Memorial Day Weekend at the Lake House

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(null)We had a pretty great Memorial Day weekend. On Friday we went up to the lake house. We were the only ones there til Saturday afternoon. Makai kept saying “Where are are my uncles?” Dallas golfed with Marty and Rich and they, along with Mikey and Tamara, hung out at the house and overnight on Saturday. It was a bit chilly so Makai and I just played in a little pool on the deck.

On Sunday Marty and Rich left in the morning and Adam came up. Makai kept saying “Where’s Uncle Adam??” so he was happy to see him.  Sunday afternoon was finally really nice and we swam in the lake. That night we went out to eat for pizza at Anastasia’s.

Monday we cleaned up and left in the morning. In the afternoon we went over to JP and Rita’s house for bbq ribs! And we saw Uncle Adam again. And Makai had a great time swimming in the giant blow up pool with Isla and Everett.

Chicago Brewery Tour

Richard and Amanda and Jessica came down to Chicago last weekend. Jessica had a lot of homework to do so she stayed home with Dallas and Makai. Richard, Amanda and I visited a few Chicago breweries that none of us had been to before.

LAGUNITAS BREWING COMPANYimg_2836.jpgFirst up: Lagunitas. I’d been to the original Lagunitas brewery in California, but somehow never got to the Chicago one when it opened. In my mind, it’s still new, but our waitress told us they’ve been in Chicago for almost two years!

img_2864.jpgWhen you come into the brewery, you get carded and then you basically have to walk the entire length of the plant.

img_2867.jpgTo make this interesting they have a long hallway lit with blacklight and painted with trippy drawings and with disco lights and playing crazy songs like Pure Imagination from Willy Wonka. As you walk down the hall, there are windows where you can look in and see the brewery operations.

img_2868.jpgLagunitas pitbull logo on the trippy hallway wall.

img_2861.jpgAt the end of the hall you make a right. This big mural is at the end of the hall and is made of beer bottle caps.

img_2859.jpgAfter that there’s an elevator, but most people just walk up the stairs for several flights. There’s a loungy area where you can sit and drink and look out into the brewery.

img_2858.jpgThey also have a house magician in this area.

img_2852.jpgThe main beer hall consists of a big bar and many long communal tables. There was a stage area where bands play. This room was loud and had a lot of energy. It was also packed. We walked through to an area just past this room. Kind of like “outside” but we were still inside, obviously. There was more seating out there and it was situated on a balcony overlooking the brewery. I liked it out there. We sat at a 4-seat hightop table. It was much quieter and chill than the other room.

img_2844.jpgWe shared and sampled 12 different beers!

img_2837.jpgAmanda had The Hogunitas, slow roasted carnitas, applewood smoked bacon, sliced ham, housemade pickles, dijonnaise, caramelized onions, and swiss cheese on an onion roll. Richard and I split the beer mussels, which were made from Lil Sumpin’ beer, alligator, bacon, and leeks in a herbaceous cream sauce.

img_2847.jpgThe mussels were pretty amazing. The sauce was so good!

(null)Funny sign at Lagunitas. They had highchairs, a “kidwich” on the menu, and there were definitely kids around. Just a reminder to not be a jerk to other patrons.

img_2870.jpgMural on the wall.

(null)Lagunitas Brewery shot #1

img_2857.jpgLagunitas Brewery shot #2

REVOLUTION BREWERY AND TAPROOMimg_2876.jpgI have been to the Revolution Brewing Brew Pub approximately 1,024 times, but I have never been to the tap room, which opened a few years ago. Why go over there when I can walk to the brewpub, a minute away from where I live? So, we finally went to see what the fuss was about.

(null)The brew pub has a gorgeous interior, delicious food, great table service, house taps, and a full bar. At the tap room, it’s all about the beer. There’s still a very cool vibe, but it’s not cozy like the pub.

img_2892.jpgOn tap were only Revolution Brewing beers, which makes sense for a tap room. The list did not seem that different from what I’ve seen at the brew pub. I was expecting to see things not available at the restaurant.

img_2901.jpgI ordered a full beer and Richard and Amanda shared samplers of some other beers they’d never had from Revolution.

img_2882.jpgWe could not sit down anywhere, but we did get a spot at these stand up bars.

img_2908.jpgThe decor has a lot of bourbon barrels.

img_2904.jpgRevolution Brewing brewery.

 

FORBIDDEN ROOT RESTAURANT AND BREWERY(null)Forbidden Root just opened in February, I think. It claims to be Chicago’s first botanic brewery. We picked up Jess and headed over for dinner.

img_2909.jpgWe were told that the wait would be 1 – 1.5 hours. I wasn’t sure what to do and contemplated seeing how busy Roots was, since it’s nearby. We decided to get a couple beers, since were were there, and before we could even finish them, our table was ready. It was probably about a half hour.

img_2917.jpgWe tried five samples and two full-sized beers.

img_2922.jpgFor dinner I had a milk brined pork schnitzel sandwich with pickled beet mayo and slaw on a sesame seed bun. It was delicious. Richard had a burger that I liked even more!

img_2918.jpgThis looked so cute. Amanda ordered it – wild mushroom pot pie, chicory greens, and mushroom caramel.

img_2914.jpgLove the interior with all the exposed brick and wood. Overall we thought that the food was great, but we were a little “meh” on the beers.

img_2911.jpgForbidden Root brewery.

Belated Birthday Dinner at Arami

arami

Dallas was in New Hampshire for Ross and Chelsea’s wedding last weekend, which also happened to be my birthday weekend, so we decided to go out for a birthday dinner this weekend. We had reservations at both Arami and Kai Zan, both Japanese restaurants, both in the same area of Chicago, both very good. Well, at least from what we’d heard. We’d been to Arami a couple years ago and loved it and we keep hearing how great Kai Zan is, but never have been there, even though Naoko knows the owners! I scoured over the menus and in the end decided on Arami, just because they seemed to have a bigger cooked selection. Kai Zan is still on the top of our list to try, but I think we will wait until after the baby is born when we can both fully enjoy the sushi and sashimi and maybe get the omakase menu.

Arami was a good choice. We really liked everything we had. We started with a Spicy Tako Spring Roll (spicy octopus, cilantro, crisp mixed greens in rice paper), Togarashi Seared Tuna (seaweed salad, kelp noodle, daikon, citrus dressing) and some Brussels Sprouts (squab sausage, pine nuts, pickled banana pepper, yuzu brown butter). Funny thing: Dallas is finally coming around on brussels sprouts. He has hated them for years, but he liked them at Arami and the last time we ordered them at Wasabi.

Next Dallas had some sashimi – the Kona kampachi (from Hawaii), some Japanese kampachi and some saba. I opted for a couple of things from the robata grill – Some corn with miso butter and togarashi mayo that reminded me of elotes and a super sweet ebi yaki with saikyo miso butter and maitake. Finally for our entrees, we each got ramen. Dallas had the Kimchi Ramen (pork belly, kimchi, tofu, nira, egg) the last time we were at Arami and he got it again. I never had the ramen from Arami, so I decided to give it a shot and got the Arami Ramen (pork belly, braised beef, house tsukemono, kamaboko, enoki, egg). It was SO GOOD. Not as huge of a serving as some places, which was actually good because we were sampling a lot, but SOOOO flavorful. And I love that they added the soft boiled egg, like almost every place in Japan does. I haven’t seen many places in Chicago add the egg and it’s one of my favorite parts. I also loved that they added the contrasting house-made tsukemono (pickle).

By now I was pretty stuffed, but it was my birthday celebration, so I had to take a look at the dessert menu. I decided to give the Peach Ice Cream (with togarashi popcorn and miso-honey caramel) a shot. Delicious. The peach flavor was very subtle and so was the togarashi spice. The popcorn was almost more like a kettle corn flavor, but salty enough to give you that salty sweet flavor contrast that I love.

So, really great birthday dinner and worth the week wait to enjoy it with Dallas !!! 🙂 We were talking a bit about how much ramen this baby has “eaten” over the course of the last 34 and a half weeks… the answer is: A LOT. Between our trip to Japan and seeking out great ramen in Chicago after the trip, I have eaten more ramen this year than I probably have in my whole life! Either that means baby will love ramen or hate it, I’m not sure!

Brunch at Old Oak Tap

Back in September (I know, I’m so behind) I had brunch with “the girls,” including Isla! We went to Old Oak Tap, which I really like. The drinks are always great and when it’s nice the patio is awesome. I actually never had food there, so I was excited to try it. I had the Uova salad. Uova is Italian for “egg”, so yes, there was a fried egg, marinated artichokes, cherry tomato, asparagus, prosciutto, shaved Parmesan, arugula and spinach. I remember not being in love love with it, but everyone else did love love what they got, so I’d go back. Some of the favorites were the chilaquiles, the crab cake eggs benedict and of course the bloody maries, bellinis and mimosas! Fun brunch. Great to finally meet Rita and JP’s daughter Isla, who we all took turns passing around. She was awesome. Now I just need to get my hands on her twin brother!