Out in Logan Square with Amanda

Amanda came down for a visit from Oak Creek, WI to watch Makai so Dallas and I could go to my holiday party. She ended up staying over Saturday night too. Dallas took Makai to play with Konrad and Charlie at Josh’s house, so Amanda and I went out on a mission to hit up some neighborhood spots that I don’t normally get to go to with Makai.

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Our first stop was Lost Lake. We’ve been following the career of Paul McGee for a long time: From The Whistler in Logan Square, to Three Dots and a Dash downtown, and now back to Logan Square with Lost Lake, a tiki bar. Everyone has been talking about Lost Lake, many of my friends have gone, and some are even saying it’s the 2015 Cocktail Bar of the Year.

I don’t know about best bar of the year, but I enjoyed the cool decor and variety of drinks with quality ingredients. I could imagine sitting and trying a bunch. As it was Amanda and I just tried one each. We had places to be! We could have had the food from Thank You Chinese, but decided to wait. I would have tried the spam musubi, but it was only available after midnight!

Oh yeh, we arrived just after 5 pm or so. Early, but every seat was already taken. We got a spot at the bar and eventually a seat. By then the bar was 2-3 deep. When we left just before 7 pm there was a line out the door. Get here early!

BILLY SUNDAY
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Our next stop was Billy Sunday. I love this place and have fond memories of it, even though I’ve only been here one time! Time to fix that. It was cold and snowy and slushy outside so when I saw the hot toddy on the menu, I decided to get that. That is, until our waitress came to take our order and let us know that they had a special hot buttered rum that night. Yes, please! It was SO good. I don’t think I’d had hot buttered rum since that time I was at Scofflaw (in 2013)!

Billy Skin Duo is not the name of our new burlesque show! It was an appetizer that we shared: Fried chicken skin and pork rinds! Oh, and when we got to Billy Sunday at about 7 pm, it was not busy at all. We had our choice of seats. By 7:20 p.m. every seat at the bar and every table was full! Perfect timing.

AZUCAR TAPAS AND COCKTAIL BAR
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For dinner, I couldn’t decide between Webster Wine Bar or Azucar Tapas and Cocktail Bar. I finally decided on Azucar just because I always forget about it and I’d only been there two times before (1, 2). We ordered a bunch of things – bacon wrapped dates, chicken croquettes, grilled portobello mushroom, meatballs, and steak with butter with potatoes with butter with spinach with butter. That last one was the best. So good! And sangria! Azucar is often overlooked in the neighborhood, even though it’s great. You can always go in and just sit down even on a weekend night.

REVOLUTION BREWING
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Ok. We bring Makai to Rev Brew and we didn’t go the night of all the other places. We went Friday at lunch. But I had to mention it because the arctic char was super good. And pretty!

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