threadkiller wrote:The Ruby Tuesday news is not thrilling for Chicagoland, but on some of my work travels a Ruby Tuesday's is downright fine dining for lunch. Decatur IL, and York PA for two examples.

Ruby tuesdays wifi signal was strong, but I opted for Fox & Hound FoxValley. Cheap Jim Beam, and High Life's.

Bob Chinns wifi in a little bit...

IPad2 is addictive.

jimswside wrote:Ruby tuesdays wifi signal was strong

If owning an iPad means even the remote possibility of eating at Ruby T glad I'm still dial-up and pen/yellow note card.

This Friday, my office will be closed due to the protests surrounding the NATO conference. I have a friend coming in from out of town to work with me, so we were looking to set up shop in a restaurant or coffee shop outside of the Loop with Wi-Fi, where we can eat, work, and loiter for a few hours during the day. I'm in Lakeview, and he's staying in Wicker Park, so anything in between the two would be best.

There's free wifi @ Chief O'Neill's and I"ve been told the food is decent.

The food's only meh, but the Bucktown Beanery at the corner of Damen and Webster has decent coffee, wi-fi and breakfast/lunch fare. I also work at the Map Room at Armitage/Hoyne from time to time. They open early, have wi-fi, it's quiet until the mid-afternoon bar crowd gets there and they serve great coffee. They only have breakfast food so if I'm there at lunchtime, I walk down to Las Asadas for lunch and bring it back, which the Map folks welcome. Both are closer to Wicker than Lakeview, but maybe that'll work for you.

And if food's important, listen to Jazzfood. Chief O'Neill's rocks.

I'm posting from Artopolis in Greektown, where I've been been having a very pleasant time working and indulging in lovely hot emmenthal and mushroom artopita, cold and tart Vissinada Refreshment, sweet loukoumades, great Greek coffee and free wifi. The staff was very nice and even directed me to a table with an outlet nearby. The downsides are that it's somewhat loud and you have to hunt for parking.

Artopolis
http://artopolischicago.com
306 S. Halsted St.
Chicago, IL 60661
(312) 559-9000

We've at times left the office to spend lunch and the afternoon at La Madia - great food, great folks and when we finish up we stay for drinks and dinner.

Free Wifi

Hoosier Mama Pie Company/Dollop Coffee & Tea Co.
749 Chicago Avenue
Evanston, IL 60202
847-868-8863
http://www.hoosiermamapie.com/evanston.html

Since this thread popped back up, I can second the recommendation for Manny's, especially in the mornings. Sadly they open at 6 now instead of 5, which makes it substantially less useful for me, but one of their wide four tops is a great place to hunker down with breakfast and write for 2-3 hours. Just enough conversation and dishes clattering around to serve as white noise for somebody like me who grew up in a downtown diner.