SOX game - looking for a Chicago Dining experience

We're 3 sisters in our 60's, heading to the SOX game on Saturday June 9 looking for a Chicago Dining experience around Soldier Field.

Can you give us some suggestions?

Depending on what your timing is, Opera on Wabash is fantastic.

You do realize that the Sox play at US Cellular Field, not Soldier Field, don't you? In any event GNR Ed's Potsticker House is fairly close to the ballpark and is quite good, if you like authentic Chinese.

Welcome to Chicago.

Traditionally the Sox play on the southside at US Cellular Field

A few places in that area...

Schaller's Pump
3714 S. Halsted St
A bar with some great homemade food.

Ed's Potsticker House
3139 S. Halsted St
312-326-6898
A favorite on this forum

Use the search function to find out more on these restaurants.

dugrice wrote:We're 3 sisters in our 60's, heading to the SOX game on Saturday June 9 looking for a Chicago Dining experience around Soldier Field.

Can you give us some suggestions?

I'm curious - if you're going to a Sox game, why are you interested in dining around Soldier Field? You know that Sox games are played at Comiskey Park (aka US Cellular Field), which is a ways south and a bit west of Soldier Field.

If you want someplace near the Sox game, here's a few suggestions:

Ed's Potsticker House
3139 S. Halsted St., Chicago
has very good, authentic Chinese food, versions of which (like the cigar-shaped potstickers) you're unlikely to see many other places

Healthy Food Lithuanian Restaurant
3236 S. Halsted St., Chicago
like many other Eastern Eurpean cuisines, Lithuanian is fairly well-represented in Chicago, and not so much in other parts of the country. Healthy Food is close to the ballpark, and it's the oldest Lithuanian restaurant in town. Don't expect anything fancy.

Trattoria 31
605 W. 31st, Chicago
Isn't a fine diing place, but it's nicer than the other two, with good versions of Italian bistro food.

Enjoy your stay here.

If you indeed want to eat around US Cellular and not Soldier Field, my tradition is hitting Chinatown after the game, which is just one stop north on the Red Line. You can search the site or the Great Neighborhood Restaurants board for tons of info on Chinatown.

Also, 35th street Red Hots, just west of the park, produces a decent chicago dog and fries.

Schalers Pump is a great spot as well... Another great old spot in Bridgeport is the Ramova Grill at 3510 S. Halsted St.

I'll third the recommendation for Schaller's Pump. For about $9.95 you can get a butt steak and hash browns plus park in their lot for free then walk to the game. Beer is pretty inexpensive as well. We aren't talking fine dining here but it's truly old school and a good way to get a taste for the neighborhood.

If you're looking for solid, old-school Italian with a local/Bridgeport vibe, I highly recommend Bertucci's. See GWiv's write-up here.

You might want to check out Bruna's, which is fairly nearby, too.

=R=

As a Sox fan, our regular stop is Ed's Potsticker house - easy parking, very convenient to the park, great food.

For day games, I have been known to stop by Healthy Foods for some breakfast, or hearty Lithuanian food, or Shui Wah or Happy Chef in Chinatown for some Dim Sum.

I do not like Trattoria 31 much, but there is a pretty good ice cream place across the street from it.

Nearer the park there is the Parkside grill which offers hot dogs and hamburgers with tables on the street - it is on 33rd Street, straight north of the park, between Shields and Wells. Good quality, as opposed to the big place next to it which is lousy. You would normally park your car first and then stop there on your way into the park. Another nearby spot with a lot of charm is Uncle Johnny's Grocery at 500 W 32nd (32nd and Normal) which offers some lovely sandwiches and has a picnic table outside. The main draw is the old, wood-paneled grocery and the owner and his friends who are funny, Chicago guys.

We also like to stop at Heart of Italy after the game, usually Bacchanalia, not Bruna's, but I know I am in the minority on that.

And there are a lot of other possibilities, too, within easy driving distance. So you need to narrow the choices - type of food, before or after the game, how fancy, etc.

A Pilsen native, recently turned me on to a very "cute" ( Gawd- I hate using that adjective, unless "Antique Shop" and "Galena" or Mineral Springs,Wi, are in the same sentence!) little spot, called Gio's.
Gio's is a small storefront grocery store/specialty shop/ neighborhood restaurant, with about 10 tables.
Very tasty "straight-ahead" Italian...think Tuffanos,Bertuccis Corner, (fmr.)Rico's,etc...the kind of Italian that Tony Sopranos been noshin' on.
Appertizers include Steamed Mussels, Grilled Calamari,Arrancini (RiceBalls- very low Carb...NOT!). They have a variety of Salads, Pastas, Pannini Sandwiches, and even do a version of that Chicago classic- Chicken Vesuvio.
They're tucked a way at:

Gio's Cafe/Deli
2724 S. Lowe
Chicago,IL. 60616
312.225.6368
www.gioscafe.com

Mangi !
Buneo Appetito

I second Gio's, I live in the area and no matter the occasion I often head there as default, you can't go wrong.
Very close to U.S. Cellular Field.
Service is great and food is delicious.


Carlos

We're 3 sisters in our 60's, heading to the SOX game on Saturday June 9 looking for a Chicago Dining experience around Soldier Field.

I'm going to the same game! I'm hoping the Sox will have shown some improvement by then. My family tradition is to go to Phoenix for dim sum before weekend Sox games.

Phoenix Restaurant
2131 S Archer Ave Ste 2
Chicago, IL
60616-1809
312-328-0848

I am going to see the Sox Wednesday and Gio's sounds good for that. Thanks for the tip.

Gio's is good. The food is reliably good, not great, reasonably priced, and I like the atmosphere, basically dining in a corner grocery, quite a bit. Good stop on the way to the ballgame.

We tried the Pasta Fagioli - nicely meaty (chunks of cured pork) big bowl, definitely serviceable; Arancini stuffed with meat was quite generous, well done with a good quality marinara; the boys who were accompanying us tried the garlic bread and crab cakes - garlic bread looked fine, crab cakes like little brown hocket pucks (deep-fried I imagine) - the boys were satisfied with these.

I had sausage ravioli in vodka sauce - buttery, good quality sausage, rich. Gemellia Bravidoro(?) was with garlicky, olive oil and broccoli. Good Gemelli, the broccoli seemed a bit overdone and mushy. The boys went with white clam sauce and spaghetti bolognese. Clams were good.

Bread was fresh, indistrial Italian, and the Basil Olive Oil on the table was quite good.

To die for? Nah. But I like the place and will go back for Italian before games. BYO, too, with $3 corkage. Coupon on their web site offers $6.95 off a $30 bill, too.

We got there around 515, and there were lots of open tables, but by 6 on the night of a game the place was pretty full - be warned - on a Wednesday night.

dicksond wrote:Arancini stuffed with meat was quite generous, well done with a good quality marinara;

and

dicksond wrote:To die for? Nah. But I like the place and will go back

I agree on both counts. I've been there only once, but the arancini was pretty good and the best thing I tried.

This may be the only thread to mention, however briefly, 35th Street Red Hots. It's hard to know because each of those words is too common to search for effectively, and anyway, it's not a name that sticks with you-- I had to look it up two hours after going there to get it right (35th Street Dogs?)

Given its location as the first restaurant of any kind you hit straight west of U.S. Comiskey Park, I'm sure lots of people, who have been to more than the one Sox game I've been to in the last decade, have been there. And that silence might be taken to speak for itself. But today, after biking through the thickets of yuppies and GenXers on the north part of the lakefront trail to reach the quiet, empty, almost wild southern part, a place where you can stand in an actual prairie as the waves beat on the rocks and gaze back at a cityscape that seems a million miles away, I made my way across crumbling infrastructure over to the vicinity of the ballpark (blissfully quiet on this Cubs home day) and stopped at 35th Street Dog Hut to grab some lunch.

And you know what? We rightly praise this classic Chicago dog stand but I have to say that my dog at 35th Street House of Red Dogs was just as good. I don't mean just as good as in "in its own way, doing something different, it achieved a comparable level of excellence"-- I mean "you could put the two side by side and have no idea which was which." A natural casing dog, fresh and snappy to bite into, mustard onions relish, fresh cut fries which are wrapped in white paper with the dog and get perfumed by the mustard and onions... it was the exact same style, and it was every bit as good. Is it as good when 28,000 people are in the vicinity and at least a few dozen of them are in line? I have no idea. The traffic ranged from a high of 6 to a low of me while I was there, so I may have caught them at their optimum operational efficiency and quality, but it was a mighty fine dog and fries, and that's all there is to it.

I had a watermelon Italian ice, too, which I enjoyed very much too, visible chunks of melon throughout and a not too sweet, melony not lemony flavor.

35th Street Red Hots
500 W 35th Street
Chicago, IL 60616
(773) 624-9866