Food near the United Center

Seeing Bruce this weekend, meeting up with some friends at a bar before the shows but may want to actually eat something in the area before the pre-party. Would like to park once, near the UC and then be able to get wherever we need to go.

Nothing fancy nor too heavy.

Any suggestions?

Some easy options are restaurants along Randolph St. and Greek Town. After dinner you could take the #20 Madison St. bus to UC, leaving your car parked in a lot along Halsted St. After the concert there will be busses to take you back towards/to your car - or use taxi's. I've walked the distance from Randolph/Halsted to UC - and enjoy the exercise.

There are restaurants on Madison east of the United Center that often have free shuttles from the restaurant to the UC. Try Phil & Lou's or Carmichael's. I can't attest for the food.

Phil & Lou's
1124 W. Madison
312-455-0070

Carmichael's
1052 W. Monroe St.
312-433-0025

-The GP

Not sure if you are looking for a lengthier sit-down experience, but for a quick bite, I have hit up Bombon Cafe a few times before Bulls games and enjoyed it quite a bit.

Close enough to walk (4 blocks or so) and you wouldn't have to pay for parking (not necessarily your concern).

Bombon Cafe
36 South Ashland
312-733-8717

My husband's office is between Phil & Lou's & Carmichaels. They are both good. We go to P&L's before going to the Opera. They're not spectacular, but good. I like the brie appetizer & lobster mac & cheese(orzo) at P&L. Carmichael's makes a nice steak.

La Luce is at the corner of Lake and Ogden, about 5 blocks from the UC. They also have free parking there if you decide to drive there and then continue on to the UC's lots. It's a nice little northern italian place with good pastas (I'm a big fan of the cavatelli). We've eaten there before Bulls games for years, and it can get crowded on game nights, so the same may well be true before a concert.

La Luce
1393 W. Lake Street
312-850-1900

Hi all,

I'm surely not meaning to hijack this thread but my wife and I are thinking of driving down to the VH show tomorrow night. I was just looking into options and thought...hmmm I should check the lthforum to see if there are any posts. And amazingly, there's one that was started today. Crazy!!

Can anyone double-verify places where I can park and then walk/shuttle over to the UC?

Carmichael's sounds good but what's the parking like and are they close enough to walk over. Do they care that I leave my car there for the show?

I hear Morretti's kind-of caters to the UC crowd, can anyone vouch for the parking/proximity?

Any other suggestions are welcome!!

Thanks,

John

Hi John, some friends of mine are meeting at Beer Bistro before the Springsteen show, but they are having a UC shuttle on Sunday so I'd guess there's one for VH as well. Don't know if the food's any good but the beer gets good reviews.

Beer Bistro
1061 W Madison
Chicago
312-433-0013

Thanks sujormik. Can you park there? Since I'm driving down, parking is a priority. Plus, since I don't have tickets yet, I need to make sure I can get out of whatever lot I'm in.

So if I get tickets, I need to be able to park there for the duration of the show but, I need to be to able to get out if I can't get tickets. And we'd like somwhere where we can get good food and drink.

Easy right?

Thanks again,

John

jkseger wrote:Can anyone double-verify places where I can park and then walk/shuttle over to the UC?

John-

I would recommend that you call any place you are interested in trying to verify the park/shuttle option. Last year for a Hawks game, we valet-parked at Phil & Lou's to take the shuttle.

-The GP

Beer bistro, at Aberdeen and Madison, has good food (try the fish tacos) and has shuttle bus service to UC also. About a hundred beers offered. Lots of Belgian Ales. Owner Tom is a very good host and often present. Special this month is Rouge Dead Guy for $4 a pint! Even has Framboise, DT and Leffe on draft. Also, the very popular Jerry's sandwiches is next door, although i consider $7.50 for a medium-sized sandwich to be too expensive. Moon's is much better!

In case you're in the mood for more of a bar atmosphere, we usually party / eat at Twisted Spoke before events at the UC. Solid bar food and I'd imagine a good amount of Boss fans will be in there...

Apparently I didn't read the original post closely enough...I should have said that Twisted Spoke may be a good place to kill two birds w/ one stone (drinks and dinner).

Ok. So we went to Phil & Lou's but left after a drink due to poor service; went to the Beer Bistro but left due to poor service (in their defense it was packed but they were heavily understaffed); then since it was raining we ended up at Plush.

Though not exactly the place we set out to go, it wasn't crowded. It did look like a place that might get crowded later in the evening. Surprisingly to us anyway, the food was quite good. My wife and split a NY Strip sandwich w/carmelized onions and cheese with what seemed to be fresh cut battered fries. Very tasty. The drinks were pretty good as well. They had a full menu including apps, salads, sandwiches, and dinners along with a seperate drink/martini menu.

After leaving Plush, while walking down Madison, we noticed a bunch of people in front of Phil & Lou's. This was good as they were waiting for the free shuttle. So, we stopped in for another beverage and hopped on the shuttle. The van dropped us off right at the gate and picked us in the same spot. It couldn't have worked out better. Except....

Here's a tip, regardless whether or not you find a parking spot on the street, I would use the $8 valet service. It's much cheaper than the $500 you'll have to pay when your right-rear window gets busted in.

Enjoy,

John

PS. The VH concert was fantastic!!

I would go to Tufano's over on Vernon Park Place near Princeton. Awesome Italian food. Highly recommended and not that far from the United Center.

John, where do you get the $8 valet service? Not at the uc, right? At one of the mentioned restos?

Oh, btw, that's a shame about the window.

Sorry this post is so late. I was out of town this past weekend.

The $8 valet service was from Phil and Lou's.

John

Just to follow-up, we had a pre-party Sunday at the private room in the basement at Beer Bistro. The upstairs was pretty smokey (so not used to that any more LOL) but downstairs was fine. The staff is very knowledgeable about the many beers and the burger was fantastic. Really juicy, hot, etc. Others among our group had the fish tacos (liked it but felt a little queasy later), wings and calamari (typical bar foods) and a tuna melt. LOL

Monday we were at Moretti's, which has the validated parking after 5 and was fine. Nothing special by any stretch but tolerable.

Oh, and the Springsteen shows kicked major ass if anyone's interested. LOL The guy has still got "it" going on.

Spectacular concert (I went Monday)!

I've been to great over three hour Boss concerts, but this was the tightest concert ever at just over two packed hours.

But some people around us were up as many as four times to get drinks during the concert.

Granted some of us may be too reverential, but really what's up with that?

Geez, I sound like an cranky old person, like Bruce!

I'm going to the Bulls game tomorrow night and want to grab a bite & a beer beforehand. I'm considering these places:
Old Oak Tap
Cats Meow
Beer Bistro
Black Beetle
Andrzej Grill

Any advice?

What about Coalfire? We've been going either there or Avec before games this season.

There are a few threads asking this same question. You may get some ideas from them.

One
Two
Three
Four
Five

Like jesteinf, we've hit Coalfire before a game. We also went to Smoque, albeit that was really nowhere near where we live or the United Center, but we were in the car anyway...

daruma wrote:I'm going to the Bulls game tomorrow night and want to grab a bite & a beer beforehand. I'm considering these places:
Old Oak Tap
Cats Meow
Beer Bistro
Black Beetle
Andrzej Grill

Any advice?

Has anyone tried the food at Cat's Meow? (It's opening is discussed in this thread.) I've been dancing there and had drinks but no food.

I've been to Black Beetle. It's ok, not spectacular, not horrible, just a typical Wicker Park bar w/typical pub grub at average prices.

Can anyone recommend a sushi place in the area?

PreFlopRaise13 wrote:Can anyone recommend a sushi place in the area?

How close? Mirai is about 1.5 miles away, at Damen and Division. That's probably the best combination of tasty+close that you're likely to get.

Sounds good!

Thanks

"Can anyone recommend a sushi place in the area?"

Butterfly on Grand & Racine is very good and inexpensive. Slightly trendy, so make sure you get a reservation if it's for a fri/sat night.

Would like some recs as to good, old school Eye-talian in Little Italy or Heart of Italy for dinner before Tuesday's Bulls game. A good linguine with clam sauce and eggplant parm would really hit the spot. I have been considering Bacchanalia and La Fontanella. Any advice?

Thanks.

Habibi wrote:Would like some recs as to good, old school Eye-talian in Little Italy or Heart of Italy for dinner before Tuesday's Bulls game. A good linguine with clam sauce and eggplant parm would really hit the spot. I have been considering Bacchanalia and La Fontanella. Any advice?

Thanks.

One of my go-to places before a Bulls game has always been Tuscany.

Tuscany
1014 W. Taylor Street
Chicago, IL 60607
(312) 829-1990