Chicago trip report 7.3.14 to 7.6.14

I think I've procrastinated doing this trip report long enough! We went to Chicago over the Fourth of July weekend for a concert with friends. We had a few fun dining adventures along the way, too.

First, we had breakfast at Barrio at Terminal 2 (Humphrey terminal) at the MSP airport. The restaurant is always solid and this outpost was pretty good as well.

I had the huevos rancheros.

John had the breakfast burrito.

We flew Southwest airlines for the first time and the flight was fine, especially for a short hop to Chicago. I'm not sure I'm crazy about the boarding process and lack of assigned seats though. You'd think people would bring less stuff on the plane since checked bags are free, but that was not the case. So boarding and unboarding seemed to take the same amount of time as any airline.

On arrival at ORD we were picked up by our friends Megan and Jason who had driven down from Madison. We were all hungry so we decided to go to Portillo's for a late lunch.

Chicago beef sandwich, dipped

fries

The hot beef was really good and a huge sandwich. The fries were pretty average. They have a wide variety of food available including pizza and hot dogs. It is kind of like a big Chicago food court.

Next, we headed over to the Hilton on Michigan Avenue to check in to the hotel. I had paid for an upgrade to a King room as the regular rooms are not yet remodeled and all had queen beds only. The King room was quite nice, if a bit small, but that is pretty typical for Chicago hotel rooms.  

nice lake view

After checking in and freshening up a bit we met in the hotel bar/restaurant Kitty O'Shea's. We ended up here a few times throughout the course of the weekend. The service was rather slow each time.

We decided to walk down Michigan Avenue and have drinks someplace else. Our first stop was The Gage, a gastropub. There was an extensive beer list and they had some interesting cocktails as well.

The What What and a beer. Rampart IPA maybe.

PBR battered fried pickles with smoked serrano aoli

We needed to get a bit more exercise, so we crossed the river and went to Howells and Hood next. The patio was packed, but the inside seating had plenty of space.

calamari

artichoke dip

Chicago dog

The Chicago dog was an interesting deconstructed take on the standard Chicago dog, but the artichoke dip was watery and not good. The calamari was ok.

We had a nice brisk walk back to the hotel, sat on the patio at Kitty O'Shea's for awhile and then called it a night. In the morning we went up to the continental breakfast, which was OK. The muffins and cereal were good anyway and they had bottled water and soda available all the time, which was very nice to have. No trip to CVS needed!

Since breakfast was not that substantial, we were all ready for an early lunch. We decided to try Lou Malnati's for deep dish pizza. I think we started with a Caesar salad, which I forgot to photograph, but it was huge and quite good, with a garlicy dressing. The pizza was great, with a flavorful fresh tomato sauce on top.

Chicago deep dish pizza

Next on the agenda was an architecture river cruise with the Architecture Foundation. The tour guide was very interesting and the boat went a lot farther down the river than other similar tours I've done in the past.

Wrigley building

We walked back to the hotel to relax for awhile before heading out for the rest of the night, since it was getting close to showtime for Dave Matthews Band.

We went to Bar Louie near the hotel for dinner before the show. It was OK, service was not that great as I recall. We did get a table on the patio though.



sesame tuna sandwich

Philly burger

We used the Uber app to get a car to take us over to the show, which was very easy to use. It was a bit far to walk, but we ended up in traffic and we ended up walking a fair amount anyway. Gotta get to 10,000 steps a day I guess!

We were all very excited to see a show at the new venue in downtown Chicago, the First Merit Bank Pavilion. It has potential, but the rows of seats were so close together that you could hardly squeeze past someone sitting in a seat. If you stood up there was no room for your legs even. Crazy. Needs way more space between the rows. I've never loved Alpine Valley as a venue that much, but this made me miss it!

We moved up closer near the general admission area toward the end of the show. That would have been better than our so-called seats maybe. It was a great show with the first half acoustic, a break and the second half full band electric. No opening band. It was nice to be able to walk back to the hotel after the show, though it was a pretty long walk.

The next day, we had a quick breakfast at the hotel and said goodbye to Megan and Jason as they had to head home.

We wanted to go to Xoco, a rick Bayless restaurant for lunch, so we got L tickets and headed over that way. Unfortunately, we forgot that Rick Bayless takes his staff on a trip to Mexico every year over the Fourth of July weekend, so everything was closed. Rats. have to remember that next time.

We ended up going to GT Fish and Oyster for brunch as it was nearby. The food and service at GT Fish and Oyster was excellent. I'd like to go back for dinner sometime.

chicken and waffles

shrimp and grits

We spent the afternoon at Adler Planetarium. Seemed like all of the better shows were sold out by the time we got to the front of the line. Guess it pays to arrive early.

We watched some soccer in the hotel bar for awhile and then went to Hackney's, which was pretty close to the hotel, over by the Bar Louie actually.

Hackney burger

Hackney sliders

We went to Sheffield's in Wrigleyville for drinks after dinner. Ended up staying out way too late, but it was lots of fun.

We were tired of the free continental breakfast, so went to the Bongo Room for breakfast our last morning. There was a long wait, but the food was really good.

breakfast burrito

croissant sandwich

Hilton Michigan Avenue

We had some time to waste after we checked out of the hotel, so we walked down to Buckingham fountain. We took a taxi to the airport and arrived quickly. We got some popcorn at Nuts on Clark at the airport before our flight. I really liked the Chicago mix popcorn with regular, carmel and cheese popcorn together. It was worth waiting in the long line. The flight home was uneventful, though we ended up in the back of the plane as we had forgotten to check in until a bit later the day before for our boarding assignments.