North and Northwest Suburban Dinners?

Hi,

Seeing how the West suburbanites are enjoying their dinners makes me want to attend one up North.

Are there any N/NW suburban LTHers interested in getting together for dinner and food conversation?

Let's discuss! Please post your preferred days of the week, restaurants suggestions, etc.

I will give this a week and if there is enough interest we can pick a date and a restaurant.

Sounds good to me. I think a Tuesday or Thursday would work best, with advanced notice.

There have been a ton of places recommended in the north and northwest suburbs, so our biggest problem may be narrowing the field, only a few of which I've actually gotten to, so I'm open to many possibilities.

How far north and northwest recommendations were you thinking? Should I be trying to come up with ideas in Glenview or in Vernon Hills?

Thanks for bringing up this possibility. I think it would be fun to have a n/nw group.

hi eggplant, yes I am living in Palatine, and would be interested in a dinner gathering. I work in the city, so anything before 7:00 or 7:30 would be difficult for me. Wednesdays are not good for me. Thanks for taking the initiative. Christina

I live on the border of Des Plaines and Mount Prospect, but I work in Evanston. I prefer any day except Thursday. One place close to me that I've been eager to try is Flamingo's Seafood. I've been drooling over the pictures in this thread for months. I haven't gone myself partly out of laziness but also because I haven't found a big enough group. I'd hate to go and only be able to try one or two dishes. This is just one idea--I'm game for anything. Thanks for organizing.

I live in Arlington Heights and would love to participate in NW Suburban dinners. With some advance warning I can make adjustments in my schedule. However, Thursdays are not flexible at all.

I don't have any specific restaurant to suggest at ths time. Perhaps at our first meeting we could propose our favorites.

Thank you for taking the initiative and proposing NW dinners.

Jyoti

Hi,

You may want to get to Flamingo's sooner than later. I believe there is a Check Please visit on the offing this fall. Additionally weeknights when the restaurant is less busy will be easier on everyone.

Regards,

Thank you for comments, everyone! Please keep them coming.

Cynthia, I am looking at the map and thinking Vernon Hills as the Northern border, Schaumburg/Palatine Western border, Mt Prospect/N Des Planes in the South and Northbrook/Glenview East? How does this sound?

eggplant wrote:Thank you for comments, everyone! Please keep them coming.

Cynthia, I am looking at the map and thinking Vernon Hills as the Northern border, Schaumburg/Palatine Western border, Mt Prospect/N Des Planes in the South and Northbrook/Glenview East? How does this sound?

If you are going east to Northbrook, then you may as well go to the lake. Vernon Hills as the northern post, then you are missing places in Libertyville. I know several nice places in Fox Lake, which is not too far from Grayslake.

Personally I don't know why this needs to be so precisely defined. You may be missing opportunities by being so geographically specific. There are people who consider the northern suburbs from Evanston to Lake Bluff. Stretching to the Wisconsin border isn't much further. Sure some people won't come because of distance, but you will have that wherever you choose.

Regards,

I'll go pretty much anywhere, but I didn't want to start making recommendations that were outside the area you had envisioned.

Of course, Le Titi de Paris is great for the high end, and that Uzbekistani restaurant on Buffalo Grove Rd. for ethnicity, but those are both places I've been, and I'm looking forward to going places everyone else likes.

Cynthia wrote:and that Uzbekistani restaurant on Buffalo Grove Rd. for ethnicity

I've been to Chaihanna a couple of times; it's such an interesting cultural experience I'd happily go back with a bunch of LTHr's.

I would recommend a visit to Giacomo's in Des Plaines (Almost in Mt. Prospect) for Red Sauce Italian. Giacomo's is a place I have posted about on several occasions, but so far it has not gotten very much LTH love (which it richly deserves).

There are no shortage of places to organize dinners in the North and Northwest suburbs. This one would be a mid-priced family-run option with excellent food, a bar and casual, but very good service.

Giacomo's
740 N. Wolf Road
Des Plaines, IL
847-390-7330

>Le Titi de Paris is great….and that Uzbekistani restaurant on Buffalo Grove Rd. for ethnicity

I would be willing to try either of these.

D.

Thanks all for suggestions, please keep them coming!

I think Cathy is right - feel free to suggest restaurants in the expanded suburban areas. The more to choose from, the merrier. And we can always check out on our own the ones we don't go to as a group.

A few restaurant suggestions. I've never been to these:

Bapi
Szechuan Kingdom
Monica's Mexican Restaurant and Pizza
Best Hunan and Silk Mandarin, I think they have both been recommended here.

A place I have been to that I'd like to go back sometime is Cafe Pyrenees. They have a tapa tasting every Thursday, 8 tapas for $27, I think. We went a few years ago I loved the goat cheese w/tomato coulis, mussels and chocolate terrine. Other tapas were also good.

If I may make a suggestion as someone who has organized a fair share of LTH events, I'd like to suggest that someone grab the bull by the horns (so to speak) and pick one of the great recommendations that have been put on the table, choose a date and post an announcement on the events board. You'll be surprised at how many people will respond. The only thing left to do at that point is to make a reservation at the restaurant. If the group gets large (say over 15 or so), sometimes the best option is to work with the restaurant to come up with a fixed menu. Often times, off the menu items can be included if appropriate.

There are always scheduling conflicts and other complications, so it's impossible to discuss until there is a harmonic convergence of everyone's schedule and palate. If no one responds, you can always cancel, pick a different date or a different place, though I doubt you will have problems assembling a good crowd if you choose a decent place.

For those of you interested, there is an established NW Suburban Dining group. There is a dinner planned at Penang in Arlington Heights on 8/30. Feel free to join the group.

http://diningout.meetup.com/215/

jtt300 wrote:For those of you interested, there is an established NW Suburban Dining group. There is a dinner planned at Penang in Arlington Heights on 8/30. Feel free to join the group.

http://diningout.meetup.com/215/

There is a group for just about everything. There are a few LTH people who go to these. They tend to report their experience on blogs or other forums, thus I don't know much about the dinners.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:If you are going east to Northbrook, then you may as well go to the lake. Vernon Hills as the northern post, then you are missing places in Libertyville. I know several nice places in Fox Lake, which is not too far from Grayslake.

Personally I don't know why this needs to be so precisely defined. You may be missing opportunities by being so geographically specific. There are people who consider the northern suburbs from Evanston to Lake Bluff. Stretching to the Wisconsin border isn't much further. Sure some people won't come because of distance, but you will have that wherever you choose.

I agree. Given that the N/NW suburbs have fewer good places per square mile than some other vicinities, I think a lot of us will just be grateful not to have to get on the Kennedy in order to have a nice meal.

I know a great fried-fish joint in Antioch, for example, which is farther from me than the Loop in miles but can take less time to get to.

Thanks to all who replied! I have been thinking about starting out with a dinner at Bapi ( http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=13231 ), but have two questions/concerns:

- I have never been to this restaurant myself. Usually when I invite people to a restaurant, I do so because I have been there and can recommend it. Thoughts on this?

- Would August or September be better for dinner?

Hi,

I am open to any restaurant selected.
At this point, September looks better for my schedule.

Thanks for coordinating this dinner.

Jyoti

eggplant wrote:Thanks to all who replied! I have been thinking about starting out with a dinner at Bapi ( http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=13231 ), but have two questions/concerns:

- I have never been to this restaurant myself. Usually when I invite people to a restaurant, I do so because I have been there and can recommend it. Thoughts on this?

You're overthinking this. Fortunately there are solid reviews about this place to suggest it will be fine. Don't fix the menu, just let people order and we will eat family style. Sometimes someone present will take the lead on ordering because of their familiarity with the restaurant. Other times it is a review of the offerings, especially easy in a small menu restaurant.

Would August or September be better for dinner?

Contact the restaurant to learn which weeknights are best to accomodate a group dinner, then set a date and reasonable time after the rush hour (7 PM?). Whatever date you pick will work for some people and not for others, so go with what works for you. Of course, do check the Events board to try to avoid conflicts with other plans.

Just do it! Everything else will fall into place.

Regards,

To add to Cathy2's sage advice:

1) Make sure that if a large group is going to be disruptive to the restaurant, that you notify the restaurant in advance. A group of 20 will be overwhelming to a small six table restaurant.

2) When you decide where to have the event, try to post the address and website as there are occasionally several restaurants with similar name (i.e., there are Panang restaurants in the Loop, Chinatown, and the NW suburbs).

3) Try to estimate what the price of the meal will run. Some of us are on budgets (or don't carry much cash) and like to have some idea of the cost before we commit.

Here is the thread for the upcoming dinner, http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=144877

It appears that Eggplant needs to cancel this dinner. However, if there are there others from this group who would like to go ahead with the dinner, I would be happy to orchestrate the details. We can stick with the same date, restaurant and time. It would be a great opportunity to meet some NW suburban LTHers.

Jyoti

eggplant wrote:Are there any N/NW suburban LTHers interested in getting together for dinner

Yes

happy_stomach wrote:I live on the border of Des Plaines and Mount Prospect, but I work in Evanston. I prefer any day except Thursday. One place close to me that I've been eager to try is Flamingo's Seafood. I've been drooling over the pictures in this thread for months. I haven't gone myself partly out of laziness but also because I haven't found a big enough group. I'd hate to go and only be able to try one or two dishes. This is just one idea--I'm game for anything. Thanks for organizing.

I live a few blocks from the border of DP and MP, we go to Flamingo's on a fairly regular basis, pm me anytime if you just can't wait for that large group

Bapi's on the 18th is fine with me too.

D.

Hi,

Once a date is settled, why not create a new thread because stuff can get lost in this existing one.

Regards,