Out With Clients & Coworkers

We had clients in for UAT this week and on Wednesday night we all went out for dinner and drinks.

We had dinner at Public House, just down the street from our office. I ordered the chicken burger and it was amazing. I have to have it again to make sure it’s as good as I remember. My coworker Jaivin was in town from Boston and I made him sample a bunch of local brews. Local-ish. I tried to drink a light beer myself, but he made me drink the locals with him. Also, I only wanted short beers, but the waitress kept bringing talls. We had Bell’s Oberon, Three Floyd’s Alpha King, and Founder’s Pale Ale. Actually, now that I look, those beers are all from Michigan. Still, Jaivin can’t get them in Boston.

Our clients were visiting from different parts of the country – Washington D.C., Virginia, St. Louis, and the Dayton area. They’d heard about Billy Goat Tavern and wanted to check it out. We told them not to expect too much! We were just there to see it and have on beer then we were on to the next place. I had not been to the Billy Goat for years (2005!) so it was cool to check in again.

Somehow our clients knew that Howl at the Moon, the dueling piano bar, gave discounts for the military. A lot of our group had the required ID (not me!) and got in for free and got discounts on drinks. Like the Billy Goat, I hadn’t been to Howl at the Moon for years (2005!). It was fun, but after a while I had to get out of there. I should have gone home but Jaivin told me that he went to Mercadito once with Marlena and Anjum once and it was delicious so we decided to stop there for one last drink.

I had this cucumber drink and I did not like it! Thanks, Jaivin. I think I went to bed at 2:30 that morning and got up at 6:30 to be to work for 8:00 a.m. meetings. I functioned better than expected, but was so tired. That night I totally crashed out after work all night. I’m not 21 any more!

Mercadito


Mercadito, River North, Chicago

I went to Mercadito for a new employee lunch a couple months ago. I was interested in trying it because they do fancy tacos, kind of like De Cero, and I love De Cero.


David & Wa-Jiw

The interior was really interesting, a bit on the fancy side. You can see these cool lights behind my coworkers David and Wa-Jiw’s heads.


Guacamole & Taco Platters, Mercadito, River North, Chicago

To eat we all shared a bunch of plates. We had a flight of 3 different guacamoles and a flight of a few different salsas with chips to begin. We had a few sides like rice and beans. And then we all shared several trays of tacos. Mercadito has about 8 different kinds of tacos, but the thing that I didn’t like was that you couldn’t mix and match. For $10.50 you could get 3 tacos, but they had to all be the same. That was kind of a bummer. We ended up just ordering plates of 3 of all different kinds and sharing, but if I came in with a smaller group, there’d be no way to try as many tacos as we did.

I like the fancy tacos at De Cero a bit better… and De Cero lets you mix it up however you want. I also prefer the rustic interior of De Cero more than the slick look of Mercadito. Still, not a bad place.. and it’s super close to my office, so I’ll probably be back.