Entries Tagged as 'jessica'

Brunchy Brunch to Forget Our Troubles

March 30th, 2013 · No Comments

the_chicago_diner_logan_square

Finally visited Chicago Diner in Logan Square with Jess. This vegetarian restaurant has been in Lakeview for 30 years and last winter they opened a second location in the old Logan Square Kitchen space. I had the Soul Bowl – seasoned quinoa, eggs, chimichurri, brussels sprouts, mashed sweet potatoes, black beans and avocado. I don’t know how these things all were supposed to combine together, but each separately was delicious. Except the chimichurri. No one makes it like El Nandu!

After brunch we went to the Logan Square Farmers Market (the indoor market at the Congress Theater). When I went home this was when I first discovered our water damage nightmare!

harmony_grill_crabcakes_eggs_benedict

A week or two later I went to Harmony Grill with Kristin to get out of the awful house. By now it was (and still is) all torn up. Carpet out, holes punched in the drywall. Industrial fans and humidifiers. Ugh! Thankfully, we both had the Eggs New Orleans – fresh lump crab cakes, two poached eggs, & sliced tomato on English muffins with hash browns – and they were delicious!! I hate when the crab cakes are mostly filler, and luckily these were not. Kristin had a Groupon and we got our meal for free. Nice!

cozy_corner_diner_and_pancake_house

banana_strawberry_french_toast

We’ve had to be around the house a bit more on weekdays to let contractors and insurance people and plumbers and appliance delivery guys into the condo. On a few occasions, Dallas and I got up early to have breakfast at Cozy Corner. The food here is pretty simple, but everything is always so good and very reasonably priced. Recently I had the California Omelette – avocado, bacon, & tomato with Swiss cheese – and also the strawberry and banana french toast.

jam_chicago

One day I woke up and sneezed thirty hundred times. I had to get out of the condo construction zone, so Alden and I went to Jam. This place opened probably almost two years ago, but whenever I try to go to Jam on the weekends … it’s … jammed! So a weekday was the perfect opportunity. Alden had been to the Ukranian Village location before they moved to Logan Square and wasn’t that into it, but we both liked this place. I had the Malted Custard French Toast – with macerated cherries, lime leaf cream, and pink peppercorns- and Alden had the Corned Beef Sandwich – with horseradish cream cheese, marble rye, potato chips. Oh, and they surprised us in the beginning, after we ordered and before our food came, by giving us a mini black and white cookie.

[Read more →]

Tags:······························

Billy Sunday, A Logan Square Cocktail Bar

February 11th, 2013 · 1 Comment

billy_sunday_cocktails
Daiquiri: Rhum Agricole Blanc, Jamaican Overproof White Rum, Lime, Passion Fruit, Pineapple Bitters		 billy_sunday_daiquiri
Son of the Crusta: Armagnac, Palo Cortado, Kina Bianco, Welsh Nectar, Lemon, Abbott’s Bitters

oysters_rockefeller
Daily special: Oysters Rockefeller

billy_sunday_bread_garbanzo_bean
Artisanal Bread with Local Butter & Sea Salt. Garbanzo Bean: Whipped, with Preserved Lemon & Pickled Pistachio

billy_sunday_croquettes
Croquettes: Corned Beef with Benton Bacon Gravy & Cornichon

fentimans_curiosity_cola
Fentiman’s Curiosity Cola.		 billy_sunday_bartenders
Alex, our bartender, on the right.

billy_sunday_cocktail_menu
We ordered everything on this menu.

In late December, Jess and I finally went to Yusho, a restaurant by Matthias Merges that became one of the best new restaurants of 2012. We really enjoyed our dinner, but also really enjoyed the drinks. I remember commenting that I could go to Yusho just for the drinks. Fast forward a few months. Merges’s newest project, Billy Sunday*, just opened about two weeks ago in Logan Square and it’s focus is on the cocktails (although it does have a small menu as well).

We’d all been eagerly awaiting the opening of Billy Sunday, so we finally went to check it out on Saturday. The bar opens at 5pm and we arrived at 6pm. Luckily, Jess and Ed got there before Dallas and I and were holding down a spot at the bar. Actually, Jess had the only seat and the rest of us were all crowded around. I usually hate this, but the host at Billy Sunday was SUPER cool about trying to get us seated and gave us many updates. Eventually, some bar seats opened right where we were standing so we all sat there and it was fine. Later on when Chris and Ken arrived, they had to do the standing around. This place was hopping!

I thought the drinks were great and I really enjoyed trying them all. And by “trying them all,” I really do mean ALL. Between everyone in our group, we tried every drink on the menu at least once. We were at Billy Sunday probably for about five hours, we were having such a good time sampling the drinks, eating a few bites, and talking with our bartender Alex.** Funny story on Alex: We found out after a few hours that he is one of Dallas’s friend’s brother! So, this only helped make our night even more interesting. Ed and Dallas loved the Kent, Jess favorited In Word & Deed, and I really liked Against The Bliss.

The food at Billy Sunday was great too. I really enjoyed the special that night, which was Oysters Rockefeller. I could have eaten about 10 of the oysters, but restrained myself to 2. Jess had the garbanzo bean dip, which was basically a hummus and really liked it. The one thing we didn’t like is that you have to order the bread separately (and for an extra charge) from the spreads/dips. And that you don’t seem to get enough bread and have a lot of spread/dip leftover. This problem was exasperated when we tasted the bacon gravy that came with the croquette and wanted to sop it all up with the bread!! So rich and decadent!

At the end of the night Alex hooked us up with a shot of Fernet, a liquor I’ve never had. According to Wikipedia, Fernet is “rumored to contain” codeine, mushrooms, fermented beets, coca leaf, gentian, wormwood, zedoary, cinchona, bay leaves, absinthe, orange peel, calumba, echinacea, ginseng, St. John’s wort, sage, and peppermint oil. And for sure has myrrh, rhubarb, chamomile, cardamom, aloe, and especially saffron, with a base of grape distilled spirits, and colored with caramel coloring. Yikes. That is quite a list. In any case, it was disgusting. Ken asked for a cola and said it is actually good with soda. Of course, Billy Sunday didn’t have Coke or Pepsi! Alex gave him a Fentiman’s Curiosity Cola, which was so delicious on it’s own.

So, drink after drink. After drink. After drink. We were having a great time. Til we got the bill!!! :) Those fancy cocktails really add up!!!! Dallas and I later agreed that we loved Billy Sunday, but that we would probably be more likely in the future to go just for a couple drinks in the beginning of the night, and not spend 5 hours drinking there… although it was a really fun night!

*Fun Fact: Billy Sunday was an evangelist and Prohibition leader. He was also mentioned in the lyrics to “Chicago (That Toddling Town).” (“Chicago, the town that Billy Sunday could not shut down.”)

**Actually, I just read that Alex is the “chief mixologist” at Billy Sunday.

[Read more →]

Tags:··············

Paul Baker’s Birthday at Headquarters Beercade

February 3rd, 2013 · No Comments

paul_nicole_simpsons

dallas_street_fighter

paul_alden_double_dragon

headquarters_beercade_beer_list

paul_alden_terminator_win

olympia_beer

south_park_pinball

headquarters_beercade

For his birthday, Paul Baker got everyone together at Headquarters Beercade. This is a new(ish) arcade/bar that opened in the fall. We had fun playing a bunch of arcade games and pinball games and celebrating Paul’s birthday.

Headquarters had most of the same arcade games that Emporium has, the bar/arcade place we’ve been to in Wicker Park. I couldn’t help but compare the two places. Headquarters lets you play the games for no charge, where Emporium charges a quarter. I almost like paying the quarter more because then there are consequences when you die. At Headquarters you just keep pressing “Continue” til infinity if you want. It makes it so it doesn’t matter if you die. And also people can hog the machines forever! Headquarters is a little more of a sports bar feel. They have a lot of TVs and even when the games were over, they played some old Hulk Hogan WWF and American Gladiators. Both bars have good beer lists.

barrelhouse_flat

Dallas left after a few hours to meet some other friends. At some point after midnight Jess and I went and met Chris, Tim and Ken at Barrelhouse Flat. I’ve always wanted to go there after hearing my coworker Garrett talk about it. We had some fancy drinks and fancy popcorn. Then everyone said it was time to go home, but I went and met Alden for some decidedly not fancy tacos at Arturo’s. Somehow it was 3am and I had to go. Dallas and I got home at pretty much the exact same time. Long night. .. but fun. Happy bday, Paul!

[Read more →]

Tags:·······························

Wii U Party

January 31st, 2013 · No Comments

wii_u_party_chicago

I have been a Nintendo Brand Ambassador for over 4 years now and have gotten to do some really cool things. In the fall I was invited to travel to Los Angeles for a preview party on their new Wii console, the Wii U. Over the Christmas holiday I was given a Wii U. Dallas and I set it up (mostly Dallas) and have been playing with it. I’ve been watching a lot of streamed content through the Amazon app too. We even brought the Wii U to a new years party, so it could become karaoke party.

wii_u_party

Last weekend Nintendo helped me host a Wii U party at my house. I got to invite 20 people (boys and girls!) and Nintendo provided the food, drinks, games and prizes for guests. Not only that, but they also flew two people, Dawan and Chris, to Chicago to help set up for the party and then to help us play the games. I had fun playing some of the games that allow up to 5 people to play. I hadn’t ever had enough people over to play those yet! There was one where the person holding the large Wii U controller with the touch screen is Mario and he runs and hides (only he can see the whole map). The other four players use the regular Wii controllers to run around and try to find Mario in the maze. There was also a fun ghost game.

wii_u_sing_party

I wasn’t sure how engaged people would be with just one gaming system for twenty people, but I was surprised. People were gathering around and really getting into it. Also, some of the Nintendoland games were quick, so people could all have a turn in a short amount of time. We also played Sing Party, which is more of a party game. And we played Super Mario Brothers, with several people all at once. The person with the touch screen can add blocks to either help or hinder the other players.

wii_u_video_chat

At 8 p.m. we video chatted over the Wii U with a party that was taking place in Tennessee. The party there was mostly kids. We chatted with them a bit, told them how cold it is in Chicago. It had snowed that day, so we pointed the camera out the window so they could see the snow and all the kids loved that. They pointed the camera out their door window and we could see their cute dog who wanted to get in!

wii_u

Big thanks to Nintendo for being so awesome!!

Disclosure: It might be needless to say, but Nintendo provided the gaming console, prizes, food and drink for this party. I was not paid, or even asked, to write this post.

[Read more →]

Tags:·····················

A-Plate on Southport

January 23rd, 2013 · No Comments

a_plate_crispy_candy

a_plate_chicken_roti

A while back I met up with Sara, Emily and Jess for dinner. We were trying to pick a casual, inexpensive place and found A-Part on Southport to fit the bill. Oh, and very good food too! I wondered why they called their crab rangoon “crispy candy” but when it came out, it was totally apparent. How cute are those crab rangoons!??! For my meal I had chicken roti, which was a a mix of chopped chicken, cucumbers, carrots, eggs and jalapenos in light sweet and sour dressing filled in roti (Indian flat bread). Very good.

A-Part seems to brisk take out. The downstairs is very small, with just a counter to order (and the kitchen behind). The dining area is just a small lofted area with a few tables upstairs. When we were there on a Sunday night we were the only ones dining in, but people were in and out often for takeout orders.

[Read more →]

Tags:·········