Restaurants Near Harry Carey's

Hi everyone. Some co-workers and I need a little help.

Our boss is taking us to Howl At The Moon for some Xmas fun. It's located at 26 W. Hubbard. Pretty much directly across the street from Harry Carey's.

The plan is to go to Harry's first for dinner. He worded it like this....

We would then proceed to eat at Harry Caray's (or somewhere else in the area if anyone has a good suggestion) and then head to Howl at the Moon.

We need some help with the "good suggestion" part. None of us really have an interest in HC's because we did that last year and would rather it be somewhere different. We aren't too familiar with the area. Ideally, the restaurant should be withing walking distance from Howl at the Moon and not too expensive.

Someone mentioned a place called Rocket. At least they think that was the name, but I can find no mention of it anywhere.
Suggestions anyone? Thanks in advance.

Eric, you can't find anything under Rocket because it's spelled Rockit. Those darn search engines!! Anyway, go to Metromix.com, enter Howl at the Moon, and you will see a box that says "What's nearby" and you can enter .25 or .5 miles and it will show you the restaurants and bars nearby. Should be helpful...

I don't know how Rockit is now, but I went a year or so ago and had the $20 hamburger with foie gras-wasn't exciting. Used to be a hot late night scene-again, I don't know if it still is. Shaw's (Blue Crab side) is close, and doesn't have to be expensive if you're careful with your ordering.

Near HC's (and Howl at the Moon) are:

Brasserie Jo
Bistro 110
House of Blues
Smith & Wollensky
Keefer's

Not too far away is:

Kevin
Ben Pao
Ruth's Chris Steakhouse
Ballo's
the place that used to be Spiaggia but now is a seafooder from New York and I can't for the life of me think of its name....

Anyhow...that's all walkable distance.

Redfish is also over there but I think Redfish is just horrible.

Good luck!

Shannon

You mean Spago-now it's blue water grill. Most of these places are pretty costly-I guess, again, if you order carefully...

I used to find Tutto Posto reliably good, though I haven't tested the theory in a while.

there are unlimited possibilities in that 2 or 3 block area.

... Bin36 ...slightly upscale without being excessive, and yet still casual.
... Topolobampo / Fronterra ... slightly different from the norm
...Ruth Chris' is right there...
...Keefer's (not for me, but judging by the crowd a lot of ppl love it...)

...I've always enjoyed Rockit for lunch but find it a little rowdy at night.

(...Bistro110 is nowhere near howl @ the moon, unless one of the two places has moved.. in which case i think bistro110 would've been renamed too)

Open late, not super-expensive, not a destination place, but food may be close to HC in quality, French-ish:

Bijan's Bistro
663 N. State St.

I beg to differ -- Bistro 110 is right next to the House of Blues Hotel, which is across from the House of Blues proper.

Walk down the street in a northerly direction and you'll hit Harry Caray's at the corner -- then across the street is Keefer's. I believe Howl at the moon is on that street or the next one going north.

I'm pretty sure about that. Bistro 110 is most certainly near to Harry Caray's.

Shannon

Whoa.

This is what happens to your brain when you stuff christmas cards all day.

You turn a fine restaurant like BIN 36 into BISTRO 110

Mea culpa, mea culpa...mea MAXIMA culpa.....

dddane wrote:...I've always enjoyed Rockit for lunch but find it a little rowdy at night.

agreed. their mac'n'cheese is excellent. for dinner, it is more of a club that also serves food. if you're looking for something less expensive and more easy going, there's always fado.

otoh, if you're up for a short walk (two/three blocks, no further than most of the recommended places) and the boss won't flinch at a hefty check, let me follow the suggestion of this thread: fulton in the river, home of tasty dead sea critters.

Fado
http://www.fadoirishpub.com
100 W Grand Ave

Fulton's on the River
315 N La Salle Dr
Chicago, IL 60610
(312) 822-0100[/url]

and don't forget Mambo Grill and India House.....

nr706 wrote:Open late, not super-expensive, not a destination place, but food may be close to HC in quality...

What are you talking about? I have it on good authority that Bijan's is a "place to see and be seen." (The good authority being a large building-side billboard on Ohio avenue that I see most every day around work...)



We had the office xmas party at Ben Pao this year and it was rock solid. If you're ordering off the menu, prices will be similar to Harry Caray's, I think.

If price is a strong consideration, India House might be the best option in the neighborhood -- the food is very good, and I think entrees are mostly on the low side of the $10-20 range -- plus Indian food tends to require less than one entree per diner.

Rock Bottom Brewery is at the corner of Grand and State. It's not too expensive, and it's a pretty good place for a group.
I've only actually been to Harry Caray's once, and I'm not expert in that neighborhood, but I think that not many of the places listed in this thread are much cheaper.

While it's true that Rock Bottom would be good for a group, it has an appropriate name. Food may be acceptable, but avoid the beer-it's tragic.

stewed coot wrote:While it's true that Rock Bottom would be good for a group, it has an appropriate name. Food may be acceptable, but avoid the beer-it's tragic.

I have to disagree on your assessment of the beer. I met Rock Bottom's brewmaster Peter Crowley last year on the Chicago Beer Society's famous Brews and Blues Cruise, and he brought along a couple of kegs of his Belgian-style witbeer, which was exceptional. He used an appropriate combination of yeasts approximating the local airborne yeasts of the area around Leuven, and it was nicely flavored with the traditional coriander and bitter orange, for a very refreshing brew. One of the interesting things about Rock Bottom is that, while it's a chain, they give the brewmaster at each location quite a bit of latitude to determine what they want to make, in addition to the usual suspects that have to be made/offered to placate BudMilCoors drinkers.

IMHO, Rock Bottom, while not quite up the high standards set by Goose Island, delivers very good beers. (By contrast, I was out at Flatlander's in Lincolnshire last night to watch the Bears game, and was distinctly unimpressed with the flat, thin flavor of their stout, and their lager, pale ale and red ales were workmanlike, but commonly-available bottled versions are typically much better.)

So, in my feeble attempt at threadjacking, I'm curious what specifically about Rock Bottom's beers would cause someone to characterize them as "tragic"? I can respect your right to your opinion, and intelligent people can differ, but it would help to have some specifics that led you to your opinion.

Maybe this discussion is best moved to the Drink board?

Edit to note: This applies only to the River North location; I have no info either way about their other brewpubs.

How about BB's?
22 E. Hubbard St.
312-755-0007

It's my favorite place in the hood for bar food, and it's usually not very smoky, has a great atmosphere, and the prices are not bad at all. They have a bunch of sliders on their dinner menu, too, which are fun for a group (fabulous turkey burgers, believe it or not, bbq pork, ground beef)...

Cheers!

nr706,

The fact is that I haven't been to the River North Rock Bottom since around the late 90's. Went twice with several people and both times we dropped our beers and left. One actually evoked burnt garlic, and the others were either skunky or at least insipid. Granted I have not returned to this location, and from what you say the current brew master has a lot of integrity. Guess I shouldn't have shot off at the mouth without a recent visit. Although I did go to their outpost in Warrenville a year ago, and found the 3 beers sampled lackluster examples of their types. I didn't realize that each location was independent, and assumed that they all followed "recipes". (This is a long-winded retraction of my condemnation.)

Eric wrote:Someone mentioned a place called Rocket. At least they think that was the name, but I can find no mention of it anywhere.
Suggestions anyone? Thanks in advance.

Rockit... David Schwimmer hangs out there, so how cool can it be?

Thanks everyone who responded. It looks like we will be heading to Frontera Grill.

Any suggestions on what's really good there?

They make killer margaritas.

Do be warned that Frontera takes no reservations, and the wait can be pretty intense during peak hours. The first time I took my wife we waited about 90 minutes. More recently, we were in the neighborhood on a Saturday afternoon and decided to go for an early dinner. We arrived at 4:50 pm and there was already a line of about 20-30 people waiting for the 5 pm open. We gamely waited and headed for a bar table when we got in. The kitchen doesn't open until about 5:30, but we were served shortly after that.

I ordered a seared tuna that was pretty nice, although I can't recall the details.

I note now that they will take advance reservations for a party of 5-10 -- see http://www.rickbayless.com/restaurants/grill.html

They serve from both the Frontera and Topolobampo menus in the bar, but the bar gets awfully crowded so it's pretty implausible for a large group to just drop in -- see if you guys can get reservations.