Entries Tagged as 'west loop'

May Street Market

May 10th, 2009 · 4 Comments

01_may_st_market_wine_truffle_butter
Salted butter & red wine truffle butter

02_may_st_market_tartar_duo
Duo of Tartar, tuna and salmon, jalapeño lime vinaigrette, avocado puree, wasabi sorbet

03_may_st_market_crabcake
Back Fin Crab Cakes, arugula-kohlrabi salad, mango sorbet, and remoulade sauce

04_may_st_market_blue_cheese_cheesecake
Maytag blue cheesecake, arugula, spiced pecans vanilla poached rhubarb, rhubarb sorbet

05_may_st_market_chicken_risotto
Smoked Spring Chicken, frenched breast, wild ramp risotto, asparagus, date sauce

06_may_st_market_scallops
Smoked day boat Scallops, pistachio crust, curried cous cous, blood orange brown butter sauce

07_may_st_market_sorbet
Raspberry, chocolate, strawberry sorbet (partially eaten!)

08_may_st_market_flight_of_cupcakes
Flight of Cupcakes, chocolate five spice with peanut butter icing, lavendar vanilla with earl grey icing, carrot with orange ginger icing

For our anniversary Dallas and I decided to check out May Street Market for dinner. I’d always wanted to go and we had a gift certificate to use. I loved the blue cheesecake and the tartars. The crabcakes were not the best I had, but acceptable. I loved my scallops. I haven’t had really a really good scallop dinner for a long time and was happy they were so tasty. Can’t wait until our trip to Hawaii for fresh seafood! Dallas said his chicken and risotto were good. I got the flight of cupcakes for dessert. I found the chocolate/peanut butter cupcake to be really dense and surprisingly not my favorite. I loved the lavendar/vanilla/earl grey cupcake. So light and delicate.

I would go back to May Street. The food was good, the service was good. On the Tuesday night we were there, the place was empty. One table seated when we arrived and when we left there were probably only a few other tables taken in the restaurant. I hope this is just because it was a slow night!

Note: These photos first appeared on Chicagoist.

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De Cero Lunch

January 28th, 2009 · 2 Comments

Tacos, De Cero, ChicagoOlivia and I met up for the second lunch in our Monthly Lunch Club. Last month we went to Blackbird. This month we went to De Cero. I love De Cero so much. All I have ever gotten there is a la carte tacos. The tacos are delicious but De Cero also has a lot of sentimental value to me because when I worked at FeedBurner we used to go to De Cero for every occasion. It was appropriate that we also had our FeedBurner reunion there over the summer, which was the last time I was at the restaurant. I was due for a visit. Olivia had never been to De Cero. Hopefully she enjoyed it as much as I do.

Pictured above from back to front above, I had:

  • al pastor, tender chile seared pork with onion, pineapple, cilantro and lime (great spicy/sweet combo)
  • avocado, with white onion, roasted garlic, cilantro, and crema (least best this time, it was cold and the onions very raw)
  • vegetarian black beans, with garlic, avocado, cilantro, and crema (a favorite taco)

Not pictured, Olivia had:

  • rajas, hot and mild roasted peppers, potatoes, cream, and cotija queso
  • braised duck, with sweet corn salsa
  • tilapia, special taco of the day

It’s nice that Olivia and I are seeing each other more regularly now and that the time doesn’t slip by and we say “oh, we should hang out” and then never do. I’m having fun trying these restaurants and getting to know her better. One by one we plan to meet monthly and peck off these higher-end restaurants that may be too pricey for dinner, but are affordable for lunch. For next month we talked about maybe going to Bayless’ place. Anyone have any other suggestions?

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Lunch @ Blackbird

December 23rd, 2008 · 1 Comment

blackbird_sandwich_chips
Classic seared whitefish sandwich with lemon and herb aioli, gribiche, roasted tomato.

olivia
Olivia @ Blackbird, West Loop, Chicago

Olivia is one of those friends that I have always meant to hang out with more, but just have not. We have had a few failed dinner dates and have hung out numerous times in groups of friends and online, but not just us face to face. So, when she contacted me yesterday saying she was going to be downtown and asking if I’d like to go to lunch I jumped at the chance. We decided to go fancy (it’s the holidays!) and dine at Blackbird, which is actually pretty reasonable for lunch. I mean, it’s too much to spend every day on lunch, but priced really well if you want to try Blackbird without going broke.

Each of us got the prixe fixe which included a salad, sandwich with pomme frites, and doughnuts for $15. As you can see in the photo, we got some kind of fancy chips instead of frites.. and there was no explanation as to why, which was kind of how the service was overall. I thought the food was good, but I not what I expected, and the service wasn’t rude, but it wasn’t very friendly or informative either. Very different than my last experience at Blackbird, granted that was a special invitation sort of thing. Still I’m sure I’ll be back for dinner or lunch again.

Every time I talk to Olivia I think we should hang out more and get to know each other better and then we don’t. Yesterday we made a pact to have lunch once/month so hopefully we will finally follow through! Also, it’s nice to hang out with a friend who will take photos with me (hers from yesterday are here and here), which is something I often miss from when I lived in New York where many of my friends were hobbyist photographers.

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FeedBurner Reunion

June 30th, 2008 · No Comments


Adil, Tom, Alden, Traci, Eric L., Eric O., Charley, Jessie, Giuliana, Paul Baker, Chris, Joe, Jon


Chris wore his FeedBurner bike hat for the special occasion.

Sorry, everyone! I forgot to post these photos that I promised I’d post weeks ago. The night before Dallas and I left for Connecticut, I went to a FeedBurner reunion party at De Cero. About 13 of us made it out. We expected more, but it was a busy week for many people. A lot of people who were there I’d seen often at the Google office. Others, I hadn’t seen for a long time, more than a year. Enough time for Adil to have a baby even! As per the FeedBurner tradition, we ordered a ton of guacamole and platters of assorted tacos. It was a fun time and something we’ll have to repeat.

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That Went Downhill Fast

May 25th, 2008 · 3 Comments

One night last week Alden and Justin and I decided to go out for a nice nostalgic dinner at De Cero. When we worked at FeedBurner in the West Loop, we’d always go to De Cero when new people were hired or anytime we wanted to go for a nice lunch.

Justin was in town for the first time since he moved to San Francisco so we caught up a lot on what’s been happening since he left. It was a good time, but 2 pitchers of margaritas and 4 shots each of Petron Silver later and we were at the cheesiest bar ever singing karaoke!

Also, fyi, if you’ve never actually paid for anything at De Cero, like us because we were always there for work functions, it’s really expensive! Like really expensive. Like $35 for one pitcher of margaritas and more than $10 per shot. I’m surprised that I wasn’t shocked sober when we got the bill. Instead I just ordered The Pain Killer at the next bar and told them to make it strong.


Trader Todd’s, Lakeview, Chicago


Singing the Humpty Dance with Alden. I thought that waving my hands in the air like I just didn’t care would get the crowd worked up. Something tells me it did not.


I was really excited to sing What I Got by Sublime.

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