lakeview eating
sigh. well, tommy is back safe and sound in d.c., and i just went on an hour and a half cleaning spree to keep the bad sad feelings at bay. still, though, we had a pretty great weekend. it followed the trend of us being ENORMOUS GLUTTONS every time we spend any time together since i moved to chicago. we like to eat out a lot, so when we have the chance, i guess we just go on an enormous eating out binge to make up for all the other times i, as a poor graduate student and he, as a tired web programmer, end up eating lousy dinners at the end of the day. mmm, mac n cheese!
luckily my neighborhood gives us a lot of delicious eating options. i imagine my following recommendations are old hat to anyone who's lived in chicago for a decent amount of time, but if you're new to the area, maybe they'll help you out. you can find addresses and more info at metromix.com.
thursday night: i picked up tommy at o'hare at, like, 9:30 p.m. we didn't get home till forever (o'hare is far!), so i ended up eating a bowl of cereal. mmm. corn flakes. highly recommended.
friday lunch: pretty much every day on my way to the el, i pass standard india, which pretty much looks like your typical rinky-dink, somewhat sketchy indian lunch buffet. but it is effin delicious. the atmosphere is totally lacking - you've got plastic chairs and cafeteria-tiled floors - but you get an ungodly amount of food for under $10. and the rice pudding. mmm.
friday dinner: we headed to vinci, an italian restaurant recommended to me by my neighbor. the place is adorable, but our service experience was less than stellar. the restaurant is in lincoln park, near the steppenwolf and a bunch of other theaters, and they clearly cater to that crowd. as we weren't in a rush to go see a play, we really didn't get paid attention to. oh well! the food was good, though - we had an excellent mixed antipasti plate and good-but-not-great pasta (tommy the tagliatelle, me the spinach and ricotta ravioli in a butter sage sauce. the ravioli were good, but the sauce was weak). tommy had duck for an entree, i believe, and i had veal saltimbocca., both again good, but not great we also had a totally reasonably-priced bottle of montepulciano d'abruzzo something or other that i thought was delicious, and split a really yummy apple cake dessert with two glasses of moscato and espressos. yum yum. i probably wouldn't go out of my way to go back, but it was certainly nice.
saturday morning: einstein bagels and coffee. that's right. all gourmet on your ass.
saturday afternoon I: a crapload of PBRs and cheese fries at some random bar in wrigleyville, as we despondently watched the redskins lose. crapola. even my maroon+gold pumas couldn't save the day. basically tommy and i just walked up clark street, found the first bar with tvs that we saw, and went on in. in this case, i think it was chicago blarney stone, or something like that...we were pretty much the only people there all afternoon. it was sweet. except for the damn hell ass redskins losing part.
saturday afternoon II: a belated birthday cupcake from cupcakes! man, i love this place. the cupcakes are smaller than at cakelove in d.c. and just as expensive, but they actually taste good. i had a german chocolate cupcake with buttercream caramel frosting, and tommy had a maple sugar cupcake. deeelish.
saturday dinner: take out from duck walk. cheap, delicious thai. plus, their tiny storefront restaurant, when you're eating there, is adorable, and they have super quick service.
saturday birthday extravangza: me and a couple dozen of my closest friends hit up matilda, which is pretty much my favorite bar in all of chicago. laid-back, a couple of pool tables, great jukebox. and SO MANY DRINKS EVERYWHERE. but since i'm old and wise and practical now, i really didn't get all that drunk. despite the several mixed drinks, beers, and shot of soco. it's the old lady tolerance. plus the greasy slice of pizza from philly's best on the way home probably helped.
sunday: total blankage as to the earlier part of the day. probably cause we slept till 2. welcome, early alzheimer's! sunday night we went out to yen's for chinese, and i would feel safe saying that it is probably some of the best chinese food i've had in a while. moderate prices and huge servings.
all other times: tommy and i spent a fair amount of time at cafe latakia, since he had to work a little of the time he was here. there's nothing special about the drinks, and there's only one guy working there who is excrutiatingly slow at making them, though he's super nice - but there's free wifi and it's super cozy.
Comments
I love Standard India's name.
You're reasonably close to the Long Room, which was one of my favorite bars in chicago (around 4000 N Ashland).
ooh, thanks! i'll have to check it out sometime...i'm headed to some place called the gingerman tavern this weekend, if you know anything about that.
Know it? I've been photographed there!
Actually I've only been there once. It's nice.
here are some of the places that I've been hitting up lately (apparently I've been out in Andersonville a lot);
Hopleaf: Belgian brewhouse in Andersonville ( 5148 N Clark, great vibe and beers from around the world, surprisingly good food.
Simons: 5210 N. Clark, great dive bar vibe, but it's actually pretty nice in there. Gives Mathilda a run for best jukebox, cheap beers and good people, just the other side of Foster Ave on the same side of Clark as the Hopleaf
Calo (5343 N. Clark): Italian Restaurant, also in Andersonville, I've never had a bad meal here, and the service has always been great.
Maza (2748 N. Lincoln) used to live across the street from this place. Lebanese food is my favorite, and this place doesn't disappoint. The owner is incredible and is always onhand to talk to each table. Not the biggest place, but it's great. Across the street from the old Lucky Strike (not sure what it's called now).
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