Monday night dinner - with kids

Hi, all!

My brother is in town from Phoenix with his 7 and 9 year olds. The kids are not adventurous eaters. Science Boy and I had hoped to take them to dinner at Smoque tomorrow night, but it's closed on Monday. Our next idea was Kitsch'n (which the kids would love), but they are also closed. Edna's, too. In fact, many of our ideas came up as closed on Mondays. We're leaning toward Fat Willy's at the moment. Not my #1 top choice, but we want something that will have a kid-friendly menu but still be good for the adults. Moderately priced and BYOB would be ideal (Science Boy has been out of work for a while now and I'll be treating). We live in East Garfield Park and don't want to have to drive *too* far. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Are the kids willing to eat ethnic food? If you search "kid-friendly" you'll find a number of threads out there, but you will find that Chinatown - particularly the Chinatown Mall and the eateries therein - is a common response.

http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=120321
http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=24976
http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=236707

In general, the kids don't eat ethnic food. Not to say they *wouldn't* enjoy it, but they ahven' really had the chance to try it and can be very hesitant to try new things. THANK YOU for the links. I'll start checking them out now!

I just checked and the Publican is open on Mondays and it's nice and close-ish to you. I went on Father's Day with my sister, her two kids and my six year old. (She knows the chef from when he worked iin Boulder, CO). I must say, me and my crew don't tend to stray far from places in Andersonville and we certainly done tend to go to "of the moment places." Anyhow, we were there for brunch, so I can't make suggestions for dinner we were all happy with the food, the little ones especially with the hand cut fries and different bites of meats. The cones of chicharron were also very popular with the entire table.(We should have ordered two). I had a lovely fig, ricotta and hazelnut plate with a perfectly decent salad. I would suggest sitting the patio since there's lots to look at (including the Latino Meat trucks painting with a variety of bemused animals).

bjt

Kitsch'n in River North (600 West Chicago Avenue) is open on Monday nights.

It's probably not as quaint as the one in Roscoe Village but the food is the same and the atmosphere is 70s kitschy. There's also a pretty inexpensive parking garage across the street and one over the bridge too.

Irazu is byob and there are sandwiches, tacos, burritos, for the kids, empanadas, and tons of yum for all.

Thanks for the suggestions. I had considered Irazu (on of my faves), but I sent my brother the menu and he said, "It might be kinda weird" for his two, though "they might taste something.". (Seriously, the most exotci thing they usually eat is Jack in the Box!)I might try to reconvince him of that, though... (After all, they live in Phoenix. Surely they eat tacos!)

Right now, it still looks to be between Fat Willy's and Kitsch'n. Sigh. I wish those kids lived closer so we could introduce them to more foods!

bjt wrote:I just checked and the Publican is open on Mondays and it's nice and close-ish to you. I went on Father's Day with my sister, her two kids and my six year old.
bjt

thats good to know about Publican.

I have been wanting to go for a while, but had not made it based on the fact that I typically have a toddler in tow. I assumed it wasnt a kid friendly spot.

Coalfire is real good for kids - everyone likes pizza, even fancyish pizza.

AngrySarah wrote:Coalfire is real good for kids - everyone likes pizza, even fancyish pizza.

Coalfire is great(best pizza in Chicago imho), and great for kids, but isn't Coalfire closed on Mondays?

jimswside wrote:

AngrySarah wrote:Coalfire is real good for kids - everyone likes pizza, even fancyish pizza.

Coalfire is great(best pizza in Chicago imho), and great for kids, but isn't Coalfire closed on Mondays?

Yes, I just checked and it is indeed closed on Monday. Sorry.

So if you're not going to try to introduce them to interesting things now, when do you plan to do it?

My experience-- with my own kids and many others-- is that most food reluctance is transmitted from the parents to the kids. Kids don't know they're not supposed to like what other kids eat every day in other countries, so as long as it doesn't have eyeballs and has a certain fun factor (eg tortillas), why not push their envelopes a little? The great thing about being an aunt is precisely the fact that they're not your kids and you don't have to play by the rules and live with the consequences; take 'em somewhere weird and who knows what they may like?

Irazu would be a good choice, just be sure to order some plantains, if they eat nothing else, they'll eat that.

What about Otom- it's adventurous without being TOO out there. Not sure if you would consider it moderately priced. Otherwise Gioco comes to mind.

You can't beat Quartino. Aside from kid-friendly options, small plates are a great way to introduce kids to new options.

Not BYOB but not bank-breaking either.

AngrySarah wrote:

jimswside wrote:

AngrySarah wrote:Coalfire is real good for kids - everyone likes pizza, even fancyish pizza.

Coalfire is great(best pizza in Chicago imho), and great for kids, but isn't Coalfire closed on Mondays?

Yes, I just checked and it is indeed closed on Monday. Sorry.

While I love Coalfire, a word of warning for kids - the crust is usually charred, and if they don't like burnt crust, they might dislike it. But Monday is out, so...

bluroses wrote:

We live in East Garfield Park and don't want to have to drive *too* far. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

This is now easy for me. Close, good food, easy for kids... The Depot! I just went a few hours ago for the 1st time. They can get burgers, fries, grilled cheese, pancakes, etc.

I hope you have a good time.

If you want something that isn't a diner, I would go for Lula in Logan Square ( I don't know what constitutes too far away or moderately-priced, but The Depot doesn't have liquor & Lula does) kid friendly, they have a quesadilla on the menu plus more exotic stuff.

Enjoy!

We set all the options to my brother and he chose Fat Willy's.

Kinda rough night.

Our waitress couldn't have been nicer and the food was good. But the kids were pretty bratty. My niece was dismayed that they didn't have chicken nuggets and the fries were "weird" and her brother got mad they didn't have honey mustard for his fries. We don't see them often enough to be comfortable with sharing in the discipline, but they were both whiny and rambunctious and I was relieved to leave.

On the plus side, my brother thoroughly enjoyed his slab of ribs.

The next day, the kids demanded - and were granted - McDonald's for lunch. They were very happy and much better behaved.

SIGH.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I am going to try those places I haven't yet been and may take my other nieces and nephews to some of them. (I am do not used to kids being so naughty while out to eat; their parents are separated and discipline is more lax than usual, so maybe that's a piece of it, but still...)

I really appreciate you sharing where you went & how it went over with us.

Thanks,