Downtown Chicago outdoor dining, August 2022

[Pan]

Hi, everyone! My girlfriend and I will be staying at the Eurostars Magnificent Mile, 660 N State St at West Erie, and for the first 4 days, I'll be attending a conference at the Hilton on the Loop. If any of you have recommendations for delicious restaurants of any cuisine where we can sit outside (or failing that, takeout is possible) and get lunch for around $30 per person or less (not including drinks - we hardly ever have alcohol before dinner) or $50 per person or less for dinner. I realize that's a broad question, but we have quite broad tastes except that we hate raw shellfish (except for uni - go figure!), so we're open to almost any cuisine, very much including American (a diner where we could get breakfast as a change from some yogurt or raw vegetables we buy in a supermarket might come in handy, too). Also, as a wild card, we might take a day trip to the Polish neighborhood on the Northwest Side, because both of us have some Polish ancestry, so if you know any particularly excellent Polish restaurants up there, let me know.

[Alex]

It's always best to call and make sure the outdoor dining section is open. That said, here you go...

 

We love Bistronomic, about 5 blocks from your hotel

 

We also love Piccolo Sogno, which has a very popular patio. It's a short bus, train, or cab ride from the hotel

 

About 7 blocks from the hotel is Siena Tavern

 

And about 6 blocks away is Tanta (Peruvian, but more than just ceviche)

 

Beatnik on the River (dinner and weekend brunch) 

 

Jaleo (Jose Andres's tapas place -- not sure about patio, but has seating by open windows)

 

There are tons of suitable places in the West Loop. For example, on just one short stretch of Randolph there's Little Goat Diner, Bar Siena, and Leña Brava

 

For breakfast/brunch, on Clark near Frontera, is Beatrix

 

Also for breakfast not far from your hotel is Edie's All Day Cafe & Bar, but I don't know if they have outdoor seating

 

True Food Kitchen is right across the street, but I don't know about outdoor seating

 

Breakfast and lunch near the Hilton (I assume the one on Michigan across from Grant Park): Eleven City Diner

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You also might want to search and/or post on LTH Forum; that's where ronnie_suburban now makes his online home

 

Edited August 6, 2022 by Alex
to fix a typo (log)

[Pan]

Yes, the Hilton I'm talking about is the one on Michigan across from Grant Park. Thanks so much for all the recommendations! I'll look more on LTH, too. Seating next to an open window might be OK.

[kayb]

15 hours ago, Pan said:

Hi, everyone! My girlfriend and I will be staying at the Eurostars Magnificent Mile, 660 N State St at West Erie, and for the first 4 days, I'll be attending a conference at the Hilton on the Loop. If any of you have recommendations for delicious restaurants of any cuisine where we can sit outside (or failing that, takeout is possible) and get lunch for around $30 per person or less (not including drinks - we hardly ever have alcohol before dinner) or $50 per person or less for dinner. I realize that's a broad question, but we have quite broad tastes except that we hate raw shellfish (except for uni - go figure!), so we're open to almost any cuisine, very much including American (a diner where we could get breakfast as a change from some yogurt or raw vegetables we buy in a supermarket might come in handy, too). Also, as a wild card, we might take a day trip to the Polish neighborhood on the Northwest Side, because both of us have some Polish ancestry, so if you know any particularly excellent Polish restaurants up there, let me know.

Enjoy Chicago, possibly my favorite city in the U.S.!

 

No dining recs (I love Shaw’s Crab House, but don’t think they have a patio), but if you have any interest at all in American History, do not miss the Abraham Lincoln Book Shop, on Chicago just about a block or two west of the Loop.

[Pan]

Thanks, kayb. Yeah, a crab house is probably not so great to get takeout to a hotel from. 🙂

[Pan]

I just checked reservations for Frontera Grill, and they are booked solid at least through the end of September for 2. Do you all know whether they keep any tables open for walkins? I think we may end up doing takeout from them if they are really booked solid and we don't luck out with any cancellations.

[rotuts]

@Pan  

 

why not call them ?

[Alex]

10 hours ago, Pan said:

I just checked reservations for Frontera Grill, and they are booked solid at least through the end of September for 2. Do you all know whether they keep any tables open for walkins? I think we may end up doing takeout from them if they are really booked solid and we don't luck out with any cancellations.

 

Ms. Alex has had some luck doing walk-in for lunch after 1 p.m., but as rotuts suggested, I'd call and find out what's what. I'd also ask if there's a wait list for cancellations.

[Pan]

Sounds reasonable. Thanks, Alex.

[Pan]

Now that the National Flute Association convention, which I was attending, has ended, I have a chance to do my first installment of a report on our dining experiences in Chicago so far. We have been to Sociale (800 South Clark St.) twice. The first time, we went on an off hour, around 4:30 on Thursday. The second time was today a bit after 6. We consider this place special and worth it for a bit of a splurge.

 

For our first meal there, we split an order of seared Faroe island salmon filet on a bed of sauteed spinach, chopped garlic, oven dried tomatoes, pan fried red skin potatoes with caper beurre blanc ($30) and two separate sides of wood roasted Brussels sprouts with crispy bacon, lemon aioli and migas ($12) and wood roasted wild mushrooms, chives, herbs and white truffle essence ($10). I had a glass of the chardonnay from Daou in Paso Robles ($13) and my girlfriend had a Tarrica pinot noir ($12). The salmon was completely fresh, with crispy skin and seared to a perfect degree and the accompaniments and sauce were delicious. The mushrooms actually seemed to me like thin-sliced creminis, but the sauce was wonderful and we loved that side. The Brussels sprouts were good, though a bit chewy, and to me, the outside leaves were a bit too charred, but I know that's popular. Both wines were good but the pinot noir was special, and we will search it out in a wine store in the future.

 

 

Our second meal at Sociale consisted of the pickled heirloom beet salad, mixed field greens, goat cheese, pine nuts, pickled red onions and orange blossom honey vinaigrette ($12), the boneless wagyu ribeye steak with spicy scallion chimichurri sauce ($35) and the apricot chocolate croissant bread pudding, anejo caramel, candied pecans and vanilla gelato ($10). Everything was great. We got the wagyu medium rare, which was perfect. We both had glasses of Daou cabernet sauvignon with the meal ($16), which had nice complexity and went very well with the steak.

 

 

 

[Edited to add a picture of the bread pudding.]

 

Service was excellent both times, and the waitresses consulted with the bartender about what wines would go best with the meal. We're already thinking about going back on our next trip to Chicago, whenever that is.

 

Yesterday, we had dinner at The Gage (24 South Michigan Avenue) before going to a concert at Grant Park. We were rushed, so we asked for our salad and main course, both of which we shared, to be served simultaneously, and we still ended up missing part of the first movement of the Shostakovich Violin Concerto, which was played splendidly by Christian Tetzlaff and the Grant Park Orchestra. Our service was very gracious, and the food was delicious but definitely pricy. We got the Gage Caesar - romaine heart, broken Caesar dressing, brioche crouton, anchovy, Parmesan ($15) and the pan seared Alaskan halibut, pea tendrils, English pea, fingerling potato, spring onion, dill, lemon beurre blanc ($38), The sauce for the halibut was so good that the two of us, who usually don't like peas, liked them pretty well, especially as they were not raw but not mushy. The halibut was perfectly fresh. The Caesar was great and was a revelation to my girlfriend, who had never had a Caesar salad nearly that good and actually liked the anchovy, which she usually hates (I didn't get an anchovy but enjoyed the taste it imparted). My girlfriend, who favors red wines, had a Land of Saints pinot noir ($15), a delicious wine, but we agreed that that was a mistake to order with a delicate white fish, and I had a House of Brown Chardonnay ($16), which I was very happy with. No pictures because we were both really hungry and also in a rush. We think The Gage is a great restaurant, but if one person has a full meal there (app or salad, main, dessert, wine), that would be an expensive proposition, indeed.

 

The other noteworthy eating experience we've had so far is a trip to Kilwins Chocolates, Fudge & Ice Cream ( 310 S. Michigan Ave) with a friend who was in the chorus for the Vaughan Williams "Dona Nobis Pacem" after the concert. I got a waffle cone of the chocolate shredded coconut and pralines ($10.79), my girlfriend got toasted coconut and butter pecan in a cup ($10.29), and our friend got a cup of chocolate chip cookie dough ($7.29).  The scoops are humongous! They offer half scoops, which might be a good idea if you want to have more than one flavor. Anyway, we were all really happy with the flavors we got, and in particular, I liked that they use pretty dark chocolate, but this is pretty dense soft serve ice cream and fills you up easily. No photos - handling ice cream is messy! - but I recommend the place, although, I wouldn't have the blue ice cream. 🙂 We're tempted to go back for some fudge or a milkshake.

Edited August 15, 2022 by Pan (log)

[Pan]

By the way, I've relaxed my usual carb restrictions because we've walked a lot and I've clearly lost weight.

[Alex]

Ah, I had thought about recommending Gage. We've eaten there multiple times. And someone we knew here in GR is now the Wine Director for The Gage and the Corporate Beverage Director for the Gage Hospitality Group.

[Pan]

Very cool, Alex. They are doing an excellent job.