We had pretty good luck watching from the Roosevelt bridge a couple years ago. We parked quite a bit further south and quite a bit earlier than the show, visiting some friends around 19th and Indiana earlier in the evening, than walking up to the bridge. The view was pretty good. I don't know how far south you'd have to park (and then walk) if you arrived close to launch.

We used to try to strategically plan a trip down Lake Shore Drive so that by the time we got close to where the fireworks are, we would be caught in total gridlock and be able to watch them from our car. I understand that in recent years, the Police Dept. has taken steps to eliminate the ability to do this. It's been a while since I have tried, so I don't know the current situation.

Hi again, I have a few more questions and maybe some of you might give suggestions. Sazerac gave me a very much appreciated detailed suggestion of where/what to eat at some very good Indian places (thanks again for taking the time to do so, Sazerac).

Might any of you suggest some specific items at a Thai place?

As a reminder--we (daughter and I) don't like spicy hot, guys in the family like moderate heat, please nothing exotic (such as organ meat etc.), prefer beef, pork, shrimp (no duck-- as daughter collects ducks and finds it reprehensible that one could eat them).

Chineses is another question. Do any of you in the know have any specific recommendations? We like the usual foods found at the Chinese places here (beef & broccoli. etc.). Again, nothing exotic as noted above.

We have a bit of experience with Mexican and know the language a bit, but suggestions here are appreciated too.

This site has been a whirlwind learning tour! I am truely enjoying reading/searching it. Thanks to all who have contributed to my many uneducated questions. You are great teachers and I AM indeed learning much.

Amata mentioned Albany Park Middle Eastern as an option upthread. After lunch today, I would specifically recommend Salam for value. $10 gets you a double order of hummus with meat. This is a lot of food...easily enough for lunch for two, when you consider the accompanying pickle plate and pita bread. Maybe spend another $10 on a combo platter and $0.19 a piece on as many falafel as you need, and you're right about at $20 for a very nice spread that I think should easily feed a family of four.

Hi Aaron Deacon and thanks for the suggestion. I love hummus and pita bread.

So many choices to make with only a 1 week stay!

Thanks also for keeping this thread in mind. I've been lurking in the background, just not asking any questions.

Thanks again to all for the many suggestions and tips.

For Lou Malnaiti's please if you go obviously get the pan I love the sausage there and the minestrone b/c its very flavorful with chicken stock and bits of ham I think. Sweet thang has an amazing chocolate dessert with chocolate mousse and a toffee crackle bottom. Bom Bom tortas are good but expensive and the flan is good there but as far as desserts go overall I'm not that impressed (Sorry tres leches fans.) Wishbone used to be one of my favorites it's still good and reasonably priced for what you get. The chocolate pecan pie is really good at wishbone and I liked the salmon and warm corn muffins you get with dinner. Breakfast is good if you like different types of eggs and good bacon.

I would add Artropolis in Greektown as far as a good overall bakery for desserts. Almost every thing is good and the baklava and cheescake as well as their opera dessert are good.

Mexican: Hands down La Pasidita on Ashland is good for carne asada tacos and cheap but for burittos I'd go to tecalitlan.

Hope you ahve a great trip check out Milenium park downtown maybe go to Lou Malnati's for lunch when you head down town.

Near millenium park is Heaven on 7 at 111 n. wabash on the 7th floor
if you like new orleans and/or southern cooking
it is reasonably priced and fun for kids--good burgers too
but only open for breakfast and lunch on weekdays
ep

heaven on 7 is closed weekends. sorry i did not make that clear.
and, wander thru chinatown!
ep

Our trip is upcoming in the next week. I "think" this is what we have planned eating wise---

-Candlelite or Marie's pizza
-Indian on Devon
-Nuevo Leon/Bombon
-Thai in the Lincoln Square area (possibly Spoon, Opart or Rosded)
-Evanston (maybe Hecky's, Praire Joe's, Carmen's pizza, or Celtic Knot)
-Honey 1 BBQ
-Chinese in Chinatown
-Manny's Deli

In case of conflicts/change of appetites, for substitutions we have-- Urapan, Cafe Iberico, Lou Malnati's, Sticky Rice, TAC Quick, and Bari/D'Amato's. We would also like to throw in an unique ice cream place, just haven't decided when/where.

What do you think? I surely appreciate all of the info people have been so willing to share. I will report back on our dining experiences when we return!

Sounds like a great week to me.

Have you pondered Scooter's Frozen Custard on Belmont? Not quite ice cream, but local and delicious.
ee

joby wrote:-Evanston (maybe Hecky's, Praire Joe's, Carmen's pizza, or Celtic Knot)

It sounds like you have food
pretty well covered, so I'll
suggest one other do-not-miss
thing in Evanston: Bookman's Alley,
http://evanstonillinois.net/booksmansalley.html
one of my favorite bookstores
in the country. It's a great
meandering warren of artifact-
filled rooms.

joby wrote:What do you think? I surely appreciate all of the info people have been so willing to share. I will report back on our dining experiences when we return!

joby,

Sounds like a really terrific trip. It makes me want to take a vacation in my own city.

I look forward to hearing about your experience.

Best,
Michael

joby wrote: We would also like to throw in an unique ice cream place, just haven't decided when/where.

Hi joby,

that really does look like a great list. Here's my ice cream suggestion, for a day when you are near Grant Park/Museum Campus: the gelato at Canady le Chocolatier (824 South Wabash). The chocolates are fabulous too.

http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=3026

have a great trip,
Amata

p.s. You probably already know about the free trolley system which runs to places like Navy Pier, Museum Campus, Lincoln Park, but just in case you don't, here is a link:

Thanks to all for the additional info.

Amata, the candy at Canady's looks too lovely to eat, doesn't it? I do know about the free trolley, but we will use our 7 day CTA passes.

I've been looking around LTH for info on bakeries/donuts/cinnamon rolls places that are EL friendly and maybe a bit different or better than we can get here at home. Last time in Chicago we had Ann Sather's cinnamon rolls and liked them and it was easily reached from the red line El.

I have copied several places on the LTH board, but several of the "favorites" seem to be waaay south or not too easily reached from an EL stop (Abundance, Old Fashioned Donuts, Lutz, Bittersweet, Vanille Pastisserie).

Any suggestions?

joby wrote:We would also like to throw in an unique ice cream place, just haven't decided when/where.

Margie’s Candies (1960 N Western) has been around since 1921 and still serves very good sundaes (excellent hot fudge) in cool clamshell bowls. Margie’s is about a block north of the Blue Line Western stop. Honey 1 is about 3 blocks north of Margie’s.

joby wrote:I have copied several places on the LTH board, but several of the "favorites" seem to be waaay south or not too easily reached from an EL stop (Abundance, Old Fashioned Donuts, Lutz, Bittersweet, Vanille Pastisserie).

Abundance Bakery (105 E 47th) is about a block west of the Green Line 47th Street stop. I should warn you that some may find the neighborhood slightly intimidating.

Old Fashioned Donuts (11248 S Michigan) would be quite an expedition by CTA (I know, I’ve done it). Red Line to 95th, then the #119 bus. See warning above.

Lutz (2458 W Montrose) isn’t far from the Brown Line Western stop. If you’re eating at Spoon (my choice of the 3 you mention), just walk 2 blocks south to Montrose then half a block west. At Spoon, you’ll also be within striking distance of Penguin (2723 W Lawrence) for Argentine gelato.

Bittersweet (1114 W Belmont) is 2 blocks west of the Red Line Belmont stop (Ann Sather, at 929, is a bit east).

Vanille Patisserie (2229 N Clybourn) isn’t very close to any train stops. You could take the #74 Fullerton bus and get off at the stop just east of Ashland.

You’re already planning on BomBon (1508 W 18th), right? Just get off the Blue (soon to be Pink!) Line at 18th and walk a couple blocks east.

Thank you Rene G for the detailed directions. It's hard to tell from the CTA map exactly how far some of the places are from the EL stops.
We seem to use and like the El a bit better than the bus, if it's doable on the El.

We don't want to position ourselves in a questionable (for us anyway) area, thanks for the info. Abundance and Old Fashioned seem too far south and not close to anything we might be doing also.

Well, we are back from our long anticipated Chicago visit. We had a really good time! It ended up that my Mom (who lives with us here at home) also joined us on Wednesday for part of the trip. She has lung cancer and uses a cane/wheelchair to get around, but is still able and willing to do what she can! 100% of the CTA bus drivers were helpful with her and very kind. We visited:

---Surgical Science museum, Mass at the Cathedral downtown, free Loop train tour, Mexican Fine Arts museum, Maxwell Street Market, window shopping at the expensive stores, Aquarium, Chinatown, Devon Ave., COLD water at the beach, watched fireworks from the roof of our building, Lincoln Park Zoo, Notebaert Nature museum, skipped the Art Museum--it now charges $12/person and NOT by donation any more. So, for 5 X $12, it was too expensive we thought, did walk a bit into the Taste of Chicago. Boy, have the prices gone up, the sizes gone down and the variety was not the same as 6 years ago. Glad we saved the $$$ and skipped it (thanks!)...

We rode the train and the bus and walked A LOT. It was fun! We are glad to visit the city, but really glad we live in a smaller town where everything is so readily accessible.

We rode Megabus to Chicago and back. Round trip it was $9/person. A pretty good deal, as gas was $3.39/gal in Chicago!

Now for the culinary part---

We ate at:
Candlelite Pizza-- had a sausage/peppers pizza and a white pizza. Both were good, the restaurant was nice inside as well as outside, good service.

Ghareeb Nawaz--had lamb biriyani and hunter's beef, bread and rice. The biriyani was toooo spicy for daughter and me, guys liked it. The owner was very nice and let daughter and me pretaste some dishes and we chose the hunter's beef and liked it. It was very busy.

Khan's BBQ--had chicken boti. Again toooo spicy for daughter and me, guys liked it. Saw Mr. Khan behind the counter working hard. Our waiter was very nice and accomodating. Had take out there.

Ambala Sweets--tried several different sweets. Took home a box of different desserts. Favorite was the-- I can't remember the name--they were warm, crispy, gooey and very sweet like honey.

Indian was our least favorite food of the week. But we are glad we tried it and the guys enjoyed it more than the gals did!

Sunday was "Mexican day". Went to the Maxwell Street Mkt., Nuevo Leon, browsed Bombon, stopped at a nearby bakery, Mex. Fine Arts museum. A great day and super food. Started off with a free appetizer--some kind of pork w/bone and a tortilla (delicious!), burritos, fajitas, combo plate, horchata, and chips. Great food and neat place. Service was very good too.

Monday was T.A.C. Quick--we had take out ba mee pad ( noodles, chicken, onions, carrots, napa, baby corn, water chestnuts and bamboo shoots) and the guys had kai tod (chicken with thai sauce). Both were mild (tame) and very good. The restaurant was cute too with good service.

Had Ann Sather's today (Clark St. location). Really good. A bit expensive, but really good and sweet!

Tuesday (July 4th)-- tried to go to Iberico, CLOSED for the holiday. Plan B-Tank Noodle, CLOSED. Plan C- Sun Wah, no Bahn Mi. Plan D- Pho 888--OPEN--we had pho, chicken Bahn Mi, pork Bahn Mi and DELICIOUS spring rolls. All of the food was great. The waitress was very nice and helpful. We now crave the spring rolls!

Wednesday was Honey 1--guess what CLOSED. It had been a long day at the Aquarium and earlier we had picked up my Mom (who uses a wheelchair/cane to get around) from Midway. Also a LONG bus ride(s) to the Honey 1 address. So, we walked down the street to a Mexican place--very expensive--so we passed. Walked on down the street again to Cafe Bolero. Menu looked good, place looked good, prices looked good, so in we all 5 go. We had: stuffed hamburgers, Miami sandwich, BLT,and fries. To make a long story short--not very busy, food was luke warm and service was not at all good. Too bad, the place was cute and the food was good and would have been even better served piping hot. Mom had been a waitress at very nice restaurants for over 50 years, so we know decent service--this wasn't it! Oh, well.

Thursday--Chinatown--ate at Lao Sze Chuan. Had: Mongolian beef tenderloin, chicken w/ vegetables, orange sole and Mom had 6 jumbo fried shrimp (she doesn't like Chinese at all). Talked with the owner, Tony, a very nice fellow and helpful. We loved it here. Service was very good, restaurant was very pretty and food was great.

Also walked the Chinatown mall place. Bought some candies at Aji Ichiban. Fun place to browse. Also, got our much beloved Crystal cakes (bean paste rolls, I think??).

Last day--Manny's for the BEST corned beef and pastrami we have ever had. Price was high, but food was very good! Craving it right now!!!

Compared with many on this board, we ate very tame foods, BUT to us it was different and very good. We may be willing to have a bit more range next time thanks to the good experiences we had over the week at various places.

Had no luck finding our Mexican 7-UP or Verona cookies, dang!

A policeman picked us up while we were waiting for the bus on Sunday trying to get to Nuevo Leon. He said we looked too out of place for the neighborhood (near U.I.C., I think) and he took us right to the restaurant. Nice of him we thought!

Had some snafu's with the bus routing some days. Not too bad considering how many places we went to and how "not knowledgeable" we were.

Saw George W's contingent around the Drake hotel as well as the protesters. It was fun to see all of the commotion.

Our schedule changed a bit throughout the week due to different circumstances, but it all worked out in the end.

We had a great time and thanks to all of you who took the time to give us "inside info" on eateries, we ate well and reasonably and had lots of variety and many new experiences! Thank you all so much for the help, it's very appreciated!

Thanks for the detailed write-up. I wouldn't mind having the time to eat my way through Chicago like it seems you did. That's a pretty good round-up of restaurants, and I'd bet much more challenging and experimental than most people who visit Chicago. Glad to hear you had such a good time . . . at the end of the day, that's really what counts most.

-just popping this thread back up in lieu of your report

Sounds like you had a great time(schedule challenges notwithstanding). It's truly awesome to hear back from a visitor who takes seriously the bounty Chicago has to offer. Too many people poll the site for ideas then write back(if they do) saying, "thanks for the info but I was only able to make it to The Billy Goat, Uno's, and Wiener Circle." And you did it all with a family in tow!

Christopher Gordon wrote:And you did it all with a family in tow!

Joby,

Quite impressive, really quite impressive.

Next time you are in Chicago it would be my pleasure, and I'm sure I'm not alone in this, to break bread with you and your family.

Enjoy,
Gary

Joby,

I'm glad to hear your trip went so well and thanks for the detailed report!

Antonius

I just read this entire thread in one sitting -- it read like a novel. What great help Joby had from the board, and thanks for reporting back. Very cool.

Thanks for all of the nice comments. It is my pleasure to report back on our trip, a small price to pay for all of the info gained here!

Hopefully it will help other newbies!

G Wiv wrote:

Christopher Gordon wrote:And you did it all with a family in tow!

Joby,

Quite impressive, really quite impressive.

Next time you are in Chicago it would be my pleasure, and I'm sure I'm not alone in this, to break bread with you and your family.

Enjoy,
Gary

Ditto, and bravo

I'll third, though I have to admit I'm still eagerly waiting to break bread with the folks here!