Around the general North Side (Lakeview, LP, Old Town, etc): Pour House, Old Town Social, Local Option, Prost...those aren't bad

Good bars in other parts: Hopleaf, Bad Apple, Map Room, Beer Bistro

I love the bad apple and pour house. Basically if you could have the pour house as small /chill as bad apple that would be perfect. Bad apple too far

Honestly, if you are saying bad apple is too far, then I have to question how much you want a proper beer bar. What it comes down to is that it sounds like you aren't *that* willing to go outside of the area you currently live in. That's the Crux with living in river north. It's not an area that really thrives on that kind of business. So, you either have to look a little further afield or accept the situation you are in.

Personally, a major factor in moving into bucktown was that I had the nightlife and gGeneral scene that I wanted. There ate trade offs to every area of the city and if you want something from one area that you can't get, you have to be willing to travel somewhat.

Sign up for Fooda e-mails, say you work at groupon & echo. Check out Chicago Food Truck Finder to see what's going to be parked outside for lunch (usually 3-4 options). There's a shuttle that goes East on Chicago stopping at the brown line (Steve's Deli, Big & Little's), the Red Line (McD's, Chick Fil-A, Mr J's Dawg, El Souk), and I believe Rush St. (Chicago Dog, Epic Burger, Flaco's Tacos, Jimmy Johns, Potbelly). The shuttle leaves every half hr starting at 11. Check out the schedule here.

If you decide to eat at Snarf's (don't), sign up online first, and they'll send you an e-mail for 50% off your first order, and use the online order ahead system (but probably just don't eat there).

Also, Goddess & Grocer just opened up at 901 N. Larrabee.

Hoping to get some feedback from my fellow.Chicago heads...

Have you guys noticed how bad Giordanos has gotten? At first a year or so ago the sauce began tasting funny, got it a few months ago (xl thin crust pepperoni) and all the toppings were on the top, looking like a gourmet pizza hut pizza. A month after, ordered a stuffed pepperoni and the slices of pepperoni were on top, with no lake of red sauce. I order from the greektown one, am curious if this is citywide. Very disappointing, Giordanos was one of the few places I could count on for comfort food that tasted the same evry time

Yea I mean I can definitely venture out, I was just more asking if anyone had any ideas about a place closer was all

Don't sleep on Clark Street Ale House. Mostly a scotch bar, but solid beer choices, as well. I also like Delilah's on Lincoln.

I only lived in Chicago from 9/2011 to 11/2012, but I always thought giordanos was pretty bad, don't know why anyone would ever consider getting it instead of Lou's. maybe it used to be better though?

It's edible, but it's on the lower tier of (to quote myself)

Pequod's = Burt's > Lou's = Art of Pizza >>> Giordano's > Gino's East > Connie's = Edwardo's

will be in chicago for baconfest sat 4/20. who else is going? would like something better to do than white sox v twins on fri 4/19. what do you guys recommend? tia.

Are you looking for sports, food, drinks, museums? FYI, if you ate goin to the sox/twinkies game, the red line will be shut down. You'll need to take the green line to 35-bronzeville and walk on the overpass of the Dan Ryan

any or all of the above i guess. also, what food would you recommend? not looking for fine dining really. just like some super awesome pizza or burgers or something.

For burgers, the natural thing to say is kuma's, but I generally don't like the attitude there as it seems attitude for attitudes sake. Lockdown on western and almost Augusta gives you the same quality without the BS.

As far as pizza goes, are you looking thin crust or deep dish/pan? Lots of different answers can happen based on that.

I guess the best question(s) is/are: 1) where are you staying and 2) will you have a car and if you don't have a car how willing to take mass transit are you?

we're staying in the towne place suites in lombard and the event is being held at the UIC forum on roosevelt road in chicago. we have a car.

def not deep dish.

Jims hot dogs is right around the corner from the UIC forum, and I don't know anyone who has gotten a hot dog from there, but you should get a polish. Mustard and grilled onions are standard and they give you hot peppers if you ask.

A very Chicago thing to do, this is the place everyone goes to at 3am after a drunk night out.

I've only been once, but was disappointed with Lockdown.

Was in Chicago for almost 2 weeks at the beg of the month. Some quick reviews:

Boarding House - Meh, salmon was small and salty. Came with polenta cake which I hated. Cheesecake Factory much better imo! Building was pretty cool but wouldn't go back. Should've gone to Bavette's instead.

Next The Hunt - Really good! My 2nd fave of the Next meals I've been to. I guess I'm biased in favor of meat dishes, but lots of these were fantastic. The squab, sturgeon/caviar, and carrot were my favorites. Also the maple taffy lollipop at the end was very cool. Went with jaysick after advertising spot in this thread, which was great (except for the other 2 at the table cause I kept asking weightlifting questions which the other 2 seemed to care near 0 about).







Mexique - Amazing steak asada, tinga de pollo was OK, enjoyed the service

Senza - Everything was solid, favorites were barramundi and squab, and liked all dishes even some ones I didn't expect to. Cool very small place in Lakeview.

Of course Trader Joe's was also sick except the steak was meh and grapes seemed small

What do people order at Wildfire? I've always gotten the half chicken but getting a little tired of it now.

Also learned that smores are best made at home. Tried 1 at Maggiano's and 1 at Boarding House and both were way worse than standard.


Maggiano's -- absurdly bad marshmallow/graham cracker ratio, had to take half home then threw it out after a few more bites

Smore from Boarding House: http://instagram.com/p/WiegOjJx2-/

There's a new place with 30 beers on tap and 60 beers available on Hubbard and Orleans! Jackpot!

Going to try to check it out tonight

Edit: Brewstone Beer Company

Thanks again for posting the invite. Definitely glad both the attempted Chicago based Facebook post and original response fell through.

Food was awesome. Was also great that we were like whose the dbag in the hat and it turned out to be Morimoto of iron chef fame.

As for the weightlifting talk, whatever. Your friend got to talk about yoga and how she doesn't life because she didn't want to get bulky and my roommate found it funny how eerily similar we were in a number of ways.

I don't think they minded THAT much.

thanks for the advice guys, so far we've decided on dell rheas and jims original. now maybe just an awesome non-deep dish pizza place and that should cover all our time in chicago. what say you edf?

piece pizza on north is well worth a go. It's new haven style and they brew their own beer there too. Just know that it does get crazy packed around 7.

Dante's on armitage is also awesome. The pizzas are huge, so be prepared to eat

Wow, all 3 day Lollapalooza tickets sold out within ~3 hours, without full lineups released. Options are now scalpers or trying to get 3 1 day passes at $95/day.

Most of the headliners have been determined (though not officially announced) so people know what they are getting themselves into. The full lineup will be revealed at 12:01 (midnight) on April 9.

I'm planning to buy either one or two of the single-day passes depending how the line-up gets distributed. Hopefully the bands I want to see are all on the same day (but not going up against each other) or are spread out over Friday and Saturday (so I don't have to take a day off from work).

can anyone recommend a good (honest) auto body shop close to downtown and south loop area? thanks!

In addition to Piece, which is awesome, I'd check out La Madia, on Grand, in River North, or Coalfire, also on Grand, but farther West. Coalfire has the added benefit of being just across the street from the Twisted Spoke, where they serve lots of bourbon.