Four Cherry Hill Foodies their way to Great America's Food City-CHICAGO
If you are anything like me, you probably will see the food channel more than you want to admit to having an obsession about opening a restaurant and a great practice, so that you can fit into your pants and still eat the stuff You can continue to like. We eat in Philly all the time. We have the best there was, from the cheesesteak spring rolls at Davios, grilled pork on Budakan, the blood --Orange Margarita's on Lolita, the chicken with green at Frank and Evelyn. We drive over the bridge to Honey's for breakfast, and Tony Luke's before catching a game.
About six months ago, I was just an exhibition about the burgers on the Travel Channel, and of course, including Chicago, a few spots. For the hundredth time I told my wife, Leslie, "We gotta go to Chicago." Instead of rolling his eyes at me, she said, eagerly entering SA on their laptop and a few minutes later: "IFlights in October for $ 139 round trip. "A few minutes later, she told me that they could get a discounted hotel rooms at the Marriott Downtown. Things were a little tight this year, as for so many people, therefore, was a long weekend seemed like a great substitute for an all out leave. And with discount air and space, we thought it was a good time to visit in Chicago. We had never been away without the children, but decided that they were old enough to spend a weekend with grandmomand grandpop. A few weeks later, our friends Scott and Lisa agreed that they are equally as part of this food-travel adventure, and they booked their flights.
So, inspired by the food channel, we flew into Chicago with four days of heavy eating, and planned to walk (and in the early morning at the gym).
First things first, Chicago is a great city if you do not know. There are so many restaurants and neighborhoods that you could spend weeks in just one section, and to never eatYour way out of it. So rather than relying on a food or territory, we decided to see as much as we could, and sample as many varieties of foods as possible in four days. Our parameters for picking places were simple: TripAdvisor, city magazine reviews, and all local, that would talk to us.
We flew into O'Hare and took a van to our hotel. (In the future we would be on the trains and stay off the roads. Chicago has horrible traffic, and a simple, efficient and comprehensive rail system.) If wereached the hotel, we were hungry and we had not had the opportunity to find out really where we can easily go to lunch. We asked the concierge, which proved to be a dead end. While she was friendly, she told us to go to a chain called Potbelly. Once she told us that we knew that they were not the right person to talk about the food. Lisa pulled an article from a magazine, said the Philadelphia, that if you go to Chicago, you must go to the Billy Goat Tavern. Have we figured out that itconducted in the vicinity, and in the cold rain in our rain coats and find out about the Michigan bridge, the Billy Goat. Most of our conversation on the way to the fact that our hotel has been focused on Wacker Street. How many jokes you can pull out of Wacker? Too many. ..
The Billy Goat Tavern is located under one of the many bridges downtown. Upon entering the crusty, damp place, we have a little bit nervous. It was empty at 1 clock in the afternoon. There were maybe 10 people in the entire place. ButWe were really hungry, we went up to the old-fashioned counter and looked at the very limited menu. Hamburger, cheeseburger, double cheeseburger and hot dog. This is done to the body that came with Balushi "Cheeburger Cheeburger". Elisa was the first and asked for a cheeseburger and fries. The man behind the counter kindly replied: "... no potato chips." Lisa is not at all shy, and she looked at me and said, "Will you kidding me? No fries, we had decided to urge a rapid andthat we are too hungry to eat elsewhere, and so we all ordered a double cheeseburger and soda. The burgers were thin and the cheese was cut into thin slices on a Kaiser roll. There were cucumbers and onions out on a table, add your burger. No lettuce, no tomatoes. And no fries. The burger was not terrible, but the place was like a dirty tiled basement of the house of someone, and we could not figure out easily, the stimulus. The only thing that was appropriate that it was open late andthat there must be a place to grab a burger at 2 in the morning.
Undeterred, the first of our experiences, we reviewed our articles and top 10 lists and decided that would be our next stop in Greektown this evening. We have our cards, which seemed to show Greektown know, a few miles away from our hotel. We later discovered that the cards made things seem far away, but actually Greektown was an easy mile of Michigan and Wacker. In the course of the weekend, we realized thatbetween the train and our feet, we could almost everywhere. I will not spend too much time in Greektown. The food was decent on the Greek Islands restaurant, but it was nothing special and certainly not up to Dimitris Zorbas or in Philly. Greektown was not really the ethnic area, which I expected. It was not like South Philly. It was a sort of scrubbed and clean. It was not simply that ethnic authenticity, which we expected.
At this point we had decided that while we loved the people inthe city, we did not find that all food mandatory. While watching the Phillies in the playoffs in the night we struck a conversation with the beverage manager at our hotel bar. Toni, an Absecon, NJ native who had returned to Chicago a few years, has given us his opinion. "Stay away from the deep dish, go for the hot dogs, steaks, breakfast and Italian roast beef."
The next day we had a train to Lincoln Park, our goal on a picture in a magazine one of the Chicago basedHamburger. The place was called Counter. (Lots of one name, one syllable restaurants in Chicago, egg yolks, cream, bone, top, etc.) counter was in a hip neighborhood of Chicago. The restaurant was spotlessly clean and very modern. Painted concrete floors, metal tables and chairs, and very slim images in the bright, sunny place. The menu was really cool. Build your own burger on a clipboard. Beef, Turkey, Chicken or Vege. Over 50 toppings and sauces, and regular or sweet potato fries. WeProbably had a few too many chips, but after our experience at Billy Goat, we did make up for lost time and the girls were not taking any chances. The burgers were perfect. Non-greasy, with a large plain or multigrain rolls, and the toppings just made it fun. We had a lovely waitress, and we were just really impressed. It was a sort of Marathon Grill feel if you were ever one hand, many marathon in Philly, but not so crowded and rushed .. A very good hamburger place. When I askedthe bartender where to go to the next, he told me that we could go back into the city on foot on Clark St., but that we see, especially bars and optical positions. We walked about 3 miles back into town and saw at least a dozen places, optical and 100 bar. Lincoln Park would be an easy place to live: great housing stock, a large city park that Fairmount Park in the shade, and lots of places to eat and drink.
We felt in the groove, but then we came back wrong. After our long walk we decided toOvernight in the vicinity of the hotel for dinner. Somehow we got from Italian food Deep Dish Pizza controlled. Tony had warned us to stay away, but somehow it's just not right does not appear, try it. There were three columns for Deep Dish in Chicago: Giordano's, Gino's East and Lou Malnatis. We interviewed 6 people, and while each had a strong opinion, the majority spoke loudly for Giordano. So off we went up to 45 minutes to wait for a special with sausage, onions, peppers and mushrooms. As you mayhave guessed, we were completely blown away ... We could not understand why people like it? Pizzeria Uno at home was better, and never was very good, except the vinaigrette they served in the Grosh bottles. This pizza has no meaning. The tip was raw dough, and among them were a lot of cheese, raw vegetables and little meat. We dissected a piece and found that it lacked any real thought. The vegetables should already roasted before. It would have been a lot of sausages andwhere was the gravy? Very little was the answer. This place could never compared to Tacconellis or Gianfranco's or Lorenzo. It was clear to us that in the Midwest did not know good pizza. Leave it to New York City, New Jersey and Philadelphia.
The next day we slept in a little and decided to go to Southside to a breakfast place called Bongo Room. Now I must admit that the breakfast is my least favorite food, but not so for my countrymen. They love it. The Bongo Room had received very good reviews,together with egg yolk. Both were within a block of each other, so we decided to take a look at everyone. Because we were up on the breakfast will be at 11 clock on Saturday, we expected to wait for one, and we have a get. After walking about a half hour to Bongo has left, told us that the wait is 30 minutes more. No problem for my wife who found a choclateer nearby. Scott and I was called a third place 11th 11 was a Jewish deli that looked damn good. Scott and I just can not sit still. We left our namesat Bongo and 11 and then went to the egg yolk. Yolk looked damn good, but the wait was an hour. We went back to 11 and we still had a couple of groups ahead of us, and then we went back to Bongo and they were ready for us. We chose the girl and sat down for breakfast. I am not a breakfast man, I must say that my friends loved Bongo. The omelets and potatoes were great, but is clearly Bongo toast in each top-10 because of the French. How about a chocolate malt, banana french toastto promote? Sounds like dessert, you say? Absolutely! So rich that we only ordered a piece and shared it. Other tables had a full order books, not eaten right in the middle of the table, half-used. I've never had a rich, better piece of toast French dessert. And the pancakes were incredible as well. It is clear that Chicagoan love breakfast.
Since breakfast was so late, we stretched the days without lunch and went to Millennium Park, and several sites in this area. It was all veryclean and very impressive. Chicago city planners should be very proud. The public can teach us rooms in the city, Philly locals a thing or two. We were surprised how neat and clean city seemed. The city had flowers and planters on every sidewalk. It was really amazing.
During the night we went to a restaurant that really got a lot of press and local support. Rosebud. Breakfast was still hanging on still, even at dinner time, and the two Bloody Marys at Jake Melvins (next business Rosebud)not help improve my appetite. By the way, was the Bloody Mary's the best I ever had. No wonder that they advertise that they are famous for them. Rosebud was a happening, high-end Italian restaurant. We started with a garbage salad was really fresh and delicious. It was a little bit of everything, including artichokes, chick peas, corn and lots of lettuce and cucumbers. My partner ordered steak with vegetables, and my wife went with Chicken Marsala. The chops were the hit of theNight, as the Pinot Noir. Certainly this was one of the best Italian restaurants I've ever experienced. Everything was perfectly done, the service was superb, and the crowd was fun. We come from a city of Italian restaurants, and this was something special, like the sedan is so special
Rosebud and we left our hotel bar for a drink and turned the end of the Yankees game. It looked like a Phillies-Yankees series after all.
The final day began with a tour along the architecturalChicago River by barge. From the water, are the views of the city amazing. The tour was given by a volunteer from the Chicago Architectural Society, and it was worth the cost. It was educational, and the city looked different and beautiful from the boat on this page. Chicago has a great story in their buildings. The city itself changed the course of the river at one point to clean up Lake Michigan and throw everything into the Mississippi.
After the tour we had to complete some unfinishedBusiness. Hot Dogs and Italian Roast Beef. The tests showed about 10 different places, but we decided, because Toni Portilos loved it, and it was hot dogs and roast beef. Hot Doug's would have been a different choice, but we heard that the line is an hour long. We chose Portilos would be our choice.
What can I say? I understand now why they love hot dogs so much, in Chicago. Going to Portillo's like someone going from Chicago Delasandros for a cheesesteak. Does not existLove? The hot dogs with tomato slices, pickle spear, celery salt and a pepper crowned. It needed no mustard. The combination of flavors, is breathtaking. It is a party in your mouth. What a hot dog! As for the roast beef, it was good. Way as Tony Luke's but the role is not so good. The meat was good, though, but I like my beef fat as Shanks, and I would not waste my time on it when I make a second visit. Meet hot dogs and cheese fries its purpose would be. That is all you needPortillo.
According to Portillo's, I worried that I would not really do a steakhouse is no justice. My stomach was full for the rest of the afternoon, and even with all the feet that we could in Bucktown this afternoon, I seem to find any appetite. I think my body had just begun to close. Too much food in one weekend. But since it was our last night I had to find a way to find Gibson's eating steak.
Like most cities these days, each chain has Chicago Steakhouse, from Morton,and Smith and Wilensky, the Capital Grille. Gibson is a native of Chicago and I do not think that it extended to other places. To be honest, I did not expect to be better than Gibson's Capital Grille in Philadelphia, and it really was not much different. But it was damn good. My wife's filet was one of the best I've ever eaten, and all the food was first class, including the mammoth twice baked potato that all four of us shared and could not finish. Even my mixed salad was memorable because theyunderstand, good, strong red wine vinegar. I think what made that food was great, our great waiter, Michael. While he looked a little like Steve Erkel, he was so cool and friendly as possible. He has an almost perfect dinner 10th
So what you have learned four gourmets from South Jersey Chicago? Well, first of all, it is a big city with more beauty and variety than any other city that we visited. My wife would fight for New York, but Chicago is a friendly, cleaner and easier to navigateand more beautiful. Lake Michigan and the Chicago River really the charm of the city. And the people. They are just adorable.
