What would you think this truck was for if you saw it parked outside a tall office building downtown? My first thought was armored truck. There’s a bank in that building. Or some sort of security?
Well, neither of these guesses are correct. The Flower Firm is a florist!
In the Roundarch Chicago office everyone packs into our small kitchen area and video conferences with the New York office for our monthly company meetings. It’s quite tight! Hopefully our new office (moving in the spring) will have a larger meeting space for our continually growing company!
Tags:Chicago·river north·roundarch
Hanna’s Bretzel opened a location nearby our office back in November. The first few days they were open this is what a crap show it was:
I thought I’d never be going there. But then I found out that they were giving out free sandwiches the first few days they opened so 1. Dang! I missed out on a free sandwich and 2. That explains the line.
Everything has settled down now and even when there is a bit of a line at Hannah’s, it moves fast. I’ve always loved this restaurant and used to go to the location on Washington/Wells, but yeh. Talk about a crap show. That location is TINY and the line gets LONG. The new store by my office is really big and spacious, with plenty of space for seating and product placement.
What I love most about Hannah’s Bretzel, though, is their attention to nutrition and to high quality ingredients. I’ve never had a bad sandwich, soup or salad from there. I love that they’re totally open with their ingredients and their nutritional values, which really helps you make informed decisions.
I don’t eat out for lunch often, but when I do, Hannah’s has become my new lunch obsession. Not, that I don’t still pop into Protein Bar. I love having both of these nutritious options so close to my office.
Tags:Chicago·coffee·football·giants·packers·river north·roundarch
Roka Akor
Red Miso Soup with Lobster
Butterfish Roll
Wagyu Beef and Kimchi Dumplings
Filet
Salmon Teriyaki
Pickled Cucumber
Steamed Rice with Furikake
Another look at Alden’s steak.
A several months ago, I earned enough Open Table points to get me $20 off any Open Table restaurant bill. Since a bunch of the points were earned when Alden and I went out for lunches in River North, I thought it appropriate that I take him out to use my check.
We decided to go to Roka Akor, a fancy schmancy sushi restaurant and Japanese robata grill that we probably wouldn’t go to at dinner because it would be too expensive. It was a bit expensive even for lunch, but at least we got $20 off. We both decided to get the Roka Akor Business Lunch ($24 each), which includes red miso soup with lobster, Wagyu beef and kimchi dumplings, spicy crispy butterfish sushi rolls, steamed rice, and your choice of an entree. The entrees offerred were salmon teriyaki with pickled cucumber, cumin BBQ pork loin with shaved vegetables and cilantro, grilled seasonal vegetables with truffle soy butter, a 6 oz. prime beef filet or prime skirt steak. The steaks were $6 more. Alden went all out and got the steak. I got the salmon.
Everything that we had was pretty good. My salmon was very tasty and the portion size was larger than what I expected, for sure. Alden gave me a piece of his steak and it was flavorful and tender. I’m not a huge steak person, but it was really good. The pickled cucumber wasn’t too pickled, really refreshing. I also really liked the butterfish rolls and could see coming here for sushi and not even getting things from the grill. I thought the dumplings were alright. Not the stars of the show. The miso soup was pretty good too, but not outstanding.
I never had food cooked on the robata grill (high-heat method of searing and cooking using expensive, imported binchotan charcoal from Japan) and it was great. The grill area at Roka Akor is really pretty and it’s wide open so you can see the cooks using this unique grill. I would come back to Roka Akor, but probably only for a special occasion dinner. Just because I’m sure it tends to get swanky at night and the dinner prices can get expensive, but the food was great and the service was good, as well.
Tags:alden·Chicago·japanese·kimchi·lobster·miso·open table·river north·robata grill·roka akor·salmon·steak·sushi
