I think you'd be disappointed .

You mean you're not a cute party-girl from the UK???????

It's a tarp!

bwahahahahahaha, you're leveling right?



if anyone is looking for good french food in the Lincoln Park area, be sure to check out Cafe Bernard. It's been around forever, and some friends and I did a bordeaux tasting there two weeks ago. We were a bit worried at first as there weren't that many people on a friday night. Thankfully the food dispelled that as the rack of lamb that I had was excellent and the foie gras that we had after the dinner was excellent too. It was relaxed and worth going to if you are looking for a nice dinner


I was at 160Blue on west randolph this past friday, and was left a bit indifferent. I didn't experience any of the rudeness from the staff that I have read about, but I found them to over salt their dishes. It wasn't so bad to where I felt like sending it back, but I had both scallops and alaskan halibut, and you have to be careful when putting salt on those dishes and too much salt shows through. THey were cooked just fine(though the halibut was slightly dry) and the portions were perfect too, but I didn't really get into either of the dishes though. The entire meal cost me $60 with tip and was fine, but I know that I can find plenty of places in the city that will cost me the same amount and leave me more satisfied food wise



for those that have been to toro, do you know what their corkage policy is there?

Does anyone do volunteer work? I'm 22 and out of school playing poker.. I am going to return and get my degree but in the mean time i'm waiting out the economy and playing poker. Still, I want to make it look like I'm interested in learning or helping people; Not being a complacent oaf is nice.

ebarnet,

the volunteer opportunity i spent the most time with in chicago was CASA of Cook County.

up front, i can tell you that it's potentially incredibly depressing, and not a trivial amount of work. i also believe they require a 6mo or 1yr commitment, so i don't know if that works for you.

the upside is that when things work out, and even when they don't, it can be amazingly rewarding.

CASA is Court Appointed Special Advocates. A volunteer based organization which provides people to represent the interests of children in cases of abuse or neglect in the court system. In order to make reasonable recommendations to court, you have to make home visits to the foster home(s) of the children, meet their teachers, their psychologists (where applicable), etc. You have to meet with the parents and their parole officers, lawyers, etc (when applicable), some of whom are guaranteed to be people you don't like.

The case I got assigned was like this: Single mother of 6 children (by 3 men) (and pregnant with a 7th) had coke/heroin in her blood when she gave birth to 6th child, so the courts took all the kids and put them in foster care, in 3 houses. Mother was put in to drug treatment, and put on a course to regain custody of her children (involving attaining treatment, housing, and a job). Several of the children had behavioral or developmental issues relating to basically being poor kids from the south/west side who are young and separated from their mother. At the end of the 18 months I was working on the case, the mother had a house on the south side through a government program, where her mother was living with her to help with the kids, a job at a hardware store, and regained custody of all but the oldest child (who was having drug/depression issues and was put in to some kind of live-in facility/school). All in all, I was assigned pretty much the least depressing possible case, since many involved things like beating kids, starving them, or whatever. Many of my co-volunteers quit pretty early in the process after seeing a real case, and the guy who was the director of volunteers quit because he had become an alcoholic.

Anyway, that's my personal experience in Chicago with volunteer opportunities. If I were going to give a few hours a week of my time to someone these days it would probably be the Chicago Canine Rescue, where I adopted my dog. Places like that always need people to help care for or walk the dogs, and if you volunteer to walk the dogs there is obvious and easy chick-magnet potential.

Follow up: do you just want to make it look like you're interested in learning or helping people, or are you actually interested in those things?

Bob Chinn's (Wheeling) last night. Got the Asian style steamed sea bass served with white rice. Was decent but not great, which is how I always feel about BC. Service also very rushed as usual.

Cit, that seems like it'd be a good challenge. Pretty sure my friend's mom runs (or something like that) the one in Lake County, but never knew how that whole process worked- thought it was just representing them in court.

I had been looking at the Uptown Cafe http://www.juf.org/tov/uptown_cafe.aspx - more of a traditional thing where you serve (kosher) food and also eat/keep company with the people eating there.

awww yeah...

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200906/ice

citanul,

Thanks a lot, that was a great anecdote- and CASA sounds like it's the kind of opportunity i want to learn more about. What kind of schedule were you working on for this family? Were you scheduling regular visits with several different people/organizations for this family? Did you often deal with unexpected situations?

As for ASPCA/Animal Advocacy... I just can't talk myself into that work. I'm not sympathetic enough toward animals and people who are dedicated to them.

Thanks, Chisness... Uptown Cafe looks like a cool opportunity and it's really close.. thanks again

it's free.

yes

i went to japonais the other night for the first time in forever and it was ****ing great. sat on the water. had surf and turf which was ridiculous and a bunch of other great stuff. last time i was there i didnt even live in chicago, but they seemed far more interested in the scene than in the food. this time was the exact opposite. service was good too. im putting it back in the rotation.

Yea f the Japonais haters, I go there once a month and love it.

i'm gonna have to go there soon

if you like japonais you should try sunda.

similar idea, pan-asian, a scene, sushi, etc. get the crab cake crusted tuna app, does not disappoint.

i liked it a lot more than i thought i would. i'm not huge into the trendy stuff for everyday meals, but i've been there a few times just to grab a bite or with work people and it's exceeded expectations each time.

sunda's executive chef did a demo at the lincoln park farmer's market today. i want to go there now.

some wire-esque action in uptown: http://chicagoist.com/2009/08/14/cra..._in_uptown.php

There's not a single guy in that video that wanted to fight

Had brunch at the Four Seasons last Sunday. Plenty of vegetarian options - try the omlette with crab+lobster. Pricey brunch, but worth the occasional $72 splurge. Valet was ~$25 for ~1hour.

Menu
http://www.fourseasons.com/chicagofs/dining.html
120 East Delaware Place Chicago, Illinois 60611
(312) 280-8800

I dont drink, but the bar area looked spectacularly old school, but likely pretty quiet at night.

Bar is super nice, but I feel like no one under 40 would ever go there.

Went to Meiji last weekend. Thought it was good but not great, although that could be b/c I had high expectations from this thread.

Have a reservation at Arun's this weekend, pretty excited. Anyone been there?

Anybody have interest in getting a pair of Blackhawks season tickets and then splitting them up (draft)? Couldn't decide between Bulls/Blackhawks, but after last year, I found Hawks games have a much more electric atmosphere. Also been to too many Bulls games.

None of my friends cant really afford this so figure I'd ask here. Looking to split it with at least 4 people, max 8. 41 home games total, not including playoffs, which will be awesome.

Don't really post that much here, but EM2 and Chisness can both vouch for my credibility. PM me or post here if you're interested.

I would possibly be interested but I'm pretty sure the seat options suck for 1st time season ticket holders? I would also be interested in Bulls if good seats were available.

i would be interested for bulls but i think it's impossible to get good seats right away. 300 level at the beginning. is there a market somewhere for people looking to unload their season tickets? i know there is for Bears PSL's and good seats can be had if you pay more than face for the PSL's.