near north side

Entries Tagged as 'near north side'

Washington Square Park (in Chicago!)

January 6th, 2012 · No Comments

Sometime in the fall I stumbled upon this park and thought it was the cutest thing ever. Later on I looked it up and found out it’s called Washington Square Park.

I took the photo above on the same day. Such pretty light compared to now!

Roundarch Holiday Party

December 5th, 2011 · No Comments

Roundarch Holiday Party at ZED451

Some highlights from the buffet

Geoff, Jim & Jeff thanking everyone for coming to the party.

Awesome fire!

Kelly, on the right.

Ashanth & Dallas catching up and drinking the mojito bar dry.

Roundarch Holiday Party at ZED451

This year the Roundarch holiday party was at ZED451. I’d never been there, but really liked it. Roundarch basically took over the whole first floor and the second floor was someone else’s holiday party. I really loved the space. It was very warm and inviting. The colors were very rich and the fire was an awesome touch.

ZED451′s main dining room area had this HUGE round buffet. We thought it was one of the biggest buffets we’ve been to, not counting Las Vegas. There was everything on this buffet: shrimp, crab, poke, charcuterie, all the cheeses, duck pastrami. Craziness. It was so good. ZED451 is kind of like an upscale Brazilian steakhouse where they come to your table and offer you all sorts of meats, which they cut off right in front of you. Since this doesn’t scale, they cut all the meat ahead of time and skewered it and there were guys constantly offering you choice cuts of “aged 48 hours blah blah blah.” Point is, it was delicious. There were all kinds of steak, a Mediterranean chicken, fish, etc.

The party was, of course, open bar. And a nice touch was the mojito bar where you could get all kinds of different mojitos: blackberry, pineapple, cucumber, blueberry, cranberry, etc. I had to try hard to keep myself in check, something which Dallas did not do! But that’s ok. I was the one with big plans (cookie party) the next day, not him.

Roundarch never skimps on their holiday parties and this year was no exception. We had a fun time talking to all of my coworkers and their guests. Dallas got to catch up with the people from my office he doesn’t get to see much. Great time! Oh, and here’s a photo my coworker, Rose, took of Adam, Brad and me:

Rachelle, Adam, Brad. Gray is the new black!

Crowell Hall

September 28th, 2011 · No Comments

I occasionally pass by Crowell Hall since it’s on LaSalle and I work on LaSalle. It’s part of the Moody Bible Institute and was named for Henry Parsons Crowell, who was Moody’s chairman of the Board for 40 years.

I found this old-timey image of the 12-story Crowell Hall, as it looked back in the 1950s. It’s pretty much the same today.

The Terrace at Trump

September 3rd, 2011 · No Comments

Click to Embiggen

Yesterday most everyone I knew got out of work early. Jess and I both got off at 3 p.m. so we decided to do something different and get drinks at The Terrace at Trump. What a treat! The drinks are pretty expensive, but the view is unmatched. You have to calculate that view into the drink price! The views remind you what a beautiful city you live in.

I stuck to just one glass of Sauvignon Blanc, but Jess and her two coworkers who came with us had some fancy cocktails. Also, I’m glad we came on a day we were off work early. We only had to wait about 10 minutes to get a seat outside, but by the time we left, at about 5 p.m., the inside was packed with people waiting to go out.

Roundarch Team Dinner at Prosecco

August 29th, 2011 · No Comments

Last week we had a Roundarch team dinner at Prosecco, an Italian restaurant on the Near North Side. Prosecco has a huge selection of wine and one of the largest selections of Italian sparkling wine in Chicago.

I’d never been to Prosecco before and the menu online looked good, so I was excited to try this place. Upstairs the dining room was really pretty and brightly lit. Our private party was taking place downstairs in the private room/wine cellar.

Claire, Mark, Stella, Tony, Ryan, Adam, Marlena, Anjum

Wa-Jiw, Garrett, Bill, Ed, Doug

Ed, Doug

Before dinner we enjoyed some Italian wines, prosecco (of course), and Italian beer.

Claire, Bill, Tony, Adam, Anjum, Marlena

For dinner we were all seated at four tables. There were menus at the table and each course had several things listed.

Primi

Mixed greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, red onions, carrots, red wine vinaigrette

Secondi

Rigatoni, pancetta, italian sausage, light tomato cream sauce
Risotto, sauteed beef tenderloin, diced tomatoes, fresh herbs, Parmigiano-Reggiano
Orecchiette, wild mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, asparagus, black truffle cream, shaved Grana Padano, white truffle oil

Terzi

Sauteed monk fish medallions, sauteed spinach, lobster sauce drizzle
Scaloppine of pork, cremini mushrooms, Prosciutto di Parma, Marsala wine reduction
Balsamic-marinated chicken breast, basil-bread crumbs, portabello mushrooms, fresh mozarella, Dolcetto d’Alba reduction, asparagus
Grilled egplant, fresh and smoked mozarella, tomato sauce

Quarti