Weekend Date: The Logan Theater

Date Category: Saturday Date

Neighborhood: Logan Square (Northwest side)
Expect to Spend: Around $14 for two movie tickets alone; $20-25 with snacks; If you hit the lounge beforehand, expect to spend around $35-50 for drinks, movie tickets, and theater snacks for two

The Logan Theater has been around for decades.  Formerly a family owned and operated theater showing mid- and last-run movies for three bucks a pop, the Logan was one of the last cheap theaters in Chicago.  I have a special place in my heart for theaters like the Logan because, as a child, my father and I used to spend Sundays at the Village Theater in Old Town.  We would watch double features for $5 and then he would take me back to my mom's place.

The old Village Theater...$2.50 a ticket!!!

These theaters barely exist anymore, though, and Logan was one of the last.  When A.P. and I first discovered the theater, we fell in love.  For one thing, the tickets were, again, $3 a piece! For another, it's right up the street from us, in Logan Square.  Plus, even with a bunch of snacks, our total tab for the night would be just above $20!  What a cheap date night, huh?

Weekend Date: Secret Supper Club

Date Category: Depends

Neighborhood:  Who Knows?

Expect to Spend: Around $150 for dinner, drinks are BYOB

I have a confession to make: A.P. and I are total foodies.  In case you haven't already figured it out, we love to go out and eat, and we've tackled many of the best restaurants in town: Moto, The Publican, Longman & Eagle, Owen & Engine, Table 52, Les Nomades, MK, EPIC, and oh so many more.  We're not snobs about food.  We like casual places and neighborhood places just as much as we do fancy joints, but we love interesting, well-prepared food.

So it is no surprise that years ago, when I first heard about the underground supper club, Clandestino, I immediately put myself on the list.  What followed was four years of me getting the emails about upcoming dinners, forwarding them to A.P. begging to go, and him never responding or forgetting or not seeming terribly into the idea.  Finally, for whatever reason, last week he bit.  I was pleasantly surprised to get a response saying he'd made reservations for us for their upcoming dinner event, WTF (Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot...not the other commonly used texting colloquialism). Needless to say, I was SUPER psyched.

Weekend Date: The Portage

Date Category: Saturday Date

Neighborhood: Portage Park (Northwest side)

Expect to Spend: Around $100 for dinner and drinks for two

A couple of weeks ago, A.P. and I wanted to go to the movies, but first we had to head to my mother's to visit.  Well, if your parents are anything like mine, a 2 hour visit just doesn't exist.  By the time we left, it was too late to go to the movies.  We wanted to go out and we were in the mood to try something new, but didn't know where to go.  We weren't in the mood to venture far away (we live near Logan Square on Chicago's northwest side), but didn't want mediocre food, which is sadly a bit of a staple in this area.  All of a sudden The Portage popped into my head.  A while back, I'd read a review of this restaurant on Yelp and I'd always wanted to try it.  It was described as having a casual atmosphere, upscale food, and being reasonably priced.  These were all the things we were looking for in a restaurant, so we decided to check it out.

Our appetizer of Duck Fat Fries was amazing!  The fries were delicious and the aioli and jalapeno dipping sauce was great, too!  A.P.'s ordered fried chicken and I ordered the Smoked Tavern Ham Steak, a special that evening.  Both were fantastic, perfectly cooked, and soooo yummy!  In addition, we were sipping on some super awesome cocktails!  

Finally, we had an amazing dessert of deconstructed chess pie.  This, too, was a special.  Frankly, I'm always on board for any kind of lemon-flavored dessert, but this was SOOOOO good!  A.P. and I cleaned our plates!

Overall, The Portage is a great restaurant.  The service was phenomenal, the food and drinks were delicious, and they were super cool about me taking a ton of photos, like, non-stop.  Seriously.  If you're hungry on a Saturday night, head to the northwest side and check out The Portage.

(Photos by me!)

Why I Love Chicago...Now (And a New Feature!)

One of the more unique things about my life is that I was born and raised in a large city.  I grew up in a three-bedroom condominium on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago.  We were soooo not rich; my parents sort of got lucky with the location of our home.  Growing up in a city, particularly in that location, sort of afforded my siblings and me a privileged childhood.  We crossed the street and we were at the lake.  We walked fifteen minutes and we were at Wrigley Field.  We were a 20 minute bus ride away from Lincoln Park Zoo and the beach.  And public transportation where my I grew up (and where my mom still lives) is unreal.  Any bus or train you could want and that could get you anywhere in the city was a five to ten minute walk away.  That meant the city was my playground.  I loved it.

When I went away to college in Iowa City, I realized what a strange child childhood I really had, which made me love it more.  I could never wait to come back to Chicago and party at chic bars and go out with my older brothers and their friends (finally!).  But as an adult, I sort of hated that I ended up back in Chicago.  Having grown up here, I always thought the next step would be New York City.  I wanted so badly to move there, but could never afford it.  So I paved my way in Chicago.  And I hated it the whole time.  I hated the same tired neighborhoods that I'd traipsed around as a kid.  I hated that my friends, many of whom had moved here as adults, were experiencing neighborhoods for the first time that I'd already had whole life experiences in...and was so over.  I longed to move away.

Here's the thing, when you live in Chicago, you are, in many ways, constantly compared to New York.  Chicagoans are overly friendly Midwesterners, not gritty New Yorkers.  We're fly over country between New York and L.A.  We're not called the Second City for nothing.  Carrie Bradshaw didn't live in Chicago and Monica, Ross, and the gang didn't drink coffee at Millennium Perk.  Chicago is where people get their start before they take the plunge and move to the big city.  And that's how I felt.  I hated that I was stuck here.  I felt like I was never going to live out my dream and move to New York.  I felt second rate compared to all my friends that (with a lot of help from family) were able to move out to New York.

Something happened a few years ago, though.  I began to really appreciate being a Chicagoan.  And I began to realize the reality of my existence versus that of people I seemed to be jealous. It dawned on me that these New Yorkers weren't city people.  Not really.  They may be New Yorkers, but they're not really New Yorkers.  And a lot of them won't be New Yorkers forever.  But me, I'm the real deal.  I'm a city person through and through.  I grew up in the city, I live in the city, and I will continue to live in the city.  More importantly, A.P. and I will raise our children in the city.  And when I had that realization, I began to appreciate Chicago more.  Plus...I went to New York a few times to visit friends.  And while New York is a fun city and I would still love to live there one day, Chicago is a better city...for oh, so many reasons!

1.  You may tease us for being the overly friendly Midwesterners, but we really are.  And guess what?  That's a good thing.  I'm cynical, but not enough to be an asshole.

2.  Our city smells like fresh water and sky...not poop.  It's this awesome invention called alleys.  You should try it, New York.

3.  Say what you will about our politicians, but Daley made our city beautiful.  Tulips line Michigan Avenue every spring.  The city's protected lakefront parks provide a beautiful shoreline.  And our tree lined sidewalks are always pleasing to walk down.  Our city may be broke, but at least we look good!

4.  We have the best restaurants in the world.  Seriously.  If you're at all a foodie, then you know that Alinea, The Girl and the Goat, Moto, and L2O aren't in NYC.  Yeah, what's up?

5.  We have a better skyline.  The Empire State building and the Chrysler building are great, but they don't compare to this:

Source: bit.ly via Marty on Pinterest

I talk about my love affair with A.P. on the blog all the time, and Chicago definitely creeps in, but I don't think I share enough what an amazing city this is.  It is because I love Chicago so much that I decided to start a new feature here called Weekend Date.   Each week, I will blog about a date you could go on in Chicago.  The date will fit one of several categories:  Friday Night Date, Saturday Night Date, Sunday Brunch Date, Weekend Day Date, or a Quick Getaway.  I know not everyone who reads this blog is from Chicago, but I hope that you'll enjoy seeing what Chicago has to offer, and what adventures A.P. and I get into.  I've already got a bunch of ideas in the works and A.P. and I have gone on a couple of dates already.  My goal is to show you the other side of Chicago.  Downtown is nice and fancy restaurants are great, but I really want to highlight neighborhoods you might not travel to unless you were a real Chicagoan and hopefully in the process show you why Chicago is not the second city, but the best city.

So, won't you please check back later today for the first Weekend Date feature?  I'd heart you so much!  : )

Happy Singles Awareness Day! (Plus five great dates!)

Happy Valentine's Day peeps! Tonight, A.P. is taking me out to dinner at LM Restaurant in Lincoln Square. Guess I didn't give him the memo on my perfect Valentine's in time...he made the reservation weeks ago! After dinner, I have some surprises up my sleeve for him when we get back home because I've been planning for a wee while, too. ; ) Because I'm an equal opportunity Valentine's Day celebrator, here are five great date ideas for you and your significant other OR for you and your friends. Because Valentine's Day is about love...for anybody. <3

1. Dinner and a movie

The classic is never boring if you're with the right people! If you're with someone romantic, head to The Vow. Cheesy or not, it's this year's The Notebook. Minus Ryan Gosling...and the hot sex scene at his country house. If you're single, see The Vow. You'll enjoy it more with your girlfriends anyway. They won't groan in disbelief at the cheese factor. : ) Then head to dinner at your favorite spot. So many restaurants offer prix fixe menus on Valentine's Day, you can get a 3 course meal for a steal! If you're in Chicago and haven't yet made a reservation, try one of these secret spots we always seem to have good luck with ...

El Nandu in Logan Square, Hearty Boys in Lakeview (their drinks are awesome!), and this is on my list of places to check out. It doesn't take reservations, so you figure you have the same shot of getting a table as anyone else: Davonti Enoteca in University Village.

2. The MCA (or any art museum) and drinks

Good art is good art, no matter who you're with. And lucky for you, Valentine's Day falls on a Tuesday, which is The MCA's free day. Can I get a woot, woot? If you're not in Chicago or if your local art museum is closed, try an art gallery. Taking in art makes you feel smart. After all, as one of my favorite pins says, "The earth without art is just eh." Then, head to your favorite fancy hotel for drinks. After that kind of night, dinner on the couch won't feel so lame. If you're going to the MCA, you could drink nearby beforehand to make modern art interpretation even more interesting! Nothing says downtown chic to me than drinks at a fancy hotel or restaurant.

Try: The Signature Room at the 95th (they don't call it Signature for nothing!), The Bar at The Peninsula...fancy and intimate, or check out The Roof at The Wit. It's their Roof Live night, which means you also get to enjoy live music. Sweet!

3. A night at a hotel

With your girlfriends, it's a fun adult sleepover. With your significant other, it's a fun adult sleepover. Win-win. Seriously, though, with your gal pals, you could make fancy cocktails, rent movies, and order room service. With your significant other, you could get in room massages and drink champagne. Go to work in the morning and return home the next night. You'll feel like you took a little trip out of town!

4. Ice skating and hot chocolate

Listen, folks. You might question why I'd put such a cold date idea on the list, but winter is almost over and before you know it, you'll be complaining about the heat. Why not take advantage of the fact that it's not freezing cold out and enjoy ice skating. If you're in Chicago, Millenium Park is fun and The Rink at Wrigley is a novel idea, too. Hot chocolate is up to you, but of course my favorite place in Chicago is still the aptly named Hot Chocolate in Wicker Park. Homemade in front of a fireplace is always nice, too. Just so long as it has marshmallows. : )

5. Stay In, Eat Great Food, Make Fancy Drinks, and Watch Episodes of Your Favorite TV Show

This is for you if you're feeling lazy, tired, or don't want to make a big fuss. Because at the end of the day, Valentine's Day is about hanging out with the people that you love, whether you do something fun, romantic, or simple. Make it a little different from every other night, though, by going above and beyond with the dinner and drinks. Martha Stewart has several menus up and French martinis are always a good pick for today. Pop in a DVD of your favorite TV show and watch some episodes. You won't feel bad if you miss a few moments discussing your day. My picks would be Friends, Freaks and Geeks, or Mad About You.

What are you doing tonight? Anything special? Will you be hanging out with a significant other or girlfriends? Whatever you end up doing, Happy Valentine's Day!!

(Heart Socks via PetraO; Drive in Movie photo via Free People Blog; Ice Skaters via Art of Manliness; Lazy Sunday photo by David Urbanke via Flickr)

The Perfect Valentine's Day

Every year, A.P. goes to great lengths to make Valentine's Day special. It's really, really nice...but totally unnecessary. Wanna know what I would really love? I would love to watch a romantic comedy with A.P. and eat cupcakes from Sweet Mandy B's. Fancy dinners are great, but I feel like we've been there and done that. It'd be nice to do something low key this year.

Here's the thing, though. I want A.P. to care about the movie. Not care, care, but you know, watch it, pay attention to the plot, not get bored and fall asleep or end up on the computer (as he inevitably does if a film doesn't hold his interest). I want him to be able to talk about the movie at the end. I know. Crazy talk. A man caring about a romantic comedy? Let's face it, that may be why I never get this date for V-Day! : ) Oh well! A girl can dream.

What would you do on your perfect Valentine's?

PS. What I think A.P.'s ideal Valentine's day includes:

(Notebook Hearts photo via Favim; Nerd Valentine via Mad Design's Etsy Shop; Heart Pizza by Sarah Westbrook via One Charming Party)

Canoe, Canoe

If you read that in a Robin Williams as Mork voice, you're awesome! If not, you're still awesome, but you did not read my mind. Don't worry. We'll work on it. : )

For the first time in our entire relationship, A.P. and I spent Labor Day weekend with each other. I wish I could tell you we blew our own minds with awesomeness and non-stop fun, but honestly, we just kind of went on some nice adventures and relaxed. Friday night, we went to dinner at a local favorite Real Tenochtitlan. It was delicious and low key, which was exactly what we needed. Saturday was more of the same, with a long, chill, restful day that was spent finishing up Big Love (so good, but so sad it's over) and hanging on the couch with the hubz and the animals. Monday was spent putting a fence up around the garden, for which A.P. kindly volunteered his free labor (on Labor Day! Some husband, huh?). But Sunday, Sunday was spent leisurely canoeing down the Kishwaukee River.

A while back I picked up a Groupon for a canoe trip for two in Rockford, a city about 90 minutes outside of Chicago. We picked up some sandwiches, packed some drinks and nectarines and headed out on our little adventure. We also loved that we got to take Radar. We were running late because we're Marty and A.P., or rather I'm Marty, so when we got there, the group was being taken to the launch site. We jumped in a vehicle with one of the employees and drove a few miles to the boat launch.

The trip was 8 miles long, but you could go at any pace you wanted, stop at any of the little banks and get out and pretty much do whatever you wanted along the way. We saw a lot of people early on getting out on little stretches of sandbar, setting up barbecues, and chilling out for a while. The river itself was pretty shallow in parts, so it was hilarious to both get stuck on a sandbar and watch others get stuck and struggle to get unstuck. At one point, we took a break to stretch our legs and stopped at a little stretch of shore. A.P. went exploring and discovered that just beyond the overgrown plants, there was a waterfall (which lacked a lot of water) and stairs to a pretty overlook. So we got to do some exploring/hiking, too. Total, the trip took us about four or five hours. We were one of the last groups to get back, though, probably because we stopped so much to get out and explore. Nevertheless, it was a lovely afternoon and I'd adore it if you'd allow to me share some pictures of our little adventure.

I promise A.P. is not peeing in this picture. He was checking out the giant stump. As were we all. As we were all.

Yes, we are both wearing stripes. It seems we think we're sailors.Peek-a-boo!This is a terrible picture because despite the shallowness of the river, you do move pretty fast if you don't row. And I was steering, so it was especially hard to stop rowing and take pictures. BUT this is a Great Blue Heron! Cool, huh?

(Photos by me!)

Marriage Mondays: The Importance of Dating When You're Married

When you are dating and single, you always think, "Man, I can't wait to settle down and not date anymore." After all, dating is stressful and filled with a million decisions: what to wear, what to do, what to talk about, etc. You long for someone you can loaf around the house with, read the paper on the weekends in bed with, and cozy up next to while you watch a DVD. The ironic thing about getting married is that at some point you realize you need to date again in order to keep your marriage fresh.

A.P. and I had this realization this summer. We've always led a pretty active life, usually doing something each weekend. But we also like our couch time. We like to relax on the weekends, watch a movie and chill out. Getting married made us more insular in some ways; we stay in more now. It didn't seem like a bad thing until I realized that we never really go on dates anymore. We never leave the house and all the distractions it contains anymore just to focus on each other. Don't get me wrong, we leave the house. But when we do, it's to run errands or go out with friends or family. A while back I realized that we needed to be more proactive about things. That we'd both gotten lazy in the date making department. Plus, when you get married, I'm going to tell you the truth that nobody says sometimes: it gets boring. Sometimes you need awesome, old fashioned dates to keep it fancy and fun. You need to connect in that way.

At the beginning of the summer, I came up with an awesome plan. We would go on at least four dates a month, each of us planning two. Since we're now on a budget, I figured it wouldn't be the best idea to have all of those dates cost us an arm and a leg at a restaurant or on some kind of outing. So the plan was to each plan one date in the house (rent a movie, play a game, make dinner for the other person, etc.) and one date out (dinner, movie, daytrip, etc.).

I haven't done my dates for this month yet (we've been BUSY), but last month I did our trip to Long Grove and we rented a movie/made dinner one night, which I think counted as both of our in the house dates. A.P. kind of forgot, so this month he made more of a priority to remember. This past Saturday, he took me out to dinner at Glenn's Diner in the Ravenswood area. We feasted on a seafood dinner and I had some vodka gimlets and got slightly tipsy, which I so rarely do. Fun! Plus, we talked about all kinds of things and had a sweet little time being all flirty!

We need to get better about planning the in the house dates, though, as those can totally be the ones you skip actually planning. But other than that, we're excited to keep moving forward with our new plan.

Do you have date nights? If so, are they structured or spontaneous?

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Long Grove

A.P. took this past Friday off work and I decided the poor guy needed a break. A while back, we talked about taking a day trip to Long Grove, IL, a little town about 40 miles northwest of Chicago that is known for its small town charm and covered bridge. I decided to pack us a picnic and drive out there. I also packed the badminton set, hoping we'd happen onto a nice park.

I told A.P. we couldn't sleep in too late, that we wanted to be on the road around noon-ish. Ummm...yeah, we both slept in until 11:30. Oops. So the day started off on the wrong foot. I have a hard time waking up and doing things right away. I do that all the time with work, so when we have plans that we control (e.g. we're not meeting someone or have to be somewhere exactly at a certain time), I like to putz around for a while before finally getting ready and going. So, putz away I did. For a while. We didn't end up leaving until almost 4pm. So much for a picnic lunch.

As soon as we hit the road, it was traffic, traffic, traffic. Though we debated turning around, we plodded along. Finally, we arrived in Long Grove. I want to tell you it was awesome and it turned out to be a wonderful afternoon/evening. But Long Grove was kind of...eh. A lot of the shops were "coming soon" or had "space available" signs in the window.

When we arrived, we ate our picnic in a little courtyard near a fountain. Then we walked around. We certainly have spent worse afternoons, but I don't think we'll be heading back to Long Grove again any time soon. It's a cute town, but there's not much going on there. Still, it was nice to get out of the city and spend some time alone together. And A.P. worked on what he referred to as his "fake camera smile" which I think is awesome even if it is fake (A.P. is a bit of a Chandler when it comes to taking pictures). Here are some photos from our afternoon together.


(Photos by me!)