A Surprise in Wrigleyville

Some friends invited us to the Cubs game yesterday. We decided to meet at one of the big beer/barfood places close to the field to grab some lunch before the game. We really just wanted a place where we could sit and socialize for awhile. The food and service were, well, exactly what I expected, especially on a game day. The surprise came midway through our meal. I was in a booth with my back towards the wall. All of a sudden, I feel something moving in my hair. My hand immediately goes to my head, I feel something wiggling, then its on my neck, and finally I feel it scurry down my side and off the edge of the booth. This all happened in the space of a few seconds. I turn to my husband and ask "what was that?!" His eyes were wide and his response was "that was the biggest silverfish I've ever seen." Eeew..... Now I don't get freaked out easily. I've seen in restaurants over the years roaches, a rat and a mouse. I've been annoyed by fruit flies and even saw a bird get trapped inside one once and proceed to fly around the tables. But a giant silverfish dropping on my head was most surprising! Anyone else have a strange critter encounter in a restaurant? Of course, please don't name the restaurant.

At a big beer/bar food type place close to Wrigley (wonder if it was the same one?), I once had a giant roach crawling across my table. That was the first and last time I ever went to that (fairly well-regarded) place.

Sadly I have two -

1. Rush / Division area bar. Bartender reached up above the bar to grab a pitcher from a storage area, and pulled down a pitcher with about 20 cucarachas in it.

2. A Japanese restaurant establishment in the Wrigleyville area which is well known for having decent no frills sushi, and other Japanese style cooking which is usually pretty busy with Asian patrons. I really like this place, BUT, I was sitting at the sushi bar one time, and saw my first albino cockroach carrying what appeared to be some kind of egg sac. It was just calmly walking across the sushi bar. Quite a sight. I still go there. Most places have cucarachas, keeping them under control (out of sight) can sometimes be tough.

As I opened the menu at an old Chinese restaurant in Northbrook, at least fifty baby roaches scurried out from between the pages, running all over me and the table. Needless to say, we quickly exited and haven't been back.

At a well-known Uptown jazz club and former speakeasy, I saw a big one waltzing across the bottles behind the bar. No one cared in the least. Ambience. Anyway, they keep the glasses upside down, and don't serve food.

When I lived in NYC and serving on jury duty, we all headed out to dinner for some reason, even tho we were deliberating. After dinner had been eaten, a huge cockroach fell from the ceiling onto the table.

We were once at a Mexican restaurant in Lakeview sitting out on their patio when a rat ran under our table and across our feet. At first one of our friends thought it was a cat...very humorous afterwards!

chicagogrrl wrote:We were once at a Mexican restaurant in Lakeview sitting out on their patio when a rat ran under our table and across our feet. At first one of our friends thought it was a cat...very humorous afterwards!

Same thing happened at an adjacent table in broad daylight at a very popular outdoor patio in Bucktown. It must have happened often because one of the busboys promptly reacted, grabbing a cloth napkin ready to catch it before it scurried away. Never did go there again.

Oh heck. I have rats running through my backyard. It's Chicago.

leek wrote:Oh heck. I have rats running through my backyard. It's Chicago.

As someone who just moved from DC, Chicago's rats are pretty small. Next time you travel out east in the DC area, hit up the alleys of Adams Morgan. I'm not kidding, I've seen rats bigger than my 8 lb cat. I am 100% dead serious.