Oak Park Boys Night Out: Jimmy's (past event)

Where: 7411 Madison St
Forest Park, IL 60130
(708) 771-7476
http://www.jimmysplaceforestpark.com

Time: 7:30
What: Red Sauce Italian and manly discussion (topics may include elementary education, opera, pastry, four-way stop signs, etc)
Who: If you can grow a beard and live in Oak Park or nearby environs.

Alright men, let's get a head count. Maybe we can leverage our ordering power.

I won't be able to do dinner, but I look forward to stopping by for an after dinner drink.

A couple of folks have expressed interest, but not in that particular date.

I have created a Doodle poll to try and find the best date for all interested. Go to the poll, pick the dates that work, and we'll go with the day that works for most.

http://www.doodle.com/crdhty2xbc335ybh

I should be able to swing the 6th; I'll update if I'll be late but should be set for dinner for the moment. Thanks for organizing. While sausage may predominate, I would hope that we would still welcome interested [undetermined meat metaphor].

We have five available attendees for the 8th or 15th of Oct. Anyone else interested? I'll flip a coin by the end of the day if nobody else has a preference.

teatpuller wrote:We have five available attendees for the 8th or 15th of Oct. Anyone else interested? I'll flip a coin by the end of the day if nobody else has a preference.

Between the two the 8th is better for me. It's an actual night off, whereas the 15th I'd be arranging to leave work a bit early. The 15th is still totally doable if it ends up being a better night for someone else though.

ucjames wrote:

teatpuller wrote:We have five available attendees for the 8th or 15th of Oct. Anyone else interested? I'll flip a coin by the end of the day if nobody else has a preference.

Between the two the 8th is better for me. It's an actual night off, whereas the 15th I'd be arranging to leave work a bit early. The 15th is still totally doable if it ends up being a better night for someone else though.

ditto.

OK. It's settled. It'll be the 8th.

I'm in.

Panther in the Den wrote:I'm in.

Great. We have six so far.

I'm out of town (eating cheese in Wisconsin) on Oct 6-9, so I'm not going to be able to make it. I think Jimmy's is a fine choice, though, and hope to make the next OPBNO.

I'm in, but as usual I will most likely be late. I should be there no later than 8:30 so please feel free to order without me and I'll just have to catch up.

Just got the (dreaded*) call, - the in-laws are coming for that week / weekend on the 7th. I was kinda hoping to be "in" for this one. I honestly can't remember the last time I was at Jimmy's.

*j/k

OK - I know we settled on the 8th and that's fine, no need to change, however I just saw this anouncement on Jimmy's web site:

Jimmy's wrote:Announcing - Jimmy’s 1st Wine Dinner
Thursday, October 14th @ 6:00 pm
Featuring the Italian wine portfolio of Ruffino

Dinner Menu:
Stuffed Artichoke
2009 Ruffino Lumina Pinot Grigio

Antipasto Salad
2009 Ruffino Libaio Chardonnay

Spinach Ravioli in a Tomato Basil Sauce
2007 Ruffino Chianti Superiore

Italian Sausage, Peppers and Potatoes
2006 Ruffino Il ducale Chianti Classico

Cannoli and Tiramisu
Robert Mondavi Woodbridge Moscato

Cost: $40 per person (includes tax and gratuity)

$40 for dinner with wine pairing is very enticing.

Anyone feel up to Jimmy's 2 weeks in a row? Or perhaps if you couldn't make the 8th this might be a second chance, and in the spirit of Santander's comment I see no reason to suggest this evening would be limited to Men or even residents of Oak Park – all comers welcome.

Thoughts?

Thoughts:

1. They might be willing to do it for us the week earlier. Or we could recreate it fairly well off the menu.
2. Only two of six who took the poll were available that day.
3. I would be willing to go again, if kids are included....I'm going to wind up in the poor-house with all the babysitters we've had lately.

I'm not sure it matters, per se, but I'm in for Friday. Looking forward.

OK. I have reservations for six. I hope we're all still "in."

teatpuller wrote:OK. I have reservations for six. I hope we're all still "in."

Looking forward to it.

I'll be there, likely right at reservation time since my turnaround window from work is short. See you at Jimmy's!

Great time last night!

Thanks to teatpuller for putting together another successful event!

Good to see both teatpuller and Santander again, and very good to meet Panther in the Den, ucjames and Vital Information.

All said a very good meal...
appetizers were an excellent rapine with beans, stuffed mushrooms, lightly breaded and fried calamari and a pizza to share (I'll remember to order extra sausage, extra crispy – good call Panther)

We shared three main dishes – mostaccioli (I believe it was rigati but don't quite recall) in red sauce with meatballs, sausage peppers and potatoes, and chicken limone - all washed down with ample cocktails and wine. Not a single bad dish hit the table.

Good conversation and great company made the evening.

Thanks to all for coming! I think everyone had a good time. Zoid forgot to mention the gelato run!

Rapine with Beans


Pizza, extra sausage, extra crispy

Twas a great evening and never a dull moment Did we really eat everything!

Cannot wait until the next.

Thanks!

Panther in the Den wrote:Twas a great evening and never a dull moment Did we really eat everything!!

PitD, Looks tasty, in particular the pizza. Doesn't make me want to move to Oak Park, but I might just attend the next outing, if you will let a non OPer join in the fun.

G Wiv wrote:

Panther in the Den wrote:Twas a great evening and never a dull moment Did we really eat everything!!

PitD, Looks tasty, in particular the pizza. Doesn't make me want to move to Oak Park, but I might just attend the next outing, if you will let a non OPer join in the fun.

Come on out! We just need to settle on the next date and location.

G Wiv wrote:PitD, Looks tasty, in particular the pizza. Doesn't make me want to move to Oak Park, but I might just attend the next outing, if you will let a non OPer join in the fun.

All are invited. You may want to move to Oak Park after hanging out with us!

It was indeed a good night out, and very nice to meet some new people and see some old familiar faces. It'll be difficult to work Jimmy's into the rotation since the wife is so down on red sauce Italian, but I will be ordering a few pizzas when I have the usual suspects over this Saturday. Gelato from Paciugo was as good as ever, and I continue to really enjoy the extra dark chocolate.

Thanks again to teatpuller for organizing, looking forward to the next one!

Thanks to Teatpuller for pulling this off, and also my apology for not replying sooner, but, oddly for me, I've been offline most of the last 2 days.

Now, on to the other thing. In a night where the discussion came back more than a few times on the dearth of local eating places, a couple things stick with me. For one thing, I learned that Khyber Pass seems to hold a special appeal to Oak Park's South Asian community, at least for certain menu items. Who knew! The other thing, who can complain about dearth of anything with Jimmy's so near by. Who can be the least bit unhappy with a Jimmy's in the hood (at least the hood across from Harlem). It's such an ideal place, and especially ideal for a night like Friday where one can start with drinks at the bar, like the expertly made martini, move on to ideal-type Chicago thin, good call on the order Panther*, plus so many other ideal things just plain fun to eat. It worked so ideally well the way we ordered and ate. And my only consternation of the night, my three girls missing a bunch of guys who liked saying "saw-sage" in our best Chicago-ese as much as me. It would have driven them batty in the best of ways. Frankly, I'd be happy keeping all such gatherings at Jimmy's. Who needs any other place.**

*Don't forget the half with giardinara, which works very nicely on pizza.

**I do believe we'd be quite please as well at Al's in Cicero.

I surprised that Jimmy's is not already a GNR....did I miss something? Was it ever considered? We had six hard core foodies there the other night and nobody had anything but positive things to say about it.