similar enough to not make Oak Park worth the trip unless you have other reasons to go out there and little reason to try to visit both in one trip.
  13. Given where you'll be, ditch the Penzey's trip (mentioned in the first post) and go to the Old Town location of the Spice House (which I guess Ronnie suggested too) Your hotel is smack in the heart of the River North tourist district, which means lots of traps like Hard Rock Cafe and Rainforest Cafe. I work very near there and generally feel pretty underwhelmed by the dining options, but you'll be very conveniently located to the original Pizzeria Uno and Due, which I'd choose for classic Chicago deep dish over Gino's East, which is closer to your hotel. There are lots of other places nearby, none of which really qualify as the kind of ethnic experience I think you had in mind... for those, you'll have to get out of the city center... From the class location, you aren't too far at all from Greektown (less than a mile due west) and maybe only about two miles from the old Italian neighborhood around the University of Illinois-Chicago. I'm not qualified to make specific recommendations in those neighborhoods but if that's interesting, searching or further questions should get someone who can. The south side Chinatown is within decent striking distance (probably a 20 min train ride, red line towards "Dan Ryan" to Cermak stop) from the general area and while it's not fair to compare it to NY or SF Chinatown, there are lots of good food options. The north side Vietnamese/Chinese neighborhood is not too much farther the other way (Red line towards "Howard" to Argyle stop) and also has lots of good food. Chicago has a lot of great Mexican, something visitors often don't realize. You can take the Blue Line (towards "Douglas") to the 18th St stop and Pilsen, a vibrant Mexican American neighborhood. If you like sausage, you may want to try the notorious Hot Doug's, which is not too far from the Blue Line (towards O'Hare) Belmont stop. He's only open for lunch and has long lines on weekends, but you may find it worth the trip.
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