oysters were good, ceviche was solid, lobster roll was prob the best dish i had there.

Suggestions for Mother's Day gifts?

I'm thinking more of tickets to an event (music, theater, food, etc) since my mom doesn't really need any more crap.

Anything interesting coming up in Chicago that might be good?

I think Ravinia tickets would be a good gift for Mothers Day. Great outdoor concert venue in the north suburbs.

http://www.ravinia.org/

Going to Table Fifty Two tonight. Pretty excited. Any recommendations? I remember the Mac n Cheese being an awesome side dish, but I was pretty drunk last time I ate there.

First Sox game of the season for me tonight!
**** the cubs and all that wrigleyville bull****...

surf, please somehow send some good mojo the sox way

seems unneccessary to knock the Cubs in a post where all you need to say is you're going to the Cell for the first time, but whatever. Both teams suck so much right now I don't even really care.

Picked up some Louis C.K. tickets at the Just For Laughs festival in June - the 7:30 show was sold out but I was able to get tickets for the 10:30 show.

when is this and how do I get these?

Should've clarified my OP...1st game this season. Pauly was on fire tonight although they tried to give it away in the 9th again. At least I can put Markakis on my DL now.
Went to 19 Sox home games last season...and one cubs game with a girl fml.

Also picked up a few 311-Sublime tix today for 7/14 at Northerly Island. $30/ticket at the moment...

nah it looks like you did clarify and I just can't read.

I've been to 5 Cubs game this season. My record: 1-4

will be in chicago in 6 weeks or so and am looking for a good dinner. thinking of charlie trotter's now, but open to other recs. i've heard alinea is supposed to be awesome, but i haven't tried molecular gastronomy yet and i don't want to drop that kind of money on my first try.

Next is quite good, so are Blackbird and L2O. Kuma's Corner may have the best burger in the country. I'd still say to eat at Alinea, especially if you don't know when you'll be in Chicago next.

The Violet Hour and Aviary are very good for drinks.

What area will you be staying in?

hotel location is up to me, want something central for the hotel since i will be doing tourist stuff. maybe in the loop or on the miracle mile.

don't mind taking a cab for dinner

there's no way he's getting into next without paying out a ton on the secondary market for a ticket


you can do better than trotters IMO. what is the general price range that you're looking at for dinner?

Blackbird sucks. Apparently they hired new, cheaper chefs after they got their star and it's much worse now.

The Aviary is very cool and reasonably priced.

I haven't been to Alinea, however, everyone I've talked to says it's not worth the money.

I would recommend Ria. It's the only $200+/plate restaurant I've eaten where I felt it was worth it. The wine pairings are divine. I felt like I was tasting wine for the first time.

ria's current menu does look good

Plenty of great high-end places that you can check out if you don't want to do gastronomy: Tru, Avenues, l20, Ria, Everest, Trotters, Nes Nomades are all very renowned, though I think l20 has gone downhill since they lost their exec chef.

For drinks: Violet Hour, Drawing Room, The Southern, Gilt Bar, Aviary are all fantastic.

what? It's worth the money imo. I've never talked to anyone who's felt otherwise. I thought it was cheap for the quality and creativity relative to what one would get in NYC.

Molecular gastronomy is almost by definition very expensive as you're using very specialized equipment, highly trained cooks, and quite often hard to source ingredients. You're also catering to a fan-base that is pretty well off. I'm sure there are places to get your feet wet on the style of food for a little cheaper (WD-50 in nyc maybe at 140pp? I'd love to hear other recs), but to my mind you kind of have to pay a lot of money to get a sense of what microcourse molecular gastronomy is all about.

Hmmm, that's an interesting data point wrt Blackbird. I was there a few months after it opened and again ~18 months ago and it was very good both times.

Definitely disagree on Alinea.

I might be off, but from what I understand, Sheerin left roughly when the MG came out, but that it was most likely pre-planned regardless of the MG's rankings. I don't believe anyone else left. I haven't heard anyone say anything negative about the current menus prior to kurosh.

Similarly, I've only heard one other person prior to kurosh not have been blown away by alinea.

Anyway, I would probably avoid L20 (which I was hearing meh/bad things about before the chef left), and Avenues (which, if I understand correctly is a pretty molecular gastronomy influenced place, these days) if I were you. I'd also avoid Tru, which I've been disappointed with of late.

I've heard amazing things about Ria, and have enjoyed Trotters repeatedly. Les Nomades is supposed to be great, but there's nothing unique about it at all, just great French food. I guess it depends on what you have access to on a normal basis. Similarly, Spiaggia is great, but if you have access to amazing Italian food, less exciting. If you look in to schwa and find it interesting, it's worth an attempt.

In terms of non-blowout dinners/meals where you just want good food, Kuma's, Hot Doug's, Urban Belly, Avec, Pequod's (or other deep dish, depending on your preference), Hot Chocolate, Smoque (or other BBQ, depending on how gritty you want to get), Graham Elliot (pretty expensive for this list), Lao Sze Chuan, Ceres Table, Lula Cafe, Nightwood, and about a million other places... Also have been hearing very good things about The Bedford.

For drinks, Violet Hour, bar at Sepia, Drawing Room, The Whistler, Sable, Aviary are all very good, and I'm obviously forgetting tons of places on this list and the food list.

Anyway, overall, if you looked at the Trotter's menu and thought it looked good, and aren't going to be disappointed if you walk in to the place and it looks like an old-school high-end restaurant instead of a modern art piece of whatever, you will have a great time. It's a good time for vegetables, and the dude knows how to do vegetables.

I got the Blackbird information from a former chef there. Also, when I say it sucks, I mean the food does not deliver for a $200pp restaurant. It was ok. There are many other, significantly better, choices for that price point.

Again, I've never been to Alinea. Several people have told me it was a cool interesting experience, but the food was alright and not worth $500pp.

For burgers, try Paradise Pup's. I think most Chicagoans don't know about it because it's in a suburb. It doesn't have the variety of burger or edgy hardcore metal music and bitchy servers of Kuma's.

Best deep dish pizza I've had was at Burt's Place. It's a small mom and pop's place. The only problem is you need to call, at a minimum, several hours in advance. They usually want you to call a day in advance.

Alinea is 195pp pre wine/tip, so that's a lot of drinking your friends are doing to get it over $500.

When I ate there it was $250pp all in but we were comped a few glasses.

Oh, weird. I had two separate people tell me it was $500. I might have to check it out then!

mittens,

you paid the bill, they took it, and you still hung out long enough for them to come over and start brining you glasses of wine? pretty weird, imo.

kurosh,

alinea gets very close to that number if you tip about 20% and also get paired wines. paired wines at roughly $200 a head (that's just the wine) is going to make any meal expensive. no one is stopping you from NOT getting those wines, however, which makes the meal significantly cheaper.

re: blackbird - i can't find a tasting menu price right now, but appetizers $11-$18, mains $28-$40, dessert $10-$12 means if you *don't* do the tasting menu you'd have to do a fairly significant drinking to get to $200/head. on the other hand, if i were to recommend blackbird to someone who is in town, doing some touristing, etc, i would probably recommend their $22 3-course prix fixe, which i don't think anyone has ever accused of not being a value.