em2,

on aruns: that's totally fair, and i agree. i'll probably give it a shot, now that you phrase it like that (and it's deceptively close to my house).

on frontera: everything i've eaten there has been very good. on the current menu, these look great to me -



Puerco en Salsa de Elote Verde: grilled Maple Creek pork loin in a sauce of roasted tomatillos, fresh corn, chile guero, hoja santa. Rustic mashed potatoes, grilled Spence Farm summer squash. 23.00

Tamales de Calabacitas en Mole Verde Oaxaqueno: savory tamales of fresh-ground corn masa and shredded calabacitas in Oaxacan green mole. Fresh cactus (nopal) salad. 18.00

Pato en Mole Negro: adobo-marinated Gunthorp duck breast in classic Oaxacan black mole (made from chilhuacle chiles and 28 other ingredients). Black bean tamales, garlicky braised black kale. 23.50

i was going to say that the margarita with herredura silver is fantastic, but it seems they have taken that tequila out of whichever thing it was in and subbed in another tequila, so go nuts. (i'm sure you will.)

I don't think you can go wrong with anything there.

The guacamole is really, really good. Definitely recommend that. Yesterday I had:

Enchiladas de Coloradito: homemade tortillas rolled around Maple Creek Farm braised pork shoulder and bacon, doused with classic mole coloradito (ancho chile, sweet spices). 18.50

The pork was excellent. Everything on the other tables looked great. Pick something off the menu that looks good - odds are that you won't be disappointed.

Went to Aruns last night, thought it was excellent. It was $85/person for the 12 course tasting menu. I decided to go with the wine pairing, but it was extremely disappointing. You are much better off picking out a bottle that you know you will enjoy.

They serve you 4 individual appetizers and then bring out 4 entrees family style. The dishes were: Lobster/Scallop, Sea Bass, Beef, and chicken. I thought all 4 of the entrees were very good with the beef dish (their signature) being my favorite.

All in all it gets a bit expensive with wine, but I would recommend it and will be going back. Does anyone know how often the menu changes?

I'll be visiting 9/30 - 10/5 for a board review class which is being held at a hotel in Schaumburg. My wife is coming with me and we want to check out some of these places.

Alcohol is going to be involved, and for at least a one or two of the nights I'd like there to be enough involved that I shouldn't be driving. I did a quick Google maps lookup and it looks like getting into the city is something of a hike. Am I going to be able to use cabs/public transportation or is a rental car a better way to go?

You have two options. I'd take one way to get there and one to get home. You can take the blue line on the way home. This is the only way you will be able to party late. This will only take you back from the city to O'Hare. From O'Hare you can take a cab to Schamburg. That's not too bad of a fare, it's around a 10-15 minute ride I believe. To get down there I'd prob go to the Arlington Park train station, and the Metra will take you downtown or to Lincoln Park, or Wrigleyville. The problem is that the trains coming back to Arlington Park stop running at midnight I think. So that realistically doesn't leave much time to party. I would go as far as to book a hotel in the city for a night or two. There is a decent bar scene in Schamburg, and Palatine. Nothing great obviously, but if I don't want to go all the way to the city that is usually where I go to party when I'm feeling lazy.

Oof. Schaumburg is really far away if you're looking for nightlife. Best option is to rent a car if you can, although that may limit your alcohol intake. EM2 is right, a hotel in the city is the way to go if you want to go all out.

The blue line is such turds if you really want to party late, though. Echoing the "get a hotel in the city" sentiment. Priceline it if you must, it's not terribly expensive.

Are you willing to get a hotel downtown for the night?

I'm pretty much stuck with the hotel for the class. And I think I may have overstated my intentions a bit. I need to be able to function for the classes so it isn't going to be balls-to-the-wall until 4:00 or anything like that.

I was more concerned that parking/traffic might be such a PITA that it wouldn't be worth it. I've done stuff like this in Atlanta, Nashville and Memphis with no problem. New Orleans, on the other hand, would be a nightmare and not worth the trouble and I'm concerned that Chicago would be similar.

Maybe some more specific questions:

We're big Alabama fans and would like to try to catch the game on TV that weekend. I found a bar in Wrigleyville which seems to be the "official" Alabama sports bar. What would it be like to try to drive there to watch the game on a Saturday afternoon/evening?

There was a description of a bar -- think it was the Violet Hour, Citanul mentioned it a couple of times -- which sounded great. Would driving there for a drink then somewhere nice for dinner work?

That would work fine and there's plenty of good dining around that area. Traffic should be OK on a Saturday.

Violet Hour is more of a later night thing imo, but to each his own. It's unbelievably pretentious, so be prepared. The drinks are good though. There are plenty of nice restaurants around there.

Traffic on a Saturday will be surprisingly bad. Be prepared for a traffic jam. Partygirl, have you ever driven 90/94 on a Saturday? It sucks. As for parking, I would plan on valeting anywhere you go. Looking for street parking may take a while, especially if you're unfamiliar with the area.

FYI

http://baconfestchicago.com/faq/

I rarely ever take 90-94 from 4pm-7pm it's always pretty brutal the exception being Sundays.

If you're planning to hit up Violet Hour and a restaurant in Wicker Park, definitely plan on valet. Not even sure what the going rate is anymore, since I haven't been that way in a couple months, but I'd expect $10-12 per place you stop. You're not going to find street parking there on a Saturday night.

the violet hour can be pretentious, if you make it so. if you don't go in and try to order jaeger bombs and seven up and goose, you're generally not going to have a problem with pretentiousness unless you go looking for it. it's not like they go out of their way to give you a lecture on the x kinds of ice they serve or whatever. i personally recommend sitting at the bar, as you can talk to the bartender and have them craft you something that matches your tastes, and maybe learn something, but i go frequently and that's to my taste. if you're coming and want to chill out and chat with your wife, sit at a table and have a great time.

as for doing it before dinner, that is actually my recommendation especially for first timers. close to open there is little to no line, and no waiting means more fun. if you go around 11 or 12, especially on a weekend, you're going to have to deal with ****ty lines. my recommendation is that you do exactly what you wrote, and hit the violet hour for a drink or two before dinner, closer to the open (i think they open at 6? and 2-3 drinks is 60-90 minutes or something like that, so great timing for pre-dinner). yes, it's a great place to unwind and spend hours after dinner/show/whatever, but that can really be screwed up by the un-fun-ness of waiting in a huge line, which is inevitable.

ltb,

why would you valet at more than one place? there's plenty of stuff to do within walking distance of TVH. neither the bar nor the restaurants are going to care if you pay to park with them and then come back before their establishment closes. as for street parking, meh, it's available in general, though i agree worse on saturday and i'm certainly not posting where to find it on a message board.

costanza,

worst comes to worst you'll have to valet your car in wriggleyville to watch the game at the bar. the traffic in to the city is going to blow, but it's not like several hours of blowing, it's like, an hour or so of blowing, maybe less. also, obviously tons of great stuff to eat near TVH. hope you and your wife have a great time.

1) supposed to be moving in to apartment on aug 31. we went yesterday to check out the progress as it's new construction. the craigslist ad and features list i got give appliance brands/model numbers of high end stuff (wolf/viking, etc.) and instead they put in very mediocre frigidaire stuff..looks like purposely trying to skimp/pull a quick one on us as the fridge doesn't even fit in its opening properly! contacted them and waiting to see how this goes.

2) went to the bristol in bucktown which was one of my favorite meals ever even though i didn't like half the dishes we got. they've got a daily rotating menu and everything is ordered as a group. they bring out each item one by one, waiting for us to finish before bringing the next, and hand make everything from scratch. we ate at a communal table.

the monkey bread is possibly the best bread i've ever had. close with wildfire, but this bread comes out super hot which gives it the edge. the roasted chicken was delicious and tried rabbit for the first time which was also very good. the quail was alright and the apple salad and watermelon thing were meh. chocolate pudding type thing for dessert with made from scratch nutter butters was awesome.

pretty sure waiter hated me as we went with 3 then added a 4th late disrupting the efficiency of the seating at the communal table. then i knocked over half a water glass and then dropped my fork a bit later

are there any restaurants like this in lincoln park?

3) checked out the east bank club as well. feels like a hotel/resort inside and is pretty insanely large. golf range is really cool, new weight room seemed nice, wouldn't use cardio room but it's absolutely massive and there must've been 300 people in there or something. running track seemed really good and restaurants looked sweet. debating whether to join since it'll be a 10 min drive instead of 10 min walk and my roommates might not want to pay for it, so kind of risk-reward working out with them vs. nicer place that's further away.

i agree with this. violet hour has great drinks, but the lines on a weekend night are really bad. if i'm not mistaken, you can call a few days in advance and reserve a table. but as citanul said, go there early if you don't feel like waiting. there are a lot of wealthy people who go there, which probably explains why people think it's "pretentious." not at all uncommon to see cars like bentleys and aston martins.

Has anyone been to the new bar/lounge, Market, in the west loop? I heard great things about it.

Also, the roofdeck at the citizen bar is pretty solid. it closes at midnight though, although the rest of the bar is open till like 3.

FWIW, I thought Violet Hour was pretentious not because of the rich people there but because the waitstaff all had huge attitudes. Didn't sit at the bar though, the bartenders may be different. YMMV.

Hi guys,

I'm looking to move back to Chicago sometime in the next 6mos-1year.

I'd also like to buy a place sometime soon rather than rent, and would be looking for some advice on good "bang-for-the-buck" neighborhoods.

Would like to keep the total price < 300k or so.

Which neighborhoods would you recommend? Might consider nearby suburbs w/ public transportation options as well.

Prefer:
- walking distance to a train
- some kind of nightlife nearby
- must be safe

A friend was showing me a 3bed condo for ~ 280k near roosevelt/taylor street. If I recall this area was still a little bit sketchy, but not awful.

Ideas?

Wicker Park/Bucktown or Ukranian Village/East Village are areas to look at for buying with that budget.

wicker park/bucktown
west loop

Thanks - I heard the west side was still somewhat affordable. Are there any other cheaper areas that you'd consider?

Everything is cheap now. I wouldn't call Roosevelt/Taylor sketchy. It's pretty nice.

Roosevelt and Taylor are parallel aren't they?

I live in the tri-taylor area and its not particularly sketchy though once you go west of Western or south of Roosevelt it gets run down pretty fast. Rent is cheap, not much in the way of entertainment nearby though.