Joby, your fragile memory is bringing up Andersonville! I grew up and still live in that neighborhood so I know it well. I think your girls will like it. It's a nice people watching area. Like I said before, Presence is definitely more expensive but has a lot of cute/off beat clothes. It's sometimes too pricey for my tastes but I think they can get away with buying some cool accessories/shirts that won't break the bank. Hopefully they'll have a sale when you are up here. Along with Ann Sathers, the Swedish Bakery is on Clark and I can't say that I've been there recently, but from past experience they have a good selection of cookies. Plus, I think M. Henrys has a bakery now. The Brown Elephant is in a really cool space now. It just *feels* old and cool and so-ho-ish. Too bad Georges Junkshop is gone cause that place rocked too. The Hopleaf is pretty strict on the 21 and over policy. If you go and pass the bar Simon's - you can tell them that's one of the oldest bars and has been around since prohibition. Rumor has it that Al Capone used to hang there and the Green Mill (but I have NO idea if that's true or not. )

That was probably the now shuttered Ann Sather at Clark and Foster. There's an antique store just up the street.

I would say go shopping in Andersonville, and then head down to Clark and Belmont, get some cinnamon rolls, and check out ragstock.

Gleam
As far as last weekend, the Ann Sather in Andersonville IS open. They did close for a while but it's open now.

I think Andersonville would be perfect for your group. The Paper Trail is a really fun card shop, with goofy gifts (some risque, but the store is well within the bounds for a teenager) and fun, hip stuff. Teenagers will be able to afford small gifts/cards/trinkets from there. Great wrapping paper! Andersonville a fun place to walk around. I concur with the Kopi suggestions. Also concur w/ the Landmark suggestions. From inexpensive to very expensive, its a great place to browse, and has everything from clothing to jewelry to soaps and blankets and you name it. Sunshine Cafe, (a board favorite) is a quick walk away and is very reasonable priced if you want lunch. For a quick snack if you decide to try something new, there's the Swedish Bakery, Bon Bon, the middle eastern shops and even the Cheetah Gym, if you want a smoothie or protein drink! Have fun!

Rumor has it that Al Capone used to hang there and the Green Mill (but I have NO idea if that's true or not.

The Green Mill was definitely a mob hangout in the way-back-when. There's a picture of Capone behind the bar, by the baby grand piano. It was part-owned by Machine Gun McGurn, who slashed a guy's throat when he tried to move his act from the Green Mill to a rival club.

There are also tunnels underneath the club which run to the Aragon, just down the street. That's a tour I'd love to take.

Would you like to know more?

By the way, if you're in andersonville and want to take a side-trip for leather and such, Eagle Leather at Clark and Argyle could probably suit you. Otherwise, check out Shel-Don at Broadway and Sheridan. (If this is a running gag, disregard this information and try not to wonder why I know so much about leather joints. I'm not entirely sure myself.)

This is one of the most planned trips I have ever seen. I thought this "girl's weekend" would have already happened by now. Joby, are you putting us on? Is this a real trip? (Just kidding (sort of))

My 2 cents...I totally agree that Andersonville is a nice place to hang out in for part of a day. It's eclectic and manageable in size.

As for nibbles, I know Swedish Bakery has its fans. Love Ann Sather's cinnamon rolls. Also, Taste of Heaven is a cafe/bakery with some great pastries and baked goods. They have my favorite scones in the city. My hubby loves their butterscotch bars. Awesome bread pudding and cakes. I took a couple baking classes there, and it was wonderful coming home with an enormous box of all the things we made at class.

Reza's is a Middle Eastern place with a super reasonable brunch/lunch option available just about every day. I've been going there for half my life, and I've never had a bad experience.

I also enjoy the Middle Eastern market, particularly the stuffed grape leaves.

chgoeditor, earthlydesire, germuska, gleam, kithat, Mhays, Schatz MacArthur, Swanline and whiskeybent--

thanks so much for the helpful suggestions! I think Andersonville is the shopping area I had in memory.

I really appreciate all of the info you all have given. Between all of your ideas, our group should find plenty of shopping and sweets to keep us going for awhile!

whiskeybent, yes, the leather is a joke! I won't ask any questions on your leather knowledge!!!!


If you think of any other spots that might be of interest to us please post! I'm always taking notes.

Most everyone on this board is so kind and helpful. Thanks!

Although the Clark/Belmont area does have a few leather/fetish shops I think there are plenty of other shops there to capture the fancy of a teenage girl. I'm in my (late) 20's and I still love the multiple branches of Fashion Tomato. They can't be beat for cheap, trendy clothes. Pink Frog also has several locations along Belmont, including one solely devoted to shoes(all under $50).

I live in Andersonville and love it, but I can't afford to buy many things here. It's great for browsing, but not for buying.

Thanks merkay for the store names. Pink Frog is such a cute name and the girls LOVE shoes!

I saw Ragstock mentioned, but also at or near Clark and Belmont is Hollywood Mirror, and the Alley. Up Clark a ways is a place called Strange Cargo. The Army Surplus store was demolished for the Brown Line expansion project, however.

For even more fun, wander north on Halsted from Belmont and wander in and out of some of the "alternative-lifestyle" shops and "adult novelty and marital aid" boutiques, among a number of other clothing stores.

If you're into that sort of thing. And I'm sure there's leather up there, as well.

Folks -- the woman's got teenage girls with her.

I don't think the Pleasure Chest and it's ilk is on her agenda.

<smile>

Thanks for the assistance earthlydesire!

No, we don't want to go to any "adult" stores! Plain old shopping/eating/browsing will keep us plenty busy I'm sure.

We are back from our "girl's weekend! We had so much fun!!!! The LTH board recommendations were right on the money for us. Many, many thanks for all of the suggestions and help. We couldn't have done it without all of you!!!

To recap--

Early Thursday morning we rode Megabus to Union Station. We stayed in an apartment near Oak and Dearborn. We had planned to go to LP Zoo, but rain, wind and cold ruled that out. As it turned out we had to alter most of the day's plans due to the weather. But we were girls on a mission--weather didn't stop us.

We went to Potash grocery for breakfas/lunch supplies,

Chicago History Museum to see the Dior dress exhibit (donation), it was lovely

International Bead store (thanks Amata!!!) it was bead heaven for the girls! They bought lots of neat beads and the prices were very good as was the selection.

Art museum (free from 5-8 pm), it was crowded but fun. We picked out certain things everyone wanted to see since we had limited time. Degas was high on the list as my daughter is a classical ballet dancer, armor/swords were fun, Egyptian and a couple of other spots

Iberico, we shared: canelon atun (out least favorite), patatas ali-oli, queso cabera, championes plancha and croquetas pollo. Grand total of $25 for 4 of us. It was fun, the wait was a bit long (45 min or so), service was good. Many new things for the girls to try. Goat cheese,
and one of the girls had never had whole mushrooms, only mushroom soup kind of mushrooms. It was a good time.

Friday--NOT RAINING!!!

Ann Sather's for rolls. They loved the rolls! We bought a dozen and ate them over the weekend.

Rode the #22 Clark st. bus and got on/off all day to shop. So much fun!!

To name a few we went to:

Fashion Tomato,

DSW Shoes,

Strange Cargo,

Kopi Cafe,

Taste of Heaven bakery (had wonderful orange macaroons!!),

Village Discount thrift store (which does not have a dressing room for try ons??? got a neat dressy dress and a purse, daughter got a Coach purse)

Brown Elephant thrift store (one of the girls got a really neat picture frame),

and our favorite find of the day---a whole block long of stores that sold knock off designer purses and jewelry. We happened to see it as we were passing on the bus and got off. The girls spent 2 hours looking through the stores and got purses and jewelry.

Then it was off to Chinatown--browsed around, stopped at the candy store and got some candies,

Visited the grocery store. Wow! the girls made a fast exit when they saw the counter man chopping off fish heads, a tub full of dead frogs and a metal tub full of turtles!

Ate at Lao Sze Chuan--the girls loved it. One of the girls called her sister and told her she was never eating chinese food here at home again because it was nasty! She had had REAL chinese tonight and it was soooo good! We shared: spring rolls, Mongolian beef tenderloin, chicken w/ vegetables, cashew chicken and vegetable fried noodles. It was all really good and everyone loved it. It was busy and the service was not as attentive as we had this past summer. It was pretty obvious that they wanted us to hurry and order, eat and get out. They even took a plate away before one girl was finished. But the food was still really good and the girls had a blast!

Saturday brought clear skies and beautiful weather.

We went on the Haunted El. Not what we thought it would be. It was basically for little kids and had none of the architecture commentary that we had on our tour this past summer. But, it was free so we were not out anything.

Visited Millenium Park and took silly pictures.

We shopped all day downtown. Plain old stores as well as the designer stores and gawked. I still don't know why someone would pay $1000 for a simple sweater at Loius Vitton. Oh, well, different strokes for different folks. The girls took pictures in front of the designer store windows.

Got Garret popcorn. ADDICTED to the "Chicago mix" now. We started calling it crack corn!

Artopolis to eat. We shared: mediterranean salad, briammi kefte, spanakopita, tyropita, kotopita, and yuvetsaki. It was all so good and the restaurant was nice. We sat upstairs by the window. We also got some baklava and other sweets downstairs at the bakery. The girls declared this their favorite restaurant of the weekend. I THINK it had more to do with the cute greek waiters than anything else!

On to the theater. We saw "Hatfield and McCoy" at the Viaduct Theatre. We enjoyed the show immensely. It had enough drama for the drama girls, but was still a clean show. We felt the acting was really great and we also enjoyed being right at floor stage level with the actors. It was a unique set up for us.

We had bus problems here. The area was a little "off putting" as we had been warned. The buses to the theater were OK, but after the show (around 10:45 pm) we had to walk under the viaduct and go across busy Western Avenue street in a lonely area to catch our bus home. We waited forever, but the bus finally came. The bus was packed and some how we missed our Division stop. The area seemed to be getting worse the longer we were on the bus, so I asked the bus driver and he said we missed our stop long ago and he was continuing down Western and going to 79th street. The girls were alarmed as was I. We heard the driver call out the stop for the pink line train, so we decided to get off and take it downtown and connect to the red line. That worked for us and we were relieved to say the least. We ended up getting home at 12:30 am, but we were safe. I'm sure it wouldn't have been as scary to you locals, but we were very uneasy. Live and learn!

Sunday brought another fine day.

Forgot about the time change, so we were up an hour early (didn't know it until one of th girls looked at her cell phone. Its clock is set by satellite, so it goes to the time wherever you are at automatically). Good thing, as it took us longer to get our "stuff" done than we had planned for.

We went to mass at Holy Name Cathedral. It's a beautiful church. Daughter and I have been there before, but the other two girls aren't Catholic, so it was new for them.

Stopped at D'Amato's and got only 4 cookies because they were $7/lb., but oh, so good. Got sandwiches at Bari ( two "Italians", 1 "meatball" and 1 "turkey and cheese") DELICIOUS! The bread was so good as were the prices. It's a good thing we pre-ordered. As we walked to the door, two Bari workers asked if we were there to get sandwiches. They said they hoped not because they were out of bread. But not to worry because we had pre-ordered and were safe! Whew--were we glad the LTH board had mentioned pre-ordering!

Back to the apartment to finish packing and get ready for home.

On to Union Station, and the girls went into Union Staion to get "Jamba Juice", but as luck would have it, it was closed. The only food store closed in all of the food court!

Megabus to home-- late arriving home, but no problems.

We had so much fun, the girls want to make this trip again next fall. Daughter and I are thinking about taking 2 days this summer and doing a "thrift store" crawl. Hitting as many thrift stores as we can in 2 days! Sounds like a plan to me.

The two girls with us tried so many new and different foods and enjoyed them all. They just couldn't believe all of the different food choices there were in Chicago. The restaurants all of you helped us choose were perfect for us! We stayed on our budget, ate well and tried new things.

We laughed (sometimes at ourselves), ran after busses, missed connections, ate well, shopped, gawked, learned and saw so many different (for us) things. How much more successful could a trip be?!

I can't thank all of you enough for answering all of my many questions and making all of the wonderful suggestions.

Thanks again!

Joby,

Thank you for reporting back. It's great to have someone visit and love this city as much as we do.

Regards,

Joby,

Very interesting report. I am glad your group enjoyed themselves. They are lucky they had such a dilligent and adventurous tour-guide. I hate when people come to the city and never leave the downtown area. Chicago has so much more to offer.

As far as transportation issues, you guys were actually probably better off going all the way to the el, than catching the Division bus at that time of night. It is always much better to wait in a well lit train station. In fact, for future reference, the train is almost always a better option than the bus, even if it seems a little out of the way. Trains are faster, safer and more reliable. In the case of the Viaduct theater, I would have taken the Belmont bus to the redline train. The Western bus is pretty notorious for being delayed, especially at night. When it comes to the CTA, the shortest distance between two points, is not necessarily the best route, especially if you have to make a bus-to-bus transfer.

Anyhow, when you make your next trip, I am sure somebody here (myself included) would be happy to review your final transportation plans, to help you identify the most reliable and safest routes.

d4v3, thanks for the transportation offer.

I got all of our directions from the CTA planner. I guess next time I should ask a real live person instead of relying on the 'puter!

Hindsight is always 20/20, isn't it?

joby: loved reading your report back. If you do come back for the Thrift Store trip, note that on Mondays at all Unique Thrift Shops everything in the store is half off--so if you can sneak a bit of a Monday into your next trip, it could pay off in thrifting action. And three of the Uniques that I regularly check out are in close proximity to some interesting chow . . .

thanks again for sharing all your details!

bjt

Also note that Ragstock will give you a 25% discount if you bring in a picture of your pet.

I'm not an authority on the topic at hand (or really any topic for that matter), but here are a few items I would humbly suggest for entertaining a group of young ladies.

Lodge: W Hotel-Lakeshore, HardRock Hotel or Peninsula.

Relax: Mario Tricoci, Spa Di La Fronza Salon or Tiffani Kim Institute.

Shop: State Street, the Mag, River North, Merchandise Mart, China Town, Old Town, Rush Street and Wicker Park/Bucktown.

Fun: Wicked @ The Oriental, Mag Mile Lights Fest, Skate on State (or maybe it's in Millennium Park now), Blue Man, Second City, Volleyball and swimming @ North Ave beach or Tango lessons @ Ritz Tango Cafe on Ashland.

Food: Anywhere that would let them dress up but is not too stuffy... Iberico, Cafe Ba Ba Reeba or Emilio's Tapas... ( I didn't mean to go all Tapas, just happened)...

Mini Trips:
- Brown Line to Western (Davis Theater, Cafe Selmarie and surrounding shops)
- Red Line to Chinatown (Little Three Happines and tons of shops)
- Clark/Broadway bus to Boystown. (Tons of Food and nice shops between Diversey and Hawthorne on Broadway)
- Metra to Ravinia
- Milwaukee Bus to West Town, Bucktown and Wicker.
- Maybe a car ride to Oak Park or Evanston. Both have good eats and shopping...

~GS

Greasy Spoon, thanks for the tips, but our trip is already completed. I will keep those in mind for our next trip though.

gleam, 25% off for showing off our pet--we could surely do that!

bjt, thanks for the thrift hint! Mondays could be arranged, I'm sure

Again, thanks for all of the recommendations and help.