after 8 months of Chicago, this may be my last week visiting for a while. I'll be working during the days but here til Thursday, if anyone has recommendations on where to go / things to do to go out with a bang let me know.

things I haven't tried that I'm thinking I should:
-Kuma
-where is the best hot diggity dog? Hot Doug's?

any thing else ?

We've done the goat/avec/publican/pig/etc numerous times so looking for anything we may have missed

Nice, will definitely check this place out

Scofflaw I haven't been to yet but is the creation of the guy who was the #2 at The Whistler before the great mass Whistler exodus. He makes good drinks! It's on the short list of places I'm looking to get out to.

kyle,

I'd say that Kuma's is a worthwhile "going out with a bang" type place. If you haven't done a Big Star night (with or without following it up with Violet Hour), and like tacos, it's a good time, even with the hipsters. Trenchermen is new, and the food was good, the vibe was pretty good. The cocktails were cheap, but small. If Tru is still doing the $35 "just come for dessert" option (a lot of dessert), it's a cool way to do a nice restaurant without doing super damage financially, and leaving yourself open to do other things for dinner/etc. For a super-underrated restaurant, consider Nightwood. If you haven't made a trip to any of the really good BBQ, get in a car and hit Uncle Johns. If not interested in going to that part of town, hit Honey 1. Those are less "blow out" things and more just damn good food.

In culture land, if you haven't done Second City, Neofuturists, etc, they're a good time. As are the more "theater" theater things.

perfect stuff cit thanks

fyi, if you do go to big star, know it's cash only

KD,

I just paid at the takeaway window with a CC 2 days ago. I felt like it had been cash only previously. Is it cash only in the bar and anything goes at the takeaway window?

It's been a bit since I've been there. Them have a CC machine at the takeout is new to me even (at least as far as I remember).

sounds like an excuse for me to go back there this week

Kyle, +1 to Kumas, def one of my favs.

KD,

I'm pretty sure they did, at least. I might have paid cash, now that I think about it, but I feel like people were paying with plastic as well.

All,

In the list of things that don't suck, DMK Burger Bar doesn't suck. Also, a moment to think about the awesomeness of Butcher and Larder, from which, this weekend, I procured: Garlic Bone Marrow Burgers (yeah, that's right, they're 8oz burgers with 1oz of bone marrow jammed in the middle Juicy Lucy style), and Birrieria Zaragoza sausages. Those are roast goat directly from the restaurant of the same name (universally loved, basically one product on menu), taken to the butcher shop and then turned in to awesome sausage form. During the week B&L also has sandwiches (sometimes tribute sandwiches to restaurants or dishes around town), and they do butchering demos. I've been meaning to hit this place for a long time and the twitter-verse loves them, and now I can confirm that it is with good reason.

went to Kuma's last night, wait was 1.5 hours which we expected. burgers tasted delicious (meat had great flavor) but all 4 of our burgers were overcooked (medium rare was medium, medium was medium well)

all in all would definitely go back.. mac n cheese was really good so were bacon/bleu frieds... liked my burger just wished it was cooked mid rare!


some other suggestions I've gotten for our last visits include:
-Big star (recommended above) and by a friend
-Q (bbq)
-Arami for sushi
-Enoteca Roma (italian)
-Curio in Gilt > Violet Hour for drinks (I've seen Curio while at Gilt and not sure how it could compete with a true stand alone speakeasy)

which Q, lillie's or chicago? If you haven't done smoque or fat willy's, you need to do those over lille's or chicago

Will probably do Fat Willy's tonight, looks awesome.

after fat willy's, go right next door to Owen&Engine. A really cool place to grab a beer

seems like this happens ~50% of the time. i've even asked for rare, hoping for medium, and still got medium well.
still awesome enough that we keep going back.

http://chicagoqrestaurant.com/ > smoque
ainec.

go here: http://www.porkshoppechicago.com/
get this: Pork Belly Pastrami* sandwich (hot)

http://chicagoist.com/2012/07/25/foo...es_city_co.php


it's a start. Still pretty restrictive, but a start is what was needed

I went to antique taco yesterday for lunch. Higher end tacos like big star, but different from big star. It's 2 tacos per order, but it still comes out to about $3.50 or $4 a taco on the whole. The ribeye tacos were pretty amazing. The sweet&spicy tacos were solid. They were definitely good enough to get me back again and try other stuff

KD,

I don't know if I already talked about Antique a couple weeks ago on here, and am too lazy to search my posts, so sorry if this is repetitive =( I have only been once, but really enjoyed the tacos (had the fish and the carnitas). Also had the guac and the corn off the cob, both very nice. Sat on the sidewalk seating, got the large pitcher of margarita, and overall it was really pleasant and the food was nice. I'm not actually sure how they do the management of making sure people have seats and such, but it seemed to work. Overall a strong recommend. Didn't get a chance to try out the arcade/bar combo 2 doors up or whatever, which was a shame.

The arcade/bar combo is a good time. I went with a couple of my friends and a couple of our girlfriends. Seeing some of the guys playing video games trying to hit on our girlfriends provided entertainment in its own right.

Good beer list and some fun arcade games. I had been to the one in Manhattan (Barcade - managed at the time by the owner of the newly opened bar here) and both were similar experiences. We went pretty early and it was already pretty packed but I assume traffic will die down some as it ages.

Took my cousin and her husband to G&G tonight...bartender knocked 50% off our bar tab, hostess gave us V.I.P. seats for dinner (i.e. at the tables attached to the kitchen where you chat with the chefs while they prepare dishes), and server dropped off two dishes compliments of the kitchen. May have been mistaken for a celebrity?!?

pics of cousin or it didn't happen.

It's about time we catch up with the rest of the urban world. The "no cooking on trucks" rule made the food trucks we had complete garbage.

Even with the restrictions, the fact that they can actually cook on the trucks should make an enormous difference. The fact that they can't be within a certain distance from a restaurant means it'll be hard for them to tap into their best market, the Loop on weekdays. Still pretty pumped to see these start popping up.

Fully agree. I don't get the 200 ft rule as people visiting a truck aren't gonna sit down at trotters for lunch. Having been to Portland twice in the past year, it's insane how killer the food truck scene is there. The trucks don't negatively effect the dining scene there at all.

Still, I'm looking forward to more trucks in this city regardless.

In other news, I finally ran into the tamale guy last week. Simply put, if anyone is hangin in bucktown/Logan sq/wicker pk and they come across a guy asking if you want tamales, you say yes! The tamales were killer

It's not really the dining scene that needs fear the food trucks. It's lunch grill, sandwich, taco, etc spots which are at a huge disadvantage to trucks. Whether or not that's something we should care about is another question entirely.

Ha, I just tried the tamale guys stuff for the first time on Saturday at happy village. I've seen him around 6 or 7 times but was never hungry - I actually thought they were pretty mediocre, but to each his own!