From July 15th-18th, my brother and I experienced more of Chicago than we had on our previous visits. I had been here once in the Fall of 2007 and more recently this past Fall of 2009. This time around, I got to experience more of the neighborhoods that the city has to offer. Let's start from the beginning. You should be warned, I have a lot of movie references in here.
Thursday the 15th we touched down at O'Hare Airport around 12:30pm. You might recognize the place from the film, Home Alone. Compared to Reagan National, this place is rather large.
Since we had not checked any luggage, we were able to make our way to ground transportation pretty quickly. The line for a cab was minimal. After instructing the driver to take us to 230 N Michigan Avenue, where the Hard Rock Hotel is located, we sat back and enjoyed the ride. O'Hare is a good 25-35 minutes from the Loop area of Chicago.
We were not able to check in early, but the hotel held our bags while we went to get lunch. The Berghoff was our first culinary outing in the city. Walking to this place, it becomes quite apparent that it is a major tourist attraction. The restaurant is one of the oldest in the city. It was also filmed for a scene in The Dark Knight. I went with the Wiener Schnitzel with a green bean and asparagus salad with homemade chips. It was great. I washed it down with some of the Berghoff Lager that they make there themselves.
After a satisfyingly filling German meal, we walked a few blocks to Miller's Pub. This place has been around since the 1930s. Many local celebrities, like Harry Caray, used to frequent the place. I had my first taste of Half Acre Pale Ale here. I loved this stuff.
Next, I was on a mission to see the Chicago Board of Trade Building. Why? I'm a movie geek so I love things like this. The interior and/or exterior of the building have been featured in many superb films like The Dark Knight, Batman Begins, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Road to Perdition and The Untouchables.
Down the street we got a couple snacks at Wow Bao. "Hot Asian Buns" is this restaurant chain's tagline. How clever. We opted for four Kung Pao buns. I liked these. They had a good kick to them. They were not anything marvelous, but it was quick street food that was a break from the norm.
Stuffed at this point, we did some walking around the downtown loop area and got some shots of the city.
What up, Wilco album cover?
We head over to the Art Institute of Chicago. On Thursdays from 5-8pm, admission to the museum is free. Score! I blogged about this place during the road trip so I'm not going to repeat how awesome a museum it is and the great art that is all over it.
We exited the museum on it's north end and headed east towards Lake Shore Drive and Lake Michigan. To our right was Grant Park where President Obama delivered his victory speech in 2008. We crossed Lake Shore Drive and walked along a path parallel to the lake. We continued towards the Navy Pier for about a mile where we saw numerous sailboats docked in Chicago's harbor.
Entering the pier was a relief, as it was quite hot in the city that day and the breeze off the water felt refreshing. Scoping out a place to grab a drink, we wound up at the end of the pier, opting for a beer from the Beer Garden. I went with a Two Brothers Ebel Weiss. We posted up on some nearby benches, as you can walk around the pier with a beverage in hand. Before we left, an interesting looking mist blew in off the water.
On our walk back to the hotel were were told that Michael Bay and company were filming Transformers 3 in the downtown area. Cool. We saw prop cars being forklifted in and fake rubble being dispersed along the Michigan Avenue bridge.
After some Yelp research, we headed out to Lincoln Park for the evening. We hit up two bars there. On the way, we passed the Biograph Theater. First, we went to Delilah's, a great spot with british invasion era music coming through the speakers and a performance by The Who playing on the television in the corner. There was an amazing selection of liquor and a good selection of beers, especially if you enjoy the Belgian variety. We opted for the Half Acre Pale Ale again. Man, that stuff is good. The second bar, Rose's Lounge, was such a dive. Walking into this place, you feel like you're in your grandmother's basement. It's got the smell, the random kitschy nick nacks, and Old Style on tap. What, your grandmother's basement doesn't have cheap beer on tap?
Delilah's great selection:
Day 2 was particularly packed with activities as well. We headed to the nearest Metra station at State and Lake. On our way, we pass the Chicago Theater. The lobby was featured in The Untouchables and the exterior in The Dark Knight.
The train stations here are much smaller than DC's and so are the trains. The system doesn't seem as fast and there is no clock inside the stations telling you when the next train will be arriving. We took the Red Line to the Addison Street stop AKA Wrigley Field.
Ready for any type of meal at this point, we went with John Barleycorn in Wrigleyville. The reviews for this place were not great, but we thought it was fine. It had exceptional bar food and every girl on the wait staff was easy on the eyes.
After the meal, we walked about 2 blocks to the stadium. Walking into this place was so odd to me, because it is not very large. After growing up going to Camden Yards and more recently, Nationals Park, I got used to large concourses. Wrigley does not have them. This place is old, like 1914 old.
We made our way to our seats which were in the second to last row of the stadium. The press booth where Harry Caray used to sit was just to our right. The stands were packed as it was a beautiful, but hot Friday. We were very happy to be in the shade. Looking towards the outfield, we could see the bleachers built up on the apartment buildings, some of the Chicago skyline, and Lake Michigan in the distance.
After the game, we started walking south along North Clark Street. We walked through Lake View and ate some falafel at Kleo. It was good and a healthy break from all of the meat we had been consuming.
That night we decided to head to Wicker Park. For dinner, we settled on Mexican at Caoba. The fish tacos here were fantastic and just filling enough.
Walking around Wicker Park, I couldn't help but notice imagery from High Fidelity. This is the movie geek in me noticing it, of course. A good amount of that film was shot there.
We decided to start the evening off at the Beachwood Inn. From the outside this bar did not even look open. The windows seemed to have a dark tint, but the atmosphere was pretty welcoming and the bartender was eager to take our drink order. The jukebox was solid and there were lights strung up all around. This is slowly becoming a pre-requisite to a bar that I'm going to enjoy: string lights. Halfway into our visit there, the bartender threw a copy of Troy into the dvd player. Random, but cool.
Venturing to nearby Ukrainian Village, we hit up Club Foot. Another cool spot with, you guessed it, string lights all around. The DJ was also cranking out some good tunes. I was thrilled to see a 9:30 Club sticker adorning the lavatory wall.
Walking around a little bit more, we came across a few dud bars. It wasn't that they couldn't have been cool, but they were just dead.
We ended the night at Zakopane, a Polish bar on Division Street. This place looked like a bar out of Goodfellas. Someone pointed that out in the yelp review and I happen to agree. The bartender was very cute and hooked us up with free refills of Old Style.
Day 2 was over.
We took our 3rd day in Chicago kind of easy. We took the red line south of the loop to Chinatown where we had MASSIVE bowls of noodles at Joy Yee's Noodle Shop. There was so much of it. It wasn't the best bowl of Phở that I've had but it was good.
After lunch we headed to The Blues Heaven Foundation, hoping to learn a little more about Chess Records and blues music in Chicago. Unfortunately, we didn't realize that you need to schedule a tour in advance, so it was closed. There wasn't much else to do in the Near South Side neighborhood so we hailed a cab and headed to Castaways.
Castaways is much like the bars of Dewey Beach. This place had a band playing and all of the $8 drinks one could ever want. Given the right mindset, I can see this place being a good time. It is strange, but very cool, to look out on the beach and then turn around to see skyscrapers.
Just outside Castaways:
We walked back towards the city along North Avenue passing Lincoln Park and the Chicago History Museum on the way to N. Clark Street. From there we took the Clark/Division red line train back to the Loop and our hotel.
The past two days of constant activity had caught up to us by now, so we chilled the rest of the day. The Fugitive was on TV. That's one good way to see Chicago.
Being in Chicago, it still didn't really hit me that I'm going to be moving there in October. This trip allowed me to get a much better sense of the city, but there is definitely more to do. I look forward to doing it.
