So who went out to eat tonight in the blizzard? Anyone??

Did anyone venture out to any restaurants tonight? I'm sure if you did it was interesting. I bet you had wait staff fawing all over you if there were any waitstaff. My poor son had to deliver pizza in Lincoln Park tonight in his car. He's home now partying with his peeps but it was bad out there.

We thought about trying a new Japaneese BBQ place that opened within a couple hundred yards of our place downtown last night. But the idea of getting all bundled up to walk just a short distance made no sense and we cooked ourselves a nice meal instead. Thankfully we never lost power in the 70mph winds!

I got an e-mail yesterday afternoon that offered half off dinner at Pete Miller's and Davis Street Fishmarket, for last night and tonight.

Boka, Landmark and Perennial are also offering a 25% discount to your final bill tonight. Also from Silver Cloud:

$8.95 Blizzard Burgers w/carmelized onion, bacon, blue cheese & Tater Tots
$1 off all Winter Whiskeys

Are you kidding? No way. The fridge is full, so's the liquor cabinet, fuggedaboutit. Syncronizadas and champagne for breakfast. It'll be tomorrow before I go out. Even the dogs know something is up and don't want to go out.

reservations at the purple pig for 2pm

Per Twitter/Kevin Pang, all of Jimmy Bannos' places are closed today, including PP. West Town Tavern is also closed.

I got to get off work early yesterday, and no work today. Personally i wouldnt feel right if i caused someone else to have to stay at or go to work yesterday or today.

different strokes..

off to boka

After closing down Binny's South Loop Tasting Room (early, like so many other places) we headed up to the Paramount Room. Great drinks, great service, Tuesday AYCE fish and chips and a terrific burger (gruyere & mushrooms, medium rare). PM was pretty busy last night. Walked over to the "L" and rode . . . almost home. Brown Line was stopping at Western so had to hoof it over to Francisco, ugh. Eerie walking down the middle of Wilson with not a (moving) vehicle in sight.

I just came in from a few hours of walking and digging stuff out of snow, and at least the restaurants on Division in Wicker Park/Ukrainian Village appeared quite busy. Particularly full were Jerry's and Moonshine and one of those large sports bar-looking places. I saw people moving around inside Smoke Daddy, and Mana's door had a sign saying they were opening at 4. The people I saw seemed really happy to be out; it felt kind of like a street festival day without the crowds. The newish Caffé Streets at Division and Wood also seemed to be doing steady business. I only wish I had known before I stopped for tea there that Bangers & Lace was also open; Wednesday afternoon tippling opportunities are rare.

Well, not to a restaurant, but I did go out with a friend to the new Sunset Foods in Long Grove. It's a great store. Lots of fun stuff, from unusual packaged goods to exotic fruits and vegetables to more than your usual number of self-serve bars (salad, olive, shrimp, soup, and trail mix). There were also several little places to buy prepared food, plus an upstairs lounge for enjoying it. So a bit of shopping and a snack -- then out into the craziness of the blizzard, to try to get home. Just made it. Out here in the 'burbs, the wind was a major factor, as any open fields meant whiteouts. But it was still fun.

Good list of restaurants open tonight should anyone be brave enough to sally forth:

http://www.thefeast.com/chicago/restaur ... 7465_.html

Went out last night to the Bristol, watched some of the light show ( Thundersnow!! ) I think they were expecting more people, there were a total of 6 customers including us the whole time we were there.

I saw a tweet around lunch time that Kuma's Corner would be open. We'd never been (I can't imagine a burger being worth standing in line for over an hour), so we headed over hoping for short lines. We got really lucky and caught the Belmont bus right away. Arrived at Kuma's at 11:45 and there were around 6 other people there besides the staff.

The beer and burgers were indeed fantastic, while the waffle fries were just okay and the loud music I could have done without. By the time we left an hour later, there was already a way of about 4-5 people. All in all it was a fun adventure! I'd go back to Kuma's, although probably not if there was a long line (which is just about always?).

Ursiform wrote:Good list of restaurants open tonight should anyone be brave enough to sally forth:

http://www.thefeast.com/chicago/restaur ... 7465_.html

This link is for a review of Dunlay's on the Square--not sure that's what you meant to post...

boudreaulicious wrote:

Ursiform wrote:Good list of restaurants open tonight should anyone be brave enough to sally forth:

http://www.thefeast.com/chicago/restaur ... 7465_.html

This link is for a review of Dunlay's on the Square--not sure that's what you meant to post...

Metromix has a list - http://chicago.metromix.com/restaurants ... 40/content

boudreaulicious wrote:

Ursiform wrote:Good list of restaurants open tonight should anyone be brave enough to sally forth:

http://www.thefeast.com/chicago/restaur ... 7465_.html

This link is for a review of Dunlay's on the Square--not sure that's what you meant to post...

Yikes, thanks for noticing! It was supposed to be this link from The Feast http://www.thefeast.com/chicago/restaur ... 00399.html

I walked to Longman & Eagle for lunch. Lots of other people had the same idea. The place was pretty full, but we only had to wait about 10 minutes for a table to open up. Sloppy Joes (with fries included!) and beers. Perfect.

Ursiform wrote:

boudreaulicious wrote:

Ursiform wrote:Good list of restaurants open tonight should anyone be brave enough to sally forth:

http://www.thefeast.com/chicago/restaur ... 7465_.html

This link is for a review of Dunlay's on the Square--not sure that's what you meant to post...

Yikes, thanks for noticing! It was supposed to be this link from The Feast http://www.thefeast.com/chicago/restaur ... 00399.html

A friend and I did some West Town/downtown restaurant and bar recon by bike this evening. My brain is defrosting, so I can't recall a lot of the places we passed, but I do remember the following being open (and not on Metromix and The Feast's lists; in no particular order):

- Five Star
- Mexique
- Green Zebra
- Aja
- Weber Grill
- Quartino
- Public House
- Pops

Monday night was probably the worst night in recent memory to go out. I stopped on my way home from work for dinner. Since that required me to clean off the car a second time, it made me regret the decision.

And Tuesday afternoon was 10x worst ... so I went straight home.

I'm confused - I thought the OP was asking about if people went out Tuesday night during the "blizzard", but so many posts seem to be about what people did post "blizzard". If that's the case then I microwaved some elk tamales today.

happy_stomach wrote:A friend and I did some West Town/downtown restaurant and bar recon by bike this evening.

I'm surprised you were able to get around by bike. In my 'hood, even last night, just getting around on foot was problematic.

nsxtasy wrote:

happy_stomach wrote:A friend and I did some West Town/downtown restaurant and bar recon by bike this evening.

I'm surprised you were able to get around by bike. In my 'hood, even last night, just getting around on foot was problematic.

I live just off Chicago Ave. near Western, and while my street was still impassable by bike yesterday evening, Chicago Ave., which is what we took all the way east to Clark or State, and then all of the streets we used downtown (mainly River North, south only to about Randolph) were no messier than a regular winter day. (Read: The City did a pretty good job, and fenders help.) Riding very circuitously, we ended up covering just about 10 miles and would have happily ridden more except that I was unhappily frozen.

My friend and I are big fans of storms and we walked to the Highland Park Denny's (the only place close enough to walk to from my condo) just to hang out there and watch the storm. They said the kitchen was closed when we got there, but they did have chicken noodle soup (was actually decent, with nice chunks of chicken) and fresh hot baked rolls. They didn't even charge us, but we did give them a huge tip just for sticking it out.

I had a blast walking out in it and I was never cold in the storm. The only thing I would have done differently would be to have snowpants instead of a couple layers of pants and ski-goggles. So, I hope to see the next blizzard very soon!

DH and I met another couple around 7:30 during the blizzard on Tuesday night at Division Ale House. It was the only place open on Division in WP. We had never been to DAH before as we have our regular bar-food places in the hood (Small Bar mostly) that we rarely stray from, but Division Ale House was quite tasty! Every table was taken and spirits were lively. There was one server, one bartender, two bussers and an unknown number of kitchen staffers. They were all extremely friendly and the food service was quite prompt. Amazing really in the circumstances.

We shared the Leprechaun Wings (yes TERRIBLY cheesy name) with Sweet Fiery sauce (there were maybe wing 6 sauce options). The wings were great, big and meaty, and the blue cheese dressing was chock full of chunks of blue cheese. Perhaps house made?? I love a good wing and these were great. We also ordered chips and curry. The curry sauce was not memorable, but MAN those fries were good. Hand-cut, in house, skin on, fried golden brown. Really good.

Fortuitously, Tuesdays are regularly $6 burger night. The burger options were varied. I believe they were all 1/2 lb. My burger had American cheese, fried runny egg and chipotle mayo. It was cooked to order a perfect medium-rare. The garnishes were a dill pickle, fresh leaf of green lettuce (I loathe both shredded and iceberg), tomatoes and hunk of raw onion. There were quite a few options for side and I had planned to try something besides fries, but after eating those fries I knew I had to have more!
DH had the Irish Breakfast (served anytime) because he loves an Irish Breakfast. It looked good, but he said it was just so-so and wished he had ordered a burger after eating part of mine.

The 3 block walk there and home again were definitely interesting, but I was glad to be out. It was an experience. To qualify my review a bit, I was STARVING and had just walked three blocks in a blizzard, so my emotional feelings about DAH may be slightly skewed, but I really enjoyed their bar food, and I eat a lot of bar food.

Would I go there on a Saturday night? Never because I can’t stand the crowd that block draws on weekend nights. Would I go there for a weekend lunch or a weeknight dinner? Absolutely. It was a fun night!

Division Ale House
1942 W Division St
Chicago, IL 60622
(773) 384-6886

http://divisionalehouse.com/