CHICAGO

Helloooo my friends!

Sorry for the lack of posts but my husband and I have spent the last few days in Chicago as you may have read. I hope you were following along on Instagram as I posted a few sneak peaks. And now, you guys get to hear all about it. I won't bore you by cramming everything into one post. I am going to spread out the posts over the next couple of weeks or so. But I will start at the beginning.

First off, we LOVED Chicago and would go back in a heartbeat. There's a lot of cool things to do and see. And being the obnoxious, food-loving people that we are, there is no lack of awesome places to eat. Some I had researched prior (yes, I'm a dork) and some that we found along the way. We really didn't have a bad meal at all. We also did a lot of touristy things like walk around Millennium Park, see the Bean, and go on an architectural boat tour. 

Riding off into the sunset heading to Chicago

We arrived late on Friday night. This meant drinks ASAP. We arrived at our hotel, the Godfrey Hotel, in Chicago. We found that it was in the middle of EVERYTHING which was awesome. We also got an unlimited pass for the CTA (the public transportation system) that was hugely helpful. We walked to a nearby bar called Municipal Bar & Dining Co. which was oddly dead on a Friday night. Which, was fine with us as we were tired. THEY HAD A MULES MENU.

I got Misty's Mule and Tim got the Dirty South. We shared some Spinach and Artichoke dip.

On Saturday morning, we awoke 

Good morning, Chicago

and went to Yolk (ha, I'm a poet and I didn't know it). This place serves amazing breakfasts. It was packed but we were able to sit at the counter. The counter also had a great view of the hectic open kitchen that we were fascinated by.

I got the French Toast Flight, which was posted on Insta. This was a trio of french toasts. One was banana nut bread with bananas and peanut butter, the second was sweet orange bread with strawberries, and the third was lemon poppyseed bread with blueberries. 

Tim had the South of the Border benedict with chorizo, avocado, etc. etc. Amazing. We were very tempted to go back to Yolk at another point during the trip but didn't end up doing it. #norepeats.

After rolling out the door, we went over to the Lincoln Park area of the city and spent most of the day there. First up was the Green City Outdoor Market. 

There are obviously a lot of farms in the Illinois/Michigan/Indiana area and the market was full of colorful product and fun products. 

We shared a strawberry, honey and mint soda (must recreate). 

We were sad that we weren't hungry because there was a lot of cool food there. 

After the market, we went to the FREE zoo and actually were there for more than 2 hours. It was a really good zoo for free.

Then we headed over to a Hot Dog Fest. Now, neither of us are big hot dog fans but Chicago is known for their hot dogs so we figured we would attempt. Entrance was free but you had to buy "dog dollars" in order to pay for the food inside. 

There were a lot of vendors to pick from but ended up at Chubby Wieners.

I got the Backyard Wiener with potato salad, smoked bacon, and chipotle aioli. Tim got the Mamona which was bacon, blue cheese, citrus BBQ sauce, and pineapple. They were scrumptious and washed down with Goose Island beers (a local brewery. More about that obsession later).

After taking a break in our hotel room, we went to the Untitled Supper Club for dinner. This place is almost like a speakeasy. There is an unmarked door and you go downstairs. There are different rooms (the whiskey library, the champagne dining room, the lounge, and backstage). We ended up in the champagne room. There were large booths on the side that were hidden by curtains and it was really dark in the restaurant. As a forewarning, the pictures are not so great due to the darkness. But I'm forcing you to look at them anyways.

We started off with a couple of drinks. Mine was an Out Too Late with gin, brandy, luxardo cherry, lime and pomegranate. Tim got the Monkey & A Pipe which had banana-infused bourbon, Spanish wine, whiskey, and bitters. We had the Lamb & Beef Meatballs with blue cheese polenta, soffrito, pickled shallot, and toast.

For dinner, I ordered Brick Chicken with olive oil mashed potatoes, black garlic brussels sprouts, and chutney.

Tim had the BBQ Pork Shoulder which was on top of corn pudding and corn relish with a fried egg on top.

Dessert was a Strawberry Rhubarb Cake with chantilly cream, balsamic get, and brown butter ice cream. I am finding a way to make brown butter ice cream. 

After that we were going to go a tiki bar but the line was way too long and we are too old for that stuff nowadays. Instead, we ended up watching the fireworks at the Navy Pier from a bar down the street. It wasn't the perfect view but it ended up working out nicely.