Today I got a late start for running errands and headed to Costco on Clybourn. Not a good idea. Traffic was awful and by the time I got there almost the entire lot was full. I didn't want to battle the crowds so I didn't even park and headed home. One little problem...I needed to get dinner.
Clybourn was backed up and I knew Trader Joe's would be packed. However,
I needed a quick bite at lunch and headed down to Potbelly’s for my usual Wreck on wheat. Up on a redesigned menu board was a clover-shaped sign that said “Try a Clubby for $5.40” with no explanation of what it was. It turns out to be a Turkey and ham with bacon and provolone. So like the Wreck but instead of roast beef and salami you get the bacon. I’m not sure if it’s better than the Wreck but it had a lot of turkey, like more turkey than all the meat from a Wreck. You can get ranch sauce with it but I went with my usual toppings and it was good. It’s also more money at $5.40 instead of $4.50. Not break the bank, but enough to push you to $6.01 with tax. Anyone else try this?
Working in the far West Loop (Fulton and Aberdeen) there aren't a whole lot of restaurants within short walking distance. Even though I'm two blocks from Harpo, there aren't many quick, affordable, healthy lunch options. I used to be a devotee of Jerry's until they started charging per "premium" ingredient on the salad. Back in the day, it was $7.95 for whatever toppings you wanted on a salad. Not a bad deal. But now, the same salad I used to get runs $10+
So today I headed over to Subway, but halfway there I decided it was too cold to walk any farther. I stopped walking and headed into Yats Cajun Creole on Randolph, which I believe opened in October or November. It's an Indianapolis output and this is the first location in Chicago.
The place wasn't packed, but had a fair amount of people for a West Loop lunch spot.
Continue reading "Yats Cajun Creole: West Loop Restaurant Review" »
Last night Courtney and I got a little baby sitting help from Auntie Rhonda, so we took a quick run to a new nearby eatery called The Bristol on Damen a block away from DuChamp. The concept is that of an upscale pub. It's a pretty good idea and we ordered a good sampling of food. Besides a few sandwiches and appetizers like blue cheese stuffed chicken wings, the food was more sophisticated.
But overall I think the quality was above average, not mindblowing, yet also affordable with a great staff.
Continue reading "The Bristol, Wicker Park Restaurant Review" »
Today I got a late start for running errands and headed to Costco on Clybourn. Not a good idea. Traffic was awful and by the time I got there almost the entire lot was full. I didn't want to battle the crowds so I didn't even park and headed home. One little problem...I needed to get dinner.
Clybourn was backed up and I knew Trader Joe's would be packed. However, I took the side street and saw that the relatively new Jewel Urban Fresh was relatively empty. I parked and headed inside. I'd been in twice before but with a list of a just a few items. Now, I had to find something on the fly.
Yes, it’s a franchise. Yes, it’s one of Courtney’s clients. Yes, it totally kicks ass.
On Saturday Courtney and I took Carter to the Zoo and afterwards headed over to the Counter because, when else would we be in Lincoln Park and able to park and go eat. We arrived at around 11:30 a.m. a little early but just ight to actually find parking and have an empty enough restaurant to wheel in Carter’s stroller.
We were given menus and explained how the whole “order off a checklist” works. Amazing that Freshii and The Counter work the same way.
Basically, you “build” your burger and get to pick what size patty (we both did 1/3 pound and if you do more you won’t have room for fries or a shake), bun, cheese, toppings, premium toppings for $1 and sauce. It’s pretty nifty. I built a typical bacon-cheeseburger with bbq sauce and carmelized onions. It was terrific.
I’m still not writing about Mado because honestly it would be too involved and lengthy. While an interesting spot it sure isn’t a return destination. More important to our lives however is a good takeout spot and I can honestly say that I’ve never found truly great wings in the city.
Enter Wing Stop, a franchise store sure, but one that seems to know its wings. And it’s just a few doors away from Mado.
The night before we headed out on our family vacation Courtney and I got an evening sans baby to go grab dinner before heading out to the suburbs to meet-up with the in-laws and baby in advance of our departure the next day. We basically needed to kill an hour while traffic abated.
We had a hard time figuring out where to go and Courtney wanted something casual. I wanted something new and different. I won! We headed to Duchamp which took over the old Meritage location. We had gone to Meritage many times over the years, mostly while Dirk was still there who remembers my wife lovingly as the woman who wanted a chocolate dessert dammit.
Anyway, the new design of Duchamp is nice and modern, but dark as heck. Maybe that’s romantic but at 5:15 p.m. with plenty of summer light, it was too dark. We decided to sit outside which was nicely opened up, but had a lot of seagrass type plantings that seemed to attract huge flies. Luckily the bugs stayed away from us. The communal tables didn’t bother us because at that time of night there was only one other couple seated.
Continue reading "Restaurant Review: Duchamp, Wicker Park" »
We don't normally do a lot of takeout. In fact, our meals are usually planned out for the entire week. But on a Friday night sometimes we'll give in to the ease and conveience. So, since the Olympics were starting Friday we thought Chinese would be fitting. We used to do takeout from Friendship in Logan Square but they've let us down a few times lately and it always seems pretty fattening. We decided to try Papijin over on Milwaukee. I had eaten there once a long time ago and liked it. It's a bizarre menu because they have Chinese and sushi. That usually spells a sub-par place but our Chinese was excellent.
Courtney ordered a chicken dish with veggies and peanuts. It was excellent. Very light and with good flavor. Unfortunatley, I made a mistake and got a beef dish. It was my fault for ordering it. The flavor was fine but the beef were in huge pieces which were a bit tough. We got shrimp fried rice which was also really good, and not too heavy. It had interesting veggies like diced zucchini in it as well as quite a few large shrimp, not the tiny canned kind. We also had two egg rolls which were about average. Overall, we were really impressed and if we splurge again we'll order there.
Sunday, we stopped by Goddess and the Grocer for an early breakfast with baby and dog after perusing the green market at Wicker Park. I had a bagel and lox plate and Courtney got Veggie Scramble wrap which was huge and quite tasty. Anyway, that was the weekend of eating out. Saturday, I cooked filets from Costco with sweet potatoe fries. Tonight we're having eggplant parmegian with homemade tomato sauce I whipped up this morning, which tastes pretty good so far.
I'm waiting for a flight but I thought it might be a good idea to update my take on Freshii the healthy lunch spot that opened recently next to my office.
I've been back about six or so times and if you get there before noon the lines aren't too bad. By far my favorite item is the buffalo chicken wrap. Same with coworker Amanda.
I also like the fiesta salad and cobb wrap. The salads are expensive but have plenty of good stuff in them. They're definitely an upgrade over Potbelly or Soprafina. Anyway, I thought I should update since the first post was so negative. I think this place will do a great business and I'm more excited to have another lunch take-out spot.
