Color Purple post-matinee eats?

Making the trip downtown with a friend and our two 13-year old daughters. Seeing the Wed. matinee and prefer to avoid rush hour to get home, so we'd like to grab some early dinner either walking distance from the theatre or somewhere fun and not too pricey that'll have parking so we don't have to pay for that twice.

And we have an anti-chinese fan so chinatown's not really an option.

TIA!

Would Ed Debevik's be an option?

Petterino's is close. It's pretty standard issue LYLE Steakhouse fare, but they have the best chocolate pudding in town, if that matters.

Petterino's
150 N Dearborn St
Chicago, IL
312-422-0150

Our standby restaurant for after-matinee dinner is the Atwood Cafe. While I think Petterinos is fun, I don't know that 13-year old girls would. It has the old supper club feel - dark wood, formal kind of atmosphere. The best broccoli side dish I have ever eaten, too.

The Atwood has fun furniture (like love seat benches at some of the tables), funky table ware and art work. The menu offers a variety of items, and the prices are not frightening. Chef Terhune always has terrific breads and yummy desserts. We frequently order salads and appetizers to share instead of entrees. The graham cracker calamari and the corn and scallion waffle are favorites. Then we just move straight to dessert - the white chocolate banana bread pudding and the brown sugar cheesecake always make our list, no matter who we're with. It is easy walking distance from the theater. Everyone we've taken there has raved about the place! AND, I hear that if you eat in their outside seating during August, you'll get a free dessert. (This is due to construction next door!)


Atwood Cafe
www.atwoodcafe.com

1 W Washington St
Chicago, IL 60602
(312) 368-1900

Well, here I go again. As I've posted before, our go-to place to dazzle kids and out-of-towners is the Grand Lux Cafe, at Ontario and Michigan. It's total eye-candy, with an enormous menu, very good food, generous portions and reasonable prices.

Grand Lux Cafe
600 N Michigan Ave
Chicago, IL 60611
(773) 276-2500
http://www.grandluxcafe.com/

vickyp wrote:While I think Petterinos is fun, I don't know that 13-year old girls would.

While I don't know if a 13 year old would find Petterino's fun or not, or any more or less "fun" than any other pre-theatre restaurant, I see plenty of 13 year olds there. So I don't think a 13 year old would feel, or be, out of place at Petterino's.

Thanks for the suggestions, we've been to Petterino's and it was fine for my daughter. Ed Debevic's has been done many times, same with Grand Lux.

However Atwood Cafe is new to me (been 8 years since I worked in the loop) and it sounds like a keeper. Unfortunately we can't get an early reservation.

Thanks for the ideas--keep 'em coming!

How about Russian Tea Time?

Russian Tea Time Restaurant
77 East Adams St.
Chicago, IL 60603
Phone: (312)360-0000
Fax: (312)360-0575

http://www.russianteatime.com/

EDIT: I just looked up where the Color Purple is playing. I guess RTT is actually pretty far away to walk (0.8 miles)

This is also very good and reasonable, too.
http://www.southwaterkitchen.com/

South Water Kitchen
225 N Wabash Ave
Chicago, IL 60601
(312) 236-9300

Paul SL wrote:This is also very good and reasonable, too.
http://www.southwaterkitchen.com/

I disagree that it is either good or reasonably priced

Nick's Fish Market (upstairs for casual food and early dinner)
Nick's Fishmarket-Chicago
51 South Clark
Chicago, Illinois 60603
(312) 621-0200
http://www.nicksfishmarketchicago.com/

Trattoria #10
http://www.trattoria10.com/
10 N. Dearborn
Chicago, IL

Personally, I liked nice restaurants at that age. Don't park the car twice, just walk to dinner, and go back.

sujormilk,

Be sure to call ahead on some of these suggestions, to make sure you won't be running into some downtime. Trattoria 10, for instance, is a good suggestion, but it doesn't open for dinner until 5:30.

Thanks everyone for all the recs and advice. We tried to go to Atwood but got caught in the torrential downpour at 4:50 today and ended up hightailing it to the car. It had stopped raining by the time we reached Tufano's and we got a nice table just in time for my friend's daughter to declare that she wasn't hungry (meaning she wasn't happy) and ended up at Pompeii on Taylor. Which was fine of course but not what we planned.

ON the plus side, though getting rained on again we did get some Mario's watermelon/peach ices and that was worth the trip.