+3 onThe Gage.

Went to Bohemian House last night. It's near Sable, think they consider it Czech/German cuisine - so a bit on the heavier side but the way they did it you left not feeling super bloated/overly full. Restaurant itself was real cool and girlfriend said cocktails were pretty good, I stuck with the beers. Food was great, knackwurst/pierogi for starters and Chicken/Duck for entree everything. Our server was really helpful and nice too.

Not overly expensive either, would recommend.

best place to watch sunday football in the loop area is....

...not the loop.

This place is just south of the loop that might be good: http://www.yelp.com/biz/first-draft-chicago

But honestly, head north somewhere.

Wtf did this place just open in the last year?

The spot next to portillos and rock n roll mcdonalds seems to have a lot of tvs and doesn't look totally irredeemably douchey, that might be good.

so you'd recommend getting out of the loop?

we are 28/30 professionals. like to drink and have a good time.
going to a hockey game tomorrow night. likely will check out the art institute, some deep dish, a steak restaurant, the bean, skating at millenium park.

don't really have an agenda, just looking to have some fun. we fly back sunday night but if there's a real good spot to watch football on sunday we'll make our way there.

People go to work in the loop, have fun in the neighborhoods

Stout? That place is monsterously douchey.


If you want to watch some football and have some good local beer, go to haymarket on Randolph and Halstead. It's not too far from the loop and its a ton better than many of the Loop and River North options.

Is stout as douchey as wrigleyville after a cubs game? That's my baseline for douche chills

On the whole? Yes. I work near there and have hated myself for grabbing a drink after each time I do it.

Theory is a solid place to watch a game and they have pretty decent food for a bar.

Ya something like that. We go there to grab drinks after work. Not much character but its a close spot to get drinks.



100% recommend getting out of the loop. Call up several uber cabs or heard everyone to a redline stop.

Sitting in a bar on sunday watching football isn't my cup of tea but I know a few 2p2ers head here for it. This is just north of the river, so not a far taxi at all.

http://municipalbar.com/

+1

And +1 to everything KDawg has said

girl&goat first time tomorrow night for girlfriends birthday. Any things that are must orders?

Breads.
Crispy pig face.
Basically all the vegetables, but personally I'm a sucker for beets and cauliflower.
I really liked hamachi crudo, but like that everywhere.
Ham frites are good and tempting and you will see them go by and smell them and be jealous if you don't order them, but in the end they are a huge load of fries and probably not worth skipping other things to get, if that would be an issue.
Sugo
Anything goat.
Oysters.

On that's a lot of things. I have had, I think, zero disappointing dishes there. Maybe if calibrated against g&tg expectations, one or two. But expect everything to be very good, and largely different than other restaurants in the city. She combines things you don't normally see on the same dish.

So the food was amazing, the overall experience was pretty good. It was a bit of a bummer that the people sitting nexto to us were over the top and really ****ing annoying, I wasn't exactly listening in on their conversation but the close proximity of the tables you couldn't completely ignore them.

Sausage bread
Beets
Ham Frites (gf really wanted them and me as a non-american I am always intrigued/disgusted by cheese sauce but my god this cheese sauce was phenomenal).
Scallops
Beef Tounge - this was great, tounge was so tender and perfectly rich, and the combination of things in the dish were phenomenal
Goat Belly /w lobster/crab - this was amazing, the goat belly was cooked so perfect, my grandad cooked a bit of goat growing up so it was cool to experience it in a unique/finer way.
Apple Buckle for dessert - not a sweets/dessert person at all but this really hit the spot.

Wanted to get the pig face but I've had pig face a few times before, enjoyed it a lot, but my girlfriend wasn't that keen + I can't eat egg and considering there is a whole egg on top it could have been an issue. Didn't participate on Cocktails because I'm on antibiotics but girlfriend enjoyed hers.

Table next to us (non annoying) got pork shoulder and it smelled/looked amazing, usually order some type of pork so wanted to go with something different. Semi-regret it.

thanks for these spots. we did a bit of a pub crawl on Sunday.

First was Public House. Nachos were ok, beer was ok, tv viewing and service wasn't great.

Moved down the street to Mother Hubbard's Sports Pub
better vibe in there but still wasn't great. Had a pint, maybe two.

Then walked a few blocks to Municipal. Good vibe in there. Got some good wings, and a couple beers. Good view of the game. Stayed until the end of the early games, then grabbed a cab to First Draft.

Our hotel was by First Draft so it made the most sense to end there to maximize game watching time before we had to go back and grab our bags and head to the airport. FD was great. Pizza was awesome, beers were good, and it was a good vibe.

We both agreed that each subsequent bar was an improvement over the last.

Watched the end of the afternoon games in an Irish pub in the airport. More beers were had.

I live in the south loop and First Draft is one of my go-to spots. Constantly changing beer list and a pretty decent menu. I'm usually there at least 2 or 3 nights a week. Glad to hear they treated you right.

went to first draft and had a poor impression... they did not play the game audio of the NFL playoff games today, so left after a couple rounds of drinks

hard to be anything more than an average bar if you aren't playing the game audio. their music playlist to compensate was also really meh, songs that felt more like they belonged in a vegan restaurant than a sports bar

drink list looked good, though, and service/TVs/vibe was okay

would not recommend unless you live close by

Anniversary dinner coming up and Im looking for new places. We don't go out a lot and mainly looking for place with good atmosphere. Too often I find seating is way too close to other patrons(like japonais). Any ideas?

what do you want to spend and what kind of cuisine/area are you looking for?

There's an Italian restaurant the gf and I went to called Cocello over by East Bank Club. Food was solidly above average but we thought the atmosphere really amazed us. It was a very old school Italian atmosphere, even when it was full it was still pretty quiet and you could easily have a conversation without feeling like you're raising your voice.

Based solely on your seating comment, I thought that Mercat a la Planxa had some of the most spread out seating in Chicago, and I enjoyed the food.

The only other place that pops into my head is Bistro Campagne in Lincoln Square. It's actually kind of small and crowded, but the the tables aren't lined up in a row along a booth the length of a wall. The restaurant is in an old house, so it's divided into 4 or 5 rooms. Depending on their reservations for the night though, you might get seated right next to another 2 top.

It's a dense city with expensive real estate. Tough to find a restaurant that's offers very private arrangements for 2...

Price $200-300. Basically open to anything besides steak house. Big fan of places like Union barbeqie and sushi(love the alligator) where you get lots of small plates. Italian place sounds good zimmer.

Ugh. I had a lot of post written up and now I've lost it so I don't have the energy to rewrite. Lots of good suggestions so far. Bistro Campagne is a personal favorite of mine.

So, a shortish list for you to peruse. All have varying definitions of "atmosphere," and are small plates places that I like. Some have downsides (L&E has no reservations, for instance), some have hidden upsides (Sumi has a speakeasy downstairs). Some are more casual, some fancier. Some more spread out than others. Etc.

Cafe Spiaggia
The Bristol
Vera
Sunda
Longman & Eagle
Yusho
Sumi
Nico Osteria
Parachute

I don't know much about Union. I was under the impression that it was like, semi-clubby type of trendy vibe, which generally I haven't found exists simultaneously with good distance to the next table over. I guess maybe I was misinformed?