Where to eat lunch after Reptilefest?

So I'm going with some other parents and their kids to Reptilefest this weekend. It's at UIC. I can think of lots of restaurants in the general vicinity, that is, Pilsen, Chinatown, etc. What I can't seem to think of is a restaurant that:

1) Has reasonably pleasant sitdown (unlike Jim's Original Maxwell Street, say)

2) Won't be packed to the gills on the weekend (unlike Nuevo Leon or Ed's Potsticker House, say)

3) Is authentic enough, but won't be forcing a diet of pure fatty pork skin on the other parents and kids (unlike the carnitas places, say)

4) Is better than Los Comales on 18th, where the boys and I ate a few weekends ago and was okay but not stellar

What's that pretty good yet easy to get into, probably though not absolutely Mexican, place fairly close to UIC that I can't put my finger on?

It's not Mexican, but how about the Palace Grill on Madison? Great diner food with a sit down area decorated with sports memorabilia.

Palace Grill
1408 W. Madison
Chicago, IL
312-226-9529

Mike G wrote:What's that pretty good yet easy to get into, probably though not absolutely Mexican, place fairly close to UIC that I can't put my finger on?

Mike,

Casa de Samuel would fit the bill.

Enjoy,
Gary

Hi mike,

I work at reptilefest this weekend, i sit on the board of directors of the chicago herpetological society. Hopefully i will see you there!

Erik.

G Wiv: I've been to Casa de Samuel enough times, nothing against it but I was trying to think of another place, it is a restaurant-rich area after all.

Sushigaijin: cool, see you there!

Mike,

The Palace, mentioned above by Stevez, is very busy on the weekends, I believe, but the flow is good and any wait should be short. It's a solid diner.

A Mexican place that is much better and a bit more interesting, I think, than Los Comales is La Condesa, at roughly the southwest corner of Cermak and Ashland. We've been there for Saturday brunch/lunch before and it wasn't packed the way Nuevo Leon can be.

Greektown is close by and Artopolis would be a nice choice, given the range of their offerings and the informal atmospherre.

Antonius

Picante Grill?

Polished atmosphere, the food won't scare anyone, and has never been overly crowded when I've been there. It sounds like you have a group going there -- they have some sort of an upstairs room if you'd like to check into reserving that.

Picante Grill
1626 S. Halsted

Those are good ideas, actually we wound up at Comales a few weeks ago because we had just been to the La Condesa further north on Ashland a few weeks earlier. But I'd check out another branch, Picante is a good suggestion too.

Antonius' recommendation of La Condesa is a good one, and would probably be my choice for those constraints.

Of course, if we're talking Saturday instead of Sunday, there is always Manny's, although you know better than we do if that counts as "pleasant enough sitdown".

What about Healthy Food in bridgeport?

Nearby is Sweet Maple Cafe. Altho it's usually packed for breakfast, if you're going there toward noon, it should be less crowded (unless others at reptilefest have a similar idea):

Sweet Maple Cafe
1339 W. Taylor St

On weekends they serve breakfast--where you'll find their best offerings--into the afternoon.

So I'm going with some other parents and their kids to Reptilefest this weekend. It's at UIC.

Oh man. My son (the next Jeff Corwin) and I are so all over this! Thanks for the heads up Mike G.

OK, turns out Sparky (not his real name) and I will be going as well, so we may see you all there! We'll be going around lunchtime...so if you see a harried woman screaming "SPARKY!" at her kid, it won't be me...

What about Pizza Tango?

Boy, there are times that you see something that makes something deep in the monkey part of the brain scrunch up real tight. A pen full of gators (or crocs, you tell me) climbing all over each other to get out is one of them.



Yet Myles couldn't wait to pose with every reptile he could get his hands on. Even without tape over the snout. Here a bevy of snake girls arrange a banana-colored python around him and a friend:





Besides loads of reptiles (and Sushigaijin, who we said hi to), Reptilefest offers lots of useful things for your reptile hobby, such as books:



I think this next one will shortly be on Cathy2's Amazon wish list:



Afterwards we walked down the extremely gentrified, looks-kinda-like-that-new-development-in-Glenview former Maxwell Street area on Halsted, then turned onto 18th, looking for lunch. I kind of remembered more places close to Halsted but apart from Real de Catorce, which wasn't open for lunch, and Picante Grill, which just seemed too Anglo for the experience we wanted down there, and a few carnitas places, there wasn't much until we got close to Ashland. I was thinking La Condesa was there on the corner of 18th and Ashland but that turned out to be La Cebollita, a small but friendly taqueria where we had decent carne asada, not very good non-cone-based pastor (tasted like sloppy joe mix with pineapple juice in it), pretty good salsas on piping-hot chips, and excellent lardy beans on a freshly made masa sopa. (Alas, didn't try the tamales, mentioned here. Though I did notice the selection seemed impressive.)

Afterwards, we grabbed a couple of to-go tres leches cakes from Bombon (wonderful as ever) and ate them as we walked back up the similarly condo-ized Blue Island. I've been down all those streets but not until I walked them all within a short space did I realize just how massive the development down in that area has been the last few years, just how many new condos have gone up within those blocks. Enjoy the Mexican side of Pilsen now, it suddenly seems more endangered than any of the reptiles we saw.

I didn't take any pics at lunch, so here's a lovely piece of found art spotted along the way:



La Cebollita
1723 S Ashland Ave
Chicago, 60608
(312) 492-8443

Mike G wrote:Boy, there are times that you see something that makes something deep in the monkey part of the brain scrunch up real tight. A pen full of gators (or crocs, you tell me) climbing all over each other to get out is one of them.

No kidding, yikes!

Kudos to Myles who seems to be fearless when it comes to reptiles. Though after seeing the bevy of "snake girls" swirling around him it might simply be he's nearing the age when anything from reptiles to base-jumping to building drainage ditches in Belize seem reasonable if they elicit the smile of a pretty girl.

Great fish sign!

Enjoy,
Gary

Well,

The critter in your kid's embrace is a 'gator. Like the national champs.