On Friday Kristin treated me to dinner and a massage for my belated birthday gift. Kristin was thinking of going downtown, but then I suggested Wicker Park – SpaForever and dinner at The Bluebird. I’d been to SpaForever once before and liked it, and I’d heard a lot of good things about The Bluebird and wanted to try it.
At The Bluebird Kristin and I decided to order several things and split them all. We started with a yellow and red beet and goat cheese salad. Then we split the macaroni and cheese with bacon. So decadent and rich and delicious. But a word of warning: The mac & cheese came out so hot, the sauce was still boiling in the bowl. Kristin accidentally fried her tongue on this one. I don’t want to be all “oh, my coffee is too hot!”, but they should probably let this cool a bit before serving it.
For main courses we split 2 things: A flatbread and mussels. Kristin had been to The Bluebird before and remembered the flatbreads, so we decided to get one of those. They had two different ones and we got the Lebanese flatbread with ground lamb. I was expecting a rectangular dish withe crispy, cracker crust. At The Bluebird, the flatbreads come out round and the crust is a big more soft and pliable. I’m not saying this is a bad thing. The Lebanese flatbread was savory and delicious. The cheese seemed to be baked right into the crust. Or mabye it was just because there wasn’t a sauce, the cheese was right on the crust. Really good. The mussels were also delicious and plentiful! Maybe we just ordered too much, but we couldn’t finish them. Definitely too much for one person, we thought they were enough for three. The Bluebird had three different kinds of mussels to pick from. We got the provencal style: steamed in white wine with garlic, shallots, tomato, fennel & chili. They were great. I only wish I could have fit more in my belly!
After dinner we headed up a few blocks to SpaForever. It is important to note that we’d had a few glasses of wine each at dinner. To say that this helped me relax a little during my massage is an understatement! While I’ve gotten a lot of chair massages in my life, this was only the fourth full-body massage I ever got. (1, 2, 3). I will say that SpaForever is slightly more to the point and barebones than some other places. You don’t sit around in a waiting room wearing a big fluffy robe. There’s no aroma therapy. They don’t have a big fancy spa bathroom to shower when you’re done. That said, you cannot beat the price, especially when they’re having specials. Right now, through the end of October, you can get a one-hour massage for $49 or a facial for $59. And even aside from the price, I really did enjoy my massage and my therapist, Michelle, and that’s all that matters. Oh, and about the photo above. For some reason I had the couples massage room… but there was no one on the table to the left. That would have been super weird if Kristin and I were each on one of the couples tables!
After our massages, I thought we’d just want to go home, but we ended up getting a couple more drinks at the first bar we ran into while walking south on Damen, Silver Cloud. I hadn’t been to Silver Cloud for years, so it was a trip down memory lane to be back in there. Dallas and I used to go out there sometimes and used to brunch there sometimes when I lived by Wicker Park. We tried to get him to join us there, but it didn’t work. A few more drinks and then we called it a night. Time to go home and pass out from great food, great drinks and a relaxing massage! Thanks, Kristin!
[Read more →]
