Food Extravaganza in the City

Okay, so tomorrow is my birthday, woo hoo (more sarcastic then excited), but the great news is that I always take this day off from work and spend my day pretty much eating at places I love or am in the mood for.

So far my day is penciled in as follows:

Breakfast - Floriole - croissant and coffee, simple
Lunch - Urban Belly, have only been here once but I love it and am craving noodles OR Hot doug's just because
Treat - Hoosier mama's, honestly I spend way too much time here and have to go tomorrow
Dinner - Sun Wah - Duck service, love it.

Okay, my question is this, if you guys all had to have one day of eating and the only rule was that it has to be in the city limits of Chicago, what would it be? I'm sure questions like this have been asked, but I am so fascinated by this for some reason. As well, you could go all over the place, but who really wants to spend time in traffic on their birthday, which is why my first three locations are within biking distance of one another.

Also, if you have any other great ideas to offer for me in the Bucktown/Logan Square/Ukraine Village, etc neighborhoods, please bring them on. I'm open to all suggestions except for dinner which is set in stone.

My brain immediately took me up to Devon Avenue.
Mango kulfi, gulab jamun, bhel puri, samosas for walking treats.
Nehari, boti, chicken mackhani, some paneer dishes, naans, parathas for sit down at a few diff places, and random grocery store packaged snacks and oddities to bring home and try.

Shouldn't a Devon a thon be coming up? I know a Bhel Puri stroll was talked about in the recent past - which would no doubt end up with a feeding frenzy of chicken boti and aloo gobi and / or nehari if I had anything to do with it. I need to get up there soon.

Shaggywillis wrote:Okay, my question is this, if you guys all had to have one day of eating and the only rule was that it has to be in the city limits of Chicago, what would it be?

Is this a hypothetical question or are you looking for realistic suggestions? And would the food have calories?

I'm joking, of course, but my hypothetical answer would probably include a lot more fried food, pork belly & foie gras than an itinerary I would realistically follow.

Shaggywillis wrote:if you guys all had to have one day of eating and the only rule was that it has to be in the city limits of Chicago, what would it be?

I'd have dinner at Alinea and not eat anything beforehand.

But if I wanted to split it up with multiple stops all day, my day would look something like this:

Breakfast - Bongo Room or M. Henry/M. Henrietta
Lunch - deep-dish at Lou Malnati's
Snacking all day long - an entremet at Vanille, pots de creme at Floriole (fortunately, just a few blocks away), a cinnamon swirl roll at Fox & Obel, caramel cashew popcorn at Garrett's
Dinner - Sable
After-dinner desserts - The Chocolate Bar at the Lobby (Fridays/Saturdays only)

I doubt I could eat that much in a single day, though; three big meals in a day is too much for me. So at best I would be doing breakfast OR lunch, not both.

Shaggywillis wrote:
Okay, my question is this, if you guys all had to have one day of eating and the only rule was that it has to be in the city limits of Chicago, what would it be?


Is this a hypothetical question or are you looking for realistic suggestions? And would the food have calories?

Oh, well yes I would love suggestions, but I guess seeing everyone else's food fantasy day might inspire me for some other ideas. Devon-a-thon sounds great, sign me up.

Mine is easy assuming I could eat all of this in a day:

Corned Beef Hash and poached eggs at the Melrose Restaurant in Lakeview
Fried Chicken, Collard Greens, Mac and Cheese, and cornbread with some sweet tea at Priscilla's Ultimate Soul Food
A slice of chocoflan (aka torta imposible) from Kristopher's in Pilsen
And my "gotta have it when in Chicago" non negotiable: meat ravioli with meat sauce at Sabatino's with a tartufo for dessert

Happy birthday! This is my favorite question, especially since you're willing to bike! I just hosted some friends from Portland, and all we did was the biking and eating thing.

I live in Ukrainian Village, and the Augusta bike lane, to Milwaukee bike lane, to the Halsted bike lane is a super fast ride down to Chinatown (Tao Ran Ju, MingHin and Go 4 Food--sometimes include LSC in this trio). From Chinatown, we rode back up north the same way for the somewhat cliche, sometimes unavoidable, usually fantastic Violet Hour-Big Star-Black Dog Gelato one-two-three punch (drink and bike responsibly, of course).

The next day ended up being somewhat Italian-ish: D'Amato's for a breakfast of pizza and cannoli, Terry's Toffee for second dessert, a break to see my favorite street art in the Fulton Corridor/West Loop where we also stopped at JP Graziano, then wove over to Roosevelt to ride over the bridge, followed by sandwiches at Panozzo's before jumping on the south lakefront path. I like to hop off the lakefront path or just take the Halsted bike lane straight to 31st for Pleasant House and Maria's, again an easy bike ride from the Hoosier Mama 'hood.

Man, I could go on and on. Sure, I bike and eat as a job, though on my very rare day off, I do the exact same thing. Enjoy!

Me and the wife do breakfast at Old Fashion Doughnut for an apple fritter.

Swing up to Randolph to do some shopping at JP Graziano and grab a sub for later.

Head back south a bit to Al's on Taylor for an early lunch (combo hot AND sweet for me, fries and a coke).

Cross the street to Mario's for a Peach to slowly work on while we walk around the neighborhood and Arrigo Park (gotta go see Columbus).

I figure it should be about 1:30 or so by now so we'll walk just a bit East of Al's and stop in Little Joe's for a few hours of drinking slowly, Sinatra on the Jukebox, and bullshitting with Joe (used to hang out there a LOT when we went to UIC).

So by now it's 5 and we're gonna head over to the lakefront sit and look at the lake a bit and split the sub from Graziano's. Then stop by Fox & Obel just to see if anythings on sale and grab a movie at the very nearby AMC.

It's about 9:30 by now, haven't eaten if 4 hours so where else? LTH for salt & pepper shrimp, and if I can talk her into it a quick app. after at LSC. Then walk around the mall for a bit & a cocktail at Lure.

Easily midnight by now so we head back west to Oak Park right after stopping at Jim's Original (wife LOVES the pork chop sandwich – we used to live in the area – this is one she'd never turn me down on).

That's the fantasy at least.

I've had a couple of these days, although I always combine them with beer related stops.

Most recently we did a Lunch at Toon's>drinks at Hopleaf>early dinner at Sun Wah>more drinks at Haymarket>finished the night off with more beers and dessert at the Publican

Last year I had a week off in between jobs and did a week of trying to hit up as many spots as I could between 10 am & 4 pm (to avoid rush hour traffic).

Mon: Brunch at Hot Doug's>beers and a snack at Revolution>Lunner at Kuma's
Tues: A beer at Map Room>Lunch at Honey 1>a beer at Local Option>Some pizza at Piece>a couple of tacos at Big Star
Wed: Beers at Small Bar>Lunch at Franks N Dawgs>Beers at Goose Island Clybourn

shaggywillis
I hope you had a great birthday. I was delighted to read that your celebrate your day in a fashion that is meaningful to you. I don't live is Chicago, so I don't have much to contribute to "a day of feasting".

the wimperoo wrote:I've had a couple of these days, although I always combine them with beer related stops.

Most recently we did a Lunch at Toon's>drinks at Hopleaf>early dinner at Sun Wah>more drinks at Haymarket>finished the night off with more beers and dessert at the Publican

This is something I wish I was better at. This sounds backwards, but I have a harder time interspersing drink and food stops than I do with a straight drink crawl. I think it's something about taking a drink break from eating and losing energy to get back out there. Last Sunday, I tried a Chicago Ave. food and drink crawl with drink stops at Farmhouse and Bar DeVille. It didn't end so well for me (though the mixing of [a lot of] beer and cocktails may have been the problem).