Earlier in the football season we watched some games at The Scout in the South Loop. I ordered a salad for lunch, but several people at our table got the foot-long grilled cheese. There are 3 different varieties: one with bacon, one with Canadian bacon and a side of pickles, and one with bacon and jalepenos. All came with tomato basil soup. It was crazy how big these sandwiches were! No one could finish, of course, so our table just ended up free-for-alling on them. I had a few bites of the sandwich with the bacon and jalepeno and it was really good. Especially dipped in the soup. That’s the grilled cheese everyone agreed was the best, with bacon and jalapeno. It’s called The Wolff. Look for it on the menu.
Before you read any of this, know that you have to sing the post title to the tune of Miley Cyrus’s “Party in the USA,” because that is Brian’s favorite song.
Christine and Adam and to the left, Adam’s brother Todd
Larry and Lilia, Ang & Murph
Brian, Sara, Kelly
Larry is a giant.
On Saturday night we went out for Brian’s birthday. Sara, his fiance, arranged for 16 of us to have dinner at Sakura Teppanyaki. This was a Benihana kind of place where they cook the food on a hot grill in front of you and put on a show. Uh, not that I’ve ever been to Benihana, but I went to a similar kind of place on Mauai called Kobe Japanese Steak House way back in 2009. I haven’t been to anything like this since.
Lots of shrimp, scallops, lobster, chicken and steak.
Our chef messing with Brett & Kelly.
Setting up the onion volcano.
The volcano.
All of the teppanyaki dinners were served with a grilled shrimp appetizer, miso soup, salad, grilled vegetables and fried rice. Then you got to pick what kind of entree you wanted. There was a selection of different kinds of fish, chicken, steak, filet mignon, shrimp, scallops, lobster, or calamari. Or you could get a combo. I got steak and scallops. And I upgraded my fried rice to chicken fried rice. I liked everything I had, except I wouldn’t recommend the upgrade to chicken fried rice. It’s not worth it. Otherwise it was all good. Dinners range from about $18 – 30. Not too expensive for all of the food you get. I was so stuffed at the end of dinner.
As for our chef, he was pretty funny. He quickly detected which were the people to mess with and playfully teased them while cooking our dinner. He kept saying “No sake bomb, no happy!” so we bought him a sake bomb when we got a round for the table.
Almost all the ladies were drinking these 100-calorie martinis (on the left), sake bombs on the right.
Here’s the set up: Glass of beer, sake balanced on chop sticks.
All set?
Larry showing Brian how it’s done. Everyone pounds the table.
Then the sake falls into the glass. You can see Larry’s chopsticks flying and the sake glass inside the beer glass.
Our table had countless rounds of sake bombs. I think I had 2-3 total, but some people had more. A sake bomb is served with a glass of beer and a shot glass sized serving of sake. The drinker takes their chopsticks and lays them across the top of the beer pint glass. Then they balance the sake on the top of the chopsticks. This can be tricky after a few drinks. Ask Lynda. She accidentally dropped hers in early twice and had to drink her bomb before everyone was ready.
After you have the sake balanced you pound the table and it causes the sake to fall into the beer. The should be drank immediately. To be honest, the sake bombs mostly just tasted like beer to me, but because everyone feels the need to race and chug, and the fact that there is sake in there, it can make you drunk fast. Also, the sake glass falling into the beer can be really messy. I had a lap of beer on the first round. On the second I just dropped the sake in instead of doing the chopsticks and pounding. Not as fun, but definitely less messy!
After dinner we headed over to some really cheesy Lincoln Park bars. Good thing I was drunk because these were not my kind of places! I asked Brian if I was going to feel like an old lady at the bar we were headed to. You know… not old, just too old for the club, but he said just to sit back and watch and laugh, and so I did. So, we headed to Beaumont, which most people seemed to have been to but not for a long time and not proudly. And not so early. It was dead when we arrived. No one else was there. But in no time if was filled with single 20-somethings. It was actually kind of painful to watch.
The Store til Four
Don’t ask. It was late. I get the willies just looking at this photo!
Later on we went down a few buildings to The Store.. ahem… The Store til 4. Any bar with “til 4″ in the name is probably not a good idea. I’m looking at you Tai’s til 4! I learned that lesson a few times many years ago. But Dallas and I didn’t stay out anywhere near 4 a.m. I think we caught a cab home at 2 or so.
I didn’t see Brian on Saturday but I saw him for a while on Sunday at The Scout in the South Loop where we were eating lunch and watching some football (Packers won! Lions lost! We’re the best in the league!) and it seemed like he had a good birthday weekend!
Last week Erin and Cinnamon and I met up for dinner at Mercat a la Planxa, Chicago’s only Catalan restaurant, on South Michigan Avenue. I was up on North Michigan between work and dinner and I thought “oh, I’ll just walk down for dinner.” Right. That’s a long walk from Chicago Avenue. I ended up arriving wet from the rain, blistered from my shoes, hot, late, and frazzled. Erin and Cinnamon were having drinks in the bar and I joined them for one before we headed up for dinner. Nothing like booze to calm the nerves.
I took this photo of the bar. When I pulled out my camera to take the photo, Cinnamon and Erin both gasped, “a point and shoot!?!??!” Yes, I got a new point and shoot a while back.
Mercat a la Planxa’s bar is on the first floor, street level. The dining room is one floor up. I didn’t realize beforehand that the restaurant is located in the Blackstone Hotel. The interior is really beautiful. Warm colors. Modern touches. I thought it was cool how the kitchen is wide open, making it almost part of the decor, a show of the process.
Our waitress that night was a firecracker. And really good at her job. Funny, but not trying too hard. Friendly. And she knew her stuff too. She mentioned to us that Chef Jose Garces was in the kitchen. I commented that I was suprised, since he owns 6 restaurants in Philadelphia and only one in Chicago. Our waitress said Chef is in Chicago a lot and told us that he’s from Chicago and attended Lane Tech and Kendall College.
For dinner we decided to split 6 small plates and a pitcher of the seasonal sangria. We were first served tomato bread, which was so light and fresh and delicious. Next up we got the chef’s selection of 3 cheeses. Each of these cheese were served with a special side. The goat cheese was paired with a garlic dulce de leche. The sheep cheese with a orange marmalade. The cow’s milk cheese came with a pistachio truffle side. So good. The pairings were right on and just as delicious as the cheese itself.
Next we had some delicious croquetas of potato and cheese with some jamon (ham) inside. We also had pimentos de padron, flash fried padron peppers with salbitxada and sea salt. The croquetas were very rich and salty, but in small little pops, were so good. Cinnamon had a dish similar to the peppers somewhere in New York and ordered them to compare. She said the ones at Mercat were better than the ones she had in NY.
We were loving this food so far. So it was no surprise, after eating this deliciousness, pondering over how local the Chef is and how much he’s accomplished, we were forming little foodie crushes. We looked up and Chef Garces was standing next to our table talking to a few people. Someone at our table may have made some saucy gestures behind Chef’s back and been really embarassed when our sassy waitress called her out. May have happened. Or may have just been a sangria daydream.. but it would be quite a coincidence then when we saw the waitress talk to Chef and then when he came over to our table to introduce himself. Blush blush blush!
Ahem. Back to the food….
It was coming out fast and furious at this point. We had the pinones con boquerones, which was a flatbread with white anchovies, pancetta, goat cheese and marinated pine nuts. We also had some slow-cooked pork belly with cider glaze, green apples and truffle. There was also a dish with mussels. All very very good.
For dessert we had croquetes de xocolata – milk chocolate croquettes with banana marshmallow, rosemary caramel and arbequina olive oil. OMG. These were so good. There were six little croquetes and I remember sitting and talking a bit before eating my first when Erin interrupted me and yelled to just eat it already because she had eaten hers and it was THAT good. Cinnamon was making a face while she ate hers. I couldn’t tell if it was pain or pleasure. Turned out that’s just how good they were. Make sure you get this dessert if you visit Mercat.
The food at Mercat a la Planxa was really well done. Great dinner. And not too expensive. We were stuffed at the end and including the drinks, the bill was about $45/person. So, a nice dinner, but not going to kill you when you get the bill. More importantly, I had a great time catching up with two of my favorite ladies, Erin & Cinnamon.
Last Thursday was Paul Baker’s birthday. We were all going out for dinner in Chinatown but not until 7:30 p.m., so Jess, Alden, Emily and I decided to kill a few hours after work by going for drinks in the South Loop, not too far from Chinatown. We decided to go to a bar called Kasey’s Tavern and I really liked it. It had a really warm feeling inside and had a pretty good beer menu. I had two Smithwicks.
At about 7 we left to head over to Chinatown to meet with everyone else. When we arrived? We realized, “Oh shit! It’s a BYO restaurant! Where can we get liquor?” We thought maybe Walgreens and headed over that way.
After going into the store and looking around we realized Walgreens doesn’t sell alcohol. So, I don’t know. SOL? We head into Chinatown Square.
This is an outdoor mall that looks like a pagoda and has a bunch of restaurants and stores. This mall is the largest Chinese mall in the United States east of San Francisco and west of New York City.
I’ve been to Chicago’s Chinatown a few times before, but I’d never been in Chinatown Square, so I thought it was pretty interesting. I’ve been to Chinatown in New York, SF and Chicago and I like Chicago’s the least, but I would like to come back and check out this mall during the day when more places are open.
So we walked through the mall and finally came up on the restaurant we were looking for, Spring World.
There was such a huge selection in here. Emily wanted to get this bottle of mystery spirits for Paul Baker as a gift. Isn’t the bottle cute!?
The sales clerk made it seem like this wasn’t something we could just open up next door and drink, though. She helped us pick a 3 pack of mini sakes for Paul to try. We also got a 12-pack of Tsing Tao.
Paul and his friends were waiting patiently inside Spring World for us. Our search for booze was making us a bit late, but you gotta do what you gotta do!
Finally, seated and enjoying some drinks and appetizers. Paul Baker immediately busted out the sake. We added our Tsing Tao to the inventory someone else had already purchased. There was also a bottle of plum wine on the table. Yum!
And then we ordered food.
And more food.
And even more food.
We may have over ordered, but at least we got to try a lot of things. All of the entrees were on a large lazy susan so we could just rotate the center of the table. I must have tried 10 different dishes!
Paul Baker had a work event at Spring World last summer. He enjoyed it so much that that very day he told Kate that’s where he wanted his next birthday dinner. So, he waited 6 months to come back and he looked like the happiest guy! Happy birthday, Paul Baker!
Bobby Matos & The NY Latin Jazz Allstars, Hot House, South Loop, Chicago
Hot House, South Loop, Chicago
After dinner at Zapatista, Chuck lead us over to Hot House. He works there so he was able to get us all the hookups. Thanks, dude! I’d never been to Hot House so I was excited to go and check it out. Really cool. Great atmosphere and great music. Bobby Matos & The NY Latin Jazz Allstars were playing. Awesome.
Alicia :: Pontiac, Wicker Park, Chicago
Alicia :: Pontiac, Wicker Park, Chicago
Justin :: Pontiac, Wicker Park, Chicago
Tankboy :: Pontiac, Wicker Park, Chicago
At some point, Tankboy suggested we go to Pontiac. I didn’t really want to go to another bar, but I realized the going to Pontiac would get me closer to getting home easier. So we grabbed a couple cabs and headed up. I didn’t realize at the time, but it was live band karaoke night.
Alicia was the first to sign up and since Tankboy is a regular there and DJs there, he got her pushed up to the top of the list. She told me she’d be singing Bohemian Rhapsody and I was like “oh lord!” because I could just imagine the 1,000,000 ways to screw that song up. It seemed pretty easy to do, but you know what? Alicia worked that song. She was all over the stage, running around, in the crowd having them sing. She was killer. Justin sang a Talking Heads song that I wasn’t too familiar with, but he did a great song too. Justin is kind of a soft-spoken guy, most the time he’s got a button down shirt and dress pants on, with his hair nice and neat and his side part never out of place.. but I forget that he’s also a performer. He’s got a powerful voice and a great stage presence. When Tankboy said he’d be singing a song, too, I didn’t know what to expect. I mean, it’s Tankboy! He doesn’t sing, he DJs! Holy crap! He sang this psycho lyric version of Sweet Caroline that left everyone with their jaws hanging open. It was great. So much fun!
