I had a sprint mobile internet card that I got when I lived in texas. In TX it was perfect, when I moved to chicago 4 years ago I had constant problems with disconnections no matter where I went with my laptop.

For phones I've had 2 different tracfones that use the t-mobile network since I've moved here and never had problems with it.

Clayton,

I've had great service with Verizon since moving out here.

All,

Any recommendations for a good lunch place downtown to meet with a client? I've really only been to the touristy places so far. Something relatively casual would be good without a long wait for lunch on a Monday.

Primebar is really good imo on Wacker

My buddy recommended The Gage. Primebar looks good too though, thanks.

Co-workers have asked me and another person to come up with some suggestions for a small company outing. The want the evening to involve some kind of competition (ex. whirleyball, paintball) and end with drinks at a nearby bar. Oh, and it must take place in the city.

Ideas anyone?

come up with a scavenger hunt that ends at the bar of your choice? (that was the first thing that came into my head)

Bowling at either 10 Pin (right by house of blues) or Lucky Strike at 322 E. Illinois St.

If it's a smaller group, and you count LP or Lakeview as "in the city," you can also check out Seven Ten Lounge on Lincoln, just S of Diversey, or Southport Lanes, on Southport, just S of the Southport Brown Line.

All of these options have bars included, as well as other bars nearby.

I had AT&T living at basically Diversey/Southport and had to use Skype or Google Voice pretty much always, but definitely not a typical case.

Clayton: What are you gonna be doing in Chicago?

A friend of mine might be visiting in the summer prob on a small budget. Recommended food options assuming like 3 days in town? (I'm sure this has been done many times before.)

I was thinking Lou's, Portillo's (I don't like but I believe most normal eaters would include this), Walker Bros or Egg Harbor, maybe one modestly priced place like Bristol. Any other staples/recs?

Anybody down to go play tennis Saturday morning? Maybe around 9am?

if he has no problem with a slight bit of travel, cemitas puebla will fill him up in no time for cheap.

I'd also say, if he wants to do a nice and modestly priced place, I'd also throw in a vote for Browntrout. You can easily get out of there for $50 after tax+monster tip, especially if you go on a thursday night when it's free corkage.

I've soured on the Bristol a bit after they were way too literal with their corkage on my friends and I (not to mention we were giving them 15-20% of each bottle and having staff taste who weren't even on our station) back in April.

Thanks. Yeah that sounds dirty. Never found them to be especially friendly, but can't really go wrong w/ monkey bread

If anyone wants to play golf over the next 3 weeks or so, I would be interested. No car though.

I've got a group, we usually play every Sunday and sometimes on Saturday.

I'd be down to play tomorrow morning, would have to be pretty damn early though (teeing off before 8am).

I Have a car also.

Kd,

I'd love to hear details of your experience as I have had only good experiences there. Hard to interpret what you said as anything other than expecting a special deal then being angry when you don't get it.

Well, it's more that they decided to skin the sheep rather than shear it. They even charged us on 2 bottles that weren't even opened. The thing is, the guy that set up the dinner is the main retail sales guy at Hart Davis Hart and HDH uses Bristol all the time for major events. We were supposed to have corkage worked out, but they then decided to charge us on every bottle as opposed to capping it at a point.

I'm far from anti-corkage, but when we're drinking out the entire staff, constantly sending bottles back, having the GM drink from our bottles, then it leaves a bit of a bitter taste when an extra $300 (yea, we had 15 bottles lined up that night, but that's just how we do) is added to the bill when we were expecting $100-120 in corkage.

This has happened twice now, and the general deal before was, send bottles back and they'll take care of us because we more than took care of them.

It may seem petty to some, but my group of friends open a lot of wine and a lot of very good wine. We love sharing with the staff and we also know that there is usually an unspoken (or spoken if arranged ahead of time) agreement with that. We've dined at the Bristol plenty of times in the past and it had never been an issue until very recently.

My issue has nothing to do with the wait staff as they've always been top notch. It's more to do with the management there. I also was soured a bit as I tried to put together a 60 person dinner there and management basically tried to treat us as marks and costs spiraled very fast to where we just said peace to them.

I'm willing to eat there for a date or a group of 3 or 4 where we will have 5 bottles (at most) open, but for my general group, no way. I don't like being thought of as a mark, especially when I'm being extremely generous to you.

I go to Chicago once a month for a weekend. Love going to Avec (french), Pink Monkey (strip club), Takoz (mexican) and staying at the Ritz Carlton

Searching for new roommate beginning July 1. Large apartment in Lakeview/Wrigleyville near Addison red line stop. $700 rent, $200 utilities per person. Great living situation. PM if interested in more details. Pics/video available.

Anyone going to try to get finals tickets? Game 5 is on my birthday. Pretty tempted. $600 is the cheapest actual seat, did Standing Room once at a football game and regretted it. Any other recommended sites to keep tabs on other than StubHub and Craigslist? Ticketmaster seems pretty bad.

Dryhop officially opens tomorrow at 5. Considering there was an hour wait on saturday, I'm gonna have to get there early. Anyone else gonna try to make it for the full launch?

I went to the preview on Saturday. I was about 15th in line. Tried all four free samples. Batch 001 and Angry Samoan were my favorites. After that Shark Meets Hipster. And fourth preference was The Judge.

The growler program sounds like it will be nice (Saturday discounts or something?).

I really hope their prices stay for growlers. Atlas has lower prices as well, but nowhere near the demand that Dryhop will. Hopefully it will put pressure on Half Acre and Rev into lowering growler prices.

Got Johnny's Beef delivered for lunch today. Such a great sandwich. Well worth the trip if you're in that area. So much better than Al's imo.

I've never bothered going there, mostly because it's a hike on North Ave.



Anyone else going to the full opening of Dryhop tonight? I figure if I'm waiting in line by 4:30 I should be good for at least a seat at the bar.

Dryhop is amazing. Haven't eaten there yet but I tried 4-5 of their beers, all if them were great.

I wouldn't say great. They are very good and all are 6.2% and lower, which is a refreshing change. I'm going again tomorrow so I xan actually eat the food this time(my entree never made it to me on Thursday).