Northside neighborhood touring - your suggestions needed!

Hi all!

This weekend I am taking a friend of mine who is making the move from Hyde Park to somewhere on the North Side on a bit of a bike tour of some of the neighborhoods he's considering. To make this more fun for both of us, and to aggressively cancel out nearly all of the benefit we'll get from biking, I'd like to integrate fun food stops, both to buy things for later, and just to eat.

Ideal things would be smaller portions, and places where we can stop and grab something rather than have to wait on table service, though all suggestions are welcome!

We're starting in River West and heading through Ukrainian Village, Logan Square, Roscoe Village, Lincoln Square, Andersonville, and Edgewater in roughly that order (plus whatever's in between).

Some places I'm already thinking about are:
La Farine in West Town
Scooters Custard in Roscoe Village
Dinkel's Bakery (sort of) in Roscoe Village
Spacca Napoli in Andersonville
Nhu Lan in Lincoln Square
Honey 1 BBQ in Logan Square
Pasticceria Natalina in Andersonville

(Note the ridiculous emphasis on bakeries because I have so many on my "to go" list... help me diversify! I'm particularly interested in tacos and hot dogs...Have not been to Hot Doug's but am worried about the wait derailing us..)

Thanks in advance for your ideas!
Allison

Allison, you might want to check out Fork and the Road's website for ideas. You could always book one of their tours, too!

ak934 wrote:I'm particularly interested in tacos and hot dogs...Have not been to Hot Doug's but am worried about the wait derailing us..)

See viewtopic.php?p=71095

Here are some of my favorites:

Taqueria el Asadero
2213 W Montrose Ave
Chicago, IL 60618

San Matias
3005 W. Lawrence Ave (a few blocks west of Nhu Lan)
(773) 467-7533

A bit further east in Edgewater is a GNR:
Huaraches Dona Chio
1547 W. Elmdale Ave. (just east of Clark)
Chicago, IL
773-878-8470
viewtopic.php?f=28&t=25678

The line at Hot Dougs may be smaller if you hit it earlier or later than prime time. But on a weekend, it is best not to get your hopes up.

Kedzie Ave in Albany Park has great middle eastern restaurants and bakeries. This would be slightly west of Lincoln Square, but only minutes on bike.

My current favorites are

Dawali
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=19973
4911 N. Kedzie
773-267-4200

Tannourine Bakery
http://tannourinebakery.com/
4806 N Kedzie Ave, Chicago, IL 60625
tel. 773-583-2253

Jafaar Sweets
4825 N Kedzie, Chicago, IL 60625
http://www.jaafer.com/oscommerceII/index.php

Also see http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f= ... zie+a+thon

[Edited to switch "east" to "west" above. Thanks to ekreider.]

Well, you have presented me with another chance to pimp out two of my (and others') favorite places for steak tacos in the city:

Las Asadas on Western. (I would get the steak ONLY.)

and

El Asadero on Lincoln / Montrose. Anything there is good. Chicken, Pastor, but the steak is fantastico!

Darren72 wrote:The line at Hot Dougs may be smaller if you hit it earlier or later than prime time. But on a weekend, it is best not to get your hopes up.

The line should be fairly short this weekend because Hot Doug's is closed until next Wednesday.

ak934 wrote:help me diversify! I'm particularly interested in tacos and hot dogs..

Tierra Caliente , best al pastor in Chicagoland, Red Hot Ranch terrific example of minimalist style natural casing hot dog.


Carniceria Y Taqueria Tierra Caliente (Was Caniceria Leon)
1400 N Ashland
Chicago, IL
773-772-9804

Redhot Ranch
2072 N Western Ave
Chicago, IL 60647
773-235-5538

An enthusiastic second for Las Asadas! And it's close to Irazu, home of the famous oatmeal shake (1865 Milwaukee).

If you head up toward Honey 1 you could poke your head into Brasil Legal (2153 N. Western) and maybe get a bottle of some tropical juice from their cooler. (They might have some food on hand too, it's hard to predict.)

Of course, Honey 1 is across the street from Birrieria Estilo Jalisco (2230 N. Western), where you could sample a goat taco.

Are you sure one day is enough for this bike trip?

Bari for a sub, take it for later. Drink at Clutch, De-Lux, Twisted Spoke, High Dive for some wings and tots, Hoosier Mama Pie, West Town full of places.

Mhays wrote:Allison, you might want to check out Fork and the Road's website for ideas. You could always book one of their tours, too!

Thanks for the plug! Allison: Fork and the Road would love to have you and your friend join us on a tour.

As a Ukrainian Village resident, I would second nearby Hoosier Mama and Tierra Caliente. I also really like the pastor at El Jaliciense.

Taco El Jaliciense
2859 W. Chicago Ave., Chicago
773-235-2859

Nu Lan Bakery on Lawrence (near California) is definitely worth a trip for their banh mi sandwich. My personal favorite is #4 - the grilled pork, but I hear they're all great. It's a much better banh mi than the one you get at Ba Le (although I often go to Ba Le in a pinch.) The bread at Nu Lan is so much better, and the fillings have better texture. That with a bubble tea, and you're all set.

If you're going south from Edgewater on your way back, why not stop at Sun Wah for some BBQ duck/pork?

Hi all!

Just wanted to follow up here post-bike tour.

We ended up starting at the Green City Market, which is one of my favorites, and where my biking pal (henceforth BP) had never been and picking up some little tasters and some hardy vegetables (that would survive the day in a pannier). From there up to Edgewater where we tried to go to Patissceria Natalina, which was closed! (Opening at 2PM, apparently). Instead, we split an Andersonville Twist (a sweet, cardamom dough twist with brown sugar and cinnamon; quite good), and a spinach feta pie from the Swedish Bakery on Clark.

Next we headed down to a friend's place in Lincoln Square for a drink, then got back on the bikes and hit up Nhu Lan for some bahn mi (a #4 for me and a #3 for BP, with the #4 taking the prize in my book, and the 3 taking the prize in his), and a mango tapioca tea. Next to Albany Park, where we stopped in Al-Khaiyam (sp?) for some large fresh pita.

Our next stop was Logan Square (we were too full for a taco at that point, sadly - I think the sun was doing us in!), but just for sightseeing, and then on to Roscoe Village, where we stopped for a frozen custard at Scooter's.

All in all, a great trip!

(And jbw, we totally would have stopped at Sun Wah if we hadn't been there on Wednesday!)

Thank you for all the suggestions - will definitely still make use of the suggestions (Esp. Las Asadas and Huaraches Dona Chio!) we didn't use this time! (And my BP still needs to see Ukrainian Village, so we'll definitely hit up some of those places too)

Allison

Thanks for the info on PN's hours. From their website:

We will have limited hours of operation from May 29th until June 13th
Monday - Tuesday closed
Wednesday - Thursday 4 pm - 10pm
Friday 3 pm - 10 pm
Saturday 2 pm - 10 pm
Sunday 12 pm - 7 pm

Regular hours of operation

Monday - Tuesday closed
Wednesday 11 am - 9 pm
Thursday 11 am - 9 pm
Friday 11 am - 10 pm
Saturday 11 am - 10 pm
Sunday 11 am - 7 pm

Oft-changing, unpredictable hours have been part of PN's "charm" since opening day.

I've generally benefited from these changes. Twice now I've walked by after hours and they were still there, open to the public, while they cleaned up, prepped for the next day, etc.

Darren72 wrote:I've generally benefited from these changes. Twice now I've walked by after hours and they were still there, open to the public, while they cleaned up, prepped for the next day, etc.

That's happened to me a couple of times too. They're always out of what I want when it gets that late, and I get talked into buying some special, super-expensive cookie that didn't sell but is guaranteed, if I buy it, to bring me a gorgeous genie who will grant all of my sexual desires. It hasn't worked, so I'll either stay away or try to get to the store earlier in the day from now on.