Entries Tagged as 'alden'

Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival

August 1st, 2011 · 1 Comment

The first year we lived in Logan Square we missed the Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival because we had conflicting plans. Last year I took my niece Jess through and it was alright, but not great. This year it has finally all come together. The fest seemed really improved and we were able to invite some friends over and make an evening of it. Here is what I liked:

Revolution Brewing sponsored the festival and all of the beer there was brewed by them. I drank only the Bottom Up Wit (Refreshing Belgian-style wheat beer spiced with coriander and orange peel. Made with organic malt and wheat.), but there was also the Rosa (Tart summer ale infused with 20 lbs of Hibiscus flowers and touch of orange peel. Elegantly refreshing and defiantly delicious.), Anti-Hero IPA (An American hop assault for all the ambivalent warriors who get the girl in the end. “Look, I ain’t in this for your revolution, and I’m not in it for you, Princess.”) and Coup d’ Etat (Dry, spicy French-style saison dry hopped with German Select hops.).

In addition, sangria was provided by Lula, the popular Logan Square restaurant and wine was provided by Telegraph, Logan Square’s brand new wine bar. I loved how all the drinks were sponsored by bars and restaurants that were only a block or two away. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this at a Chicago festival before. I mean, the beer was made right there. Now, maybe next year we can get the food to be more local.

Another thing I liked was that we were on the square, which means grass and shade. Many times you go to a Chicago festival and there’s nowhere to stand or sit except in the hot sun on the burning hot asphalt. At this festival we got our drinks and walked across the street to the shaded, grassy park. So much more comfortable.

Thirdly: Art. It was an art fest, afterall. Along Milwaukee Avenue there were curated art exhibits and pop-up galleries in empty storefronts and sponsoring establishments. There were also all kinds of different art activities that featured more than 200 artists in over 30 exhibits. The only exhibit I went to was located in the Logan Square Comfort Station, which was conveniently located directly behind the beer tent. The exhibit was Folding Time: Explorations of Surface Reality, a showing of mixed media paintings by Chicago artist Jason Brammer. Pretty interesting.

We spent all of our time at time nearby the main stage at Milwaukee and Kedzie and the music there was pretty good. We enjoyed a mostly all-girl band (only the drummer was a guy) called Hollows. There was also a stage at Milwaukee and Kimball and one closer to our condo, the Cole’s stage at Milwaukee & Belden.


I bought this hat for Dallas. Do you like it?
Jessica

Killian
Alden

Ed (and me!)
My friend, Bottom Up Wit

Finally, and probably the best part, our awesome friends who came to the fest with us. In addition to the people above, we also saw Andy and Katie, who just got engaged about a week ago. And Dallas and I also talked to Jack for a while. Jack cuts our hair and his salon, Mops, was a fest sponsor.

Alden and I were standing in line to get a taco when we saw Dallas purchase and drink a pina colada served in a pineapple. What the heck!? I have no idea what he was thinking since he is never one to order a fruity drink. Must have been the new hat I bought him!

We left shortly after and everyone came back to our house. We had been slow cooking pork all day while we were away. Dallas also made blue cheese coleslaw and I made a caprese couscous salad ahead of time, so we all feasted and sat out on our roof deck, where it was a perfect summer night.

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Tour de Fat

July 20th, 2011 · 2 Comments


Slow Ride


Slow Ride


Slow Ride


Bike Pit


Rules of the Bike Pit


Handsome Little Devils: This guy juggles a chainsaw, raw egg, and bowling ball at the same time.


Crazy kaleidoscope.


Beer socks! Playing urban horseshoes.


Art Bike


Rows and rows of bike racks!

After the Tour de Fat bike parade, Jess and I headed over to Palmer Square for the Tour de Fat festival. We watched the end of the Handsome Little Devils vaudville-like show. In the finale, a man juggled a chainsaw, a raw egg and a 12-pound bowling ball all at the same time! We also watched the slow ride competition. This is a bike race where the loser is the winner. The goal is to ride the slowest and cross the finish line last, which is harder than you think. It’s hard to balance a bike while riding slow, and if you tip over or touch the ground, you’re out.

By this time it was about 12:45 p.m. and Jess and I were getting hungry. We walked all around the festival grounds, but there were NO food tents, as there were previous years. Finally I spotted two food trucks on the north side of the park. Gaztro Wagon was selling naanwiches but they were running out fast. The other truck was 5411 Empanadas. Both trucks had most of their menu crossed out and had a very limited selection. We went to stand in the empanada line. We were about 30 deep. Gaztro Wagon sold out while we were in the empanada line. I was SO hoping the empanadas didn’t sell out because then we’d have to leave to find food. Luckily, we were able to get our empanadas. They were tasty, but we only got 1 each, so as not to hog the limited supply, and they were tiny. Like 3 bites big. The truck sold out just after we ate our tiny bites. That was it. The fest was out of food by 1 p.m. NUTS.

When we were in the line, we saw Dallas, Kristin and Adam, so they came over and hung out by us. They were all expecting to eat too, but did not. Adam left to get some grub shortly after that. Jess and I went in the bike coral to ride some bikes but she was a bit too small for most of them. When we came out Todd and Kelly had joined our group, but they’d come expecting to eat and there was no food, so everyone wanted to leave to go eat somewhere. Everyone gave their beer tokens away (no one could drink all that beer on an empty stomach). It was Alden’s lucky day because just then he walked up and he got some of our beer tokens. By the way, Alden said later on there were more trucks, but really poor planning. Food trucks are awesome in theory, but if they are not abundant and the ones that are there run out of food right away? No bueno. How do you have a fest with a ton of kids and people drinking and not have food? This was obviously my biggest issue with the fest this year.

Other than that the fest was fun. It was HOT and sweaty, but that was ok. The thing is, all the acts are all exactly the same every year, though. And this is the 3rd year. They need to get some different things, because as much as I like it, I can only watch the slow ride and the same acts so many times!

Anyway, we headed to Revolution Brewing and ate lunch there. Then Jess and Kristin and I went to Heavenly for gelato. Then Ed met us there and he and Kristin went off for the night. Jess and I hung around Heavenly for a bit longer, then went to the Logan Theatre to see Kung Fu Panda 2. Back home, played some Wii and went to bed.

- Tour de Fat 2010
- Tour de Fat 2009: Festival, Costumes, Crazy Bikes

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Grahamwich

July 15th, 2011 · No Comments

A few months ago Alden and I decided to check out Grahamwich, Graham Elliot‘s sandwich shop, for lunch. I had heard very mixed reviews about the place. Early this year, Time Out hated on the place, but friends I talked to said it was alright. I kept meaning to go but didn’t and then they had a menu revamp and we decided to finally go and check it out ourselves.

Inside Grahamwich there is very little seating. There is one communal table in the back and then maybe 6 seats at a bar in the front. We lucked out and got two seats together in the front, but I would be afraid to not get so lucky every time. Maybe most people get their sandwiches for take-out, though. Also good to note, there was no wait. We walked right up to the counter and ordered. Our sandwiches were made in a timely fashion.


Pacific Tuna


Grilled Cheese


Pickles

For lunch Alden ordered the Pacific Tuna (Roasted pineapple + wasabi peas + yuzu aioli + sweet soy + Hawaiian bun) and I got the Grilled Cheese (Wisconsin cheddar + Italian prosciutto + tomato marmalade + cheese curds + pullman loaf). Alden also got a soda, which I think they make in-house and I got the pickles which were pickled vegetables. I liked that our food was served on some really cute vintage tin trays.

Alden thought that his sandwich was alright, but the sauce was much sweeter than he’d have liked. He also wished he’d ordered a side to vary up the taste. I liked the grilled cheese, but it was very rich. I sort of wish we’d have split our sandwiches, because the whole grilled cheese was a little much. Good, but a lot. The pickles did a good job cutting the heaviness of the sandwich and tasted very good, but the serving size was tiny. For $3 I got maybe 10 medium-sized pieces of potato, garlic and cauliflower. I’d have expected at least double that. Or for it to cost half. It didn’t help that they were in a very large box.

All-in-all, we did not hate Grahamwich, but we’re not dying to go back. If and when we do go back we’d do things a little differently.

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Logan Square Comfort Station Puppet Show

July 1st, 2011 · No Comments

Last Saturday we were pretty tired after our trapeze class. We came home, washed up a bit, got Dallas and headed to dinner at Buona Terra. This is a great restaurant in Logan Square that we overlook all the time. I’ve only been there once and this was Dallas’s first visit. It was so delicious. Dallas had a osso bucco special of the day, Steph had a squash ravioli with browned butter and sage sauce, and I had pasta with prosciutto, mushrooms, green peas and parmesan. So delicious. If we’re not back here soon, I’ll be disappointed. Oh, we also split mozzarella wrapped with prosciutto and grilled. ZOMG! Go here. You won’t be disappointed.

After dinner, Dallas went home and Steph and I headed to Summer Sessions on the Square. I was still pretty tired, especially after eating a bowl of pasta, but Summer Sessions is relaxing, so I was all for it. On the square we met up with Sara, Jessica, and Alden. We all sat on some sheets, enjoyed some wine (not Steph!) and listened to the bands. I love doing this in my neighborhood in the summer and hope to do it more this summer than I did last summer. Actually, last year when Steph was visiting we went to Summer Sessions too. I’m glad she likes it.

Here’s what was different this year. This year as the bands wrapped up and the sun set and it was dark, everyone on the lawn swiveled around. Behind us, across 4 lanes of traffic we could see the Logan Square Comfort Station. And in the window of that building, Manual Cinema performed a unique puppet show called “The Ballad of Lula del Ray.” This was no ordinary puppet show, though. It was performed with light and shadow and paper cut outs and an overhead projector. And music. It was so neat! Here is a trailer for the show, if you want to get a feeling for how it went.

Can’t wait to see what is planned for the next Summer Sessions on the Square show!

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Built in Chicago Launch Party

June 24th, 2011 · No Comments

Built in Chicago is a site that was created about 8 months ago and is a resource for digital professionals working and building great web and mobile businesses in Chicago. Last night I attended their launch party with Jess and Alden. Tribeca Flashpoint sponsored the event and it was held in their space at the Merchandise Mart. There was a $10 admission fee, but once you were in, it was all free drinks and snacks.

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The beer sponsor was Finch’s Beer Co. Ok. But made in Chicago? How have I never heard of them? I asked the servers and they said that Finch’s has only been in production for about 8 weeks and that it is based out of the Albany Park neighborhood. Interesting. I had two Golden Wing blond ales and Jess and Alden both had the Cut Throat pale ale. We all liked the beer and when I tweeted about it, Chuck declared that the blonde will be the beer of this summer.

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Ok. So, enough about the beer. The Built in Chicago event was basically a mixer. It reminded me of Tech Cocktail, but with more suits and more gray hair. A grown up Tech Cocktail? I mean, even Ron May showed up at the end (blerg!). I talked to people I knew from various stages of my “past lives” – Chicagoist, FeedBurner, Google – and also from past Tech Cocktail events. It was nice to see people I hadn’t seen for quite a while (Kevin – from Google & now heading up the Chicago Entrepreneurial Center , Sean – from Chicagoist, now at Have My Shift, Brad – from my Chicagoist days, now at Appolicious, and Blagica from all over? :) ) Also nice meet some new people, too.

I like how Built in Chicago seems like more of an ongoing thing. Like, sure, they’ll have these face-to-face networking events occasionally, but you don’t just go away after that and see people at the next event. Built in Chicago is also a whole social networking site for like-minded interactive people in Chicago. I think it should be a bit easier to keep in the loop and keep in contact with people. Looking forward to seeing how this all evolves.

PS. At the end of the night Alden and I met up with Dallas at the Boiler Room and guess what kind of beer I noticed they had on tap? Finch’s! So I had another Golden Wing. Maybe this will be the beer of the summer.

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