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!  : )

Visiting with The Half-breed Swede

I'm still working on my list for 2012 and will more than likely be posting it next week. So far, I've got some good stuff on there. Or at least, I think I have some good stuff on there. : ) And, get this? A.P. is making a list this year, too! I don't think it will be as long, but he's got some good stuff on his, too. Yay!

In the mean time, I'd love to share some photos with you from The Half-breed Swede's trip. I would say that she has been to Chicago at least 20 times, but this trip was different because she brought her man, who shall heretofore be named Cash Folds and who may or may not look exactly like A.P., but who had never been stateside, let alone to Chicago. So, we ended up doing a lot of touristy stuff, which is sometimes nice for me to do because it helps me to remember what an amazing city I live in and how I sometimes take that for granted. Anywho, if you'll let me, I'd love to share some photos of their trip with you!

The day after they arrived, we went downtown for a trolley tour with The Chicago Architectural Foundation. They took us to a few different stops where we could get out and take photos. The tour was only okay, mostly due to our wacky guide. A couple days later, they ended up going downtown on their own and taking a walking tour.

After the walking tour, we went to visit my brother-in-law, who is working at the Obama National Headquarters. He gave us a private tour of the offices, which was kind of rad. Unfortunately, we couldn't take photos. After that, though, we headed to Millennium Park to take some night shots of the bean and some of the other parts of the park.

After a jam packed first day, we decided to take it easy on Wednesday. We chilled out all day and ended up going out for dinner and drinks that night. We started out at Violet Hour, one of my favorite places to get drinks in the city. Located in Wicker Park, it's a top secret bar that has amazing drinks. If you don't know where it is, you'd easily pass it, as it has no exterior sign or doorway, really. Once you enter, though, you're greeted by low light and enormous, tall-backed chairs. Their drinks are strong and delicious and I love the servers, as they always answer any questions you have and are super nice.

After a couple of rounds at Violet Hour, we headed to Fogo de Chao, a Brazilian steakhouse. The Half-breed Swede wanted to go here because a few years ago when she was in town, we took her there for dinner. It's pretty much all you can eat, which in my case, wasn't very much. The rest of them went crazy and ate a bunch of delicious meat, though, so they at least got the full experience.

Thursday was a jam packed day. I dropped our guests off at the train so they could head into town early and do their walking tour and check things out. Then, A.P. and I ended up driving into town to meet them to go to the Willis Sears Tower (I'm from here, people, that shit will never change!). The line was ridiculously long, but we endured and after about two hours in line, we finally got upstairs. Of course, by then, it was dark out. Still, we got some lovely night shots. A.P. chickened out, but the rest of us were brave enough to venture out onto the new glass ledges that jut out 1300 feet over the city. It's like you're floating, but it's pretty freaky to inch your way out there. I was definitely holding on to the wall for the first few minutes. So scary!!

From there, we headed to Telegraph, a new restaurant in Logan Square. I have to tell you, this was our first time there and I was not very impressed. The prices were pretty high for what you got, and I had the cod and it was soooo salty. I don't think A.P. and I will head back any time soon.

After dinner, we jetted home, dropped off A.P. and the rest of us headed to B.L.U.E.S. on Halsted, a blues bar. Cash Folds is a music teacher and amazing guitar player, so he wanted to check out a blues bar while in town. We met up with my brother-in-law, who proved he's not that old by staying out until midnight on a work night. Gasp! There, we saw Eric "Guitar" Davis and the Troublemakers, who were awesome.

After a long, exhausting day on Thursday, I think we were all looking forward to a relaxed day. The Half-breed Swede wanted to show her man where A.P. and I got married, so we drove over to Lovely to have a look around and buy some cupcakes. Then, we went to Lincoln Park to our other favorite bakery, Sweet Mandy B.'s, where we purchased some other delicious desserts. Yum!

Then, we went home, chilled for a little while longer and worked up the energy to go to...MEDIEVAL TIMES!!! And listen, I know what you're thinking, "Why in the world would you take actual British people to Medieval Times??" But it wasn't my idea! It was totally The Half-breed Swede's. And let me tell you something else...it was AWESOME!!! Even A.P., who was a little nervous about the whole thing ended up loving it! We were cheering for the Green Knight and cheer we did. We cheered so damn hard, that at one point, he tossed The Half-breed Swede a flower! Yes! Awesome! After the show, the knights came out and signed things and took pictures with people. I totally got my shield signed by him and The Half-breed Swede and I took a picture with him. Unfortunately, she has that picture, so until she sends it to me, you'll have to wait with bated breath.

(I love the Half-breed Swede's face in this picture! Look how excited she is, people!)

New Year's Eve was another adventure. We planned a Classic Hollywood New Year's Eve party and that day, The Half-breed Swede, her man, and I all went to Costco to purchase party supplies. Then, we came home, and whipped this place into party shape. I wouldn't say it was my most successful party, but it was a lot of fun. In general, I don't like throwing parties on holidays because attendance is always low...too much competition. And...a lot of people dressed up! We told people to come wearing black or white (or purple if you're my mother and completely ignore directions). We even had a couple of people in tuxes! Wow!

We celebrated the new year by going to brunch at The Signature Room. I've always wanted to go to brunch there and figured what better way to celebrate the start of a new year (and to show off some daytime views of our beautiful city to our guests). Brunch was fantastic, but the views were what really blew our minds.

And that was pretty much our entire trip. That last night, we just kind of took it easy and hung out together. I am so sad that I will have to wait an entire year or two to see my friend again. We always say that if we lived in the same city, we're probably never stop hanging out together. The Half-breed Swede is one of my greatest friends and I'm so happy that she and her man got to come visit.

Here's one last picture before they left. Note that she is holding Ollie. That is because I suspect she was trying to smuggle him back in her pocket. ; )

(Photos by me!)