I forgot how cool Chicago was. Haven’t been in probably 15 years it’s the nice urban Gotham without the new York smells and plumbing lol. Beautiful lakeshore when the weather is cooperating
We were delayed due to the thunder hail storm got in late and went to zarella which is in river north. Owned by the boka group which has quite a few restaurants in Chicago. Only snapped a pic of the zucchini slices but we had the tavern carbonara. Which was very good but over the top rich. I always fall for the white pie trap and generally regret not getting a tomato based pie this time was no different. I loved the first couple bites of the cheese egg yolk and bacon but then it became too rich. Gotta just stick to tomato pies next time. Also got their traditional which was solid puffy crust good structure reminiscent of folks pizza but over done in some places. Great tirmisu that is loaded with espresso kept me up all night lol. Definitely a good spot if you’re in river north which has less dining options that are good.
7 Likes
Didn’t sleep a wink due to the aforementioned espresso in the zarella tiramisu so I dropped the family at the park and went to take a nap and decided to stop by ricobenes. Famous for their breaded steak sandwiches. I made the mistake of ordering a giant, since it was labeled as “original” it was the size of my forearm. Breaded steak was great but overall not a great sandwich. They charge you extra for cheese and put shredded mozz that isn’t even melted on and stuff it with hot giardenera, bread was drenched with tomato sauce second I opened it up. Needs more balance sometimes too much is too much. Ended up picking apart the breaded steak and making little bites with the bread that was still salvageable.Seemed to be lots of locals, feel like I got tourist trapped maybe get the regular size without cheese if you decide to go. Also gave me mean heartburn but that’s user error lol.
4 Likes
Avec west loop- super enjoyable meal. Everything was precisely cooked and full of flavor with the short rib hummus and the bacon wrapped dates being standouts. Charred onions on the steak were bursting with flavor. Loved the tomato salad. Nothing was mind blowing but I could eat here monthly if it was in LA
5 Likes
Doves luncheonette. Loved this breakfast I’m not usually a big Tex mex kinda person. I generally prefer straight up Mexican food but this Tex mex diner was awesome.
Horchata cold brew with slight tangs of cinnamon and rice milk but allowing the cold brew to shine.
I do love chicken fried steak and this rendition was excellent the peas and onions giving the heavy ass gravy some balance with vegetal and allium notes and a counterpoint to the fried chicken and meat/pepper heavy gravy.
Brisket hash also sounded like a gut bomb but somehow ate oddly light even though it’s smoked brisket mixed with twice cooked potatoes. Not sure what kind of black magic they were doing but it worked. Paired well with the over easy eggs and their house made salsa macha. Great to take sips of the cold brew and then a combo bite of all of the hash elements.
The breakfast combo plate was also good. Not reinventing the wheel but having their own butcher cured bacon doesn’t hurt, wish I had gotten the pancakes but the chow pup wanted bacon and bread plus I was bang banging with Kasama and didnt want to overload.
6 Likes
Kasama is the supposed new darling of the Chicago food scene. Doing bakery and brunch during the day and flipping to a nighttime tasting menu through a Filipino lens. Apparently waiting in line for food in Chicago is a newish thing. I generally detest lines so I ordered ahead online which you can do right at opening and it took them over 2 hrs to make my order and they underestimated pick up by 1hr. Luckily I had planned brunch nearby at doves and there was a park next door for the kiddo to play at so I strolled over to kasama.
Line seemed to be 1-2 hrs long picture is front on with the line stretching past the block
I ordered a truffle croissant, basque berry cake, cardomom bun, and a longanisa breakfast sandwich with a hasbrown I feel like they stole this from here lol
Pastries were good not great. The truffle croissant being the most surprising and tasty but also 16 dollars since they freshly shave real truffle on it. Not exactly worth the hype in my book. Breakfast sando was prolly my favorite hit all the right notes and the egg was a cross between a soufflé and a Dan taat which brought the whole thing together. I liked it but would not go through all that effort again let alone wait in line.
3 Likes
did an Italian sandwich picnic at Ohio street beach right before the fireworks on Wednesday at navy pier. Got jp graziano and bari as comparisons.
Chow pup and I preferred the bari sandwich. With me only slightly. Graziano is milder and has more balanced flavors while bari leans heavily into the spiced gardinera and the meats. Chow pup has never eaten an actual sandwich unless you consider a cheeseburger or a hot dog a sandwich so this was a huuggee milestone lol. Wife and others preferred graziano but both were good.
wish I had a chance to also try damatos or tempesta market
4 Likes
I generally don’t do lines as mentioned above, I find the idea of waiting in line for food pretty ridiculous and kind of obscene. I had read about Dan the baker on Reddit that sold to all the coffee shops around Chicago then ended up opening his own spot recently called bad butter. After opening earlier this year they usually sell out within two hours.
Since i was on vacation and kasama being a slight disappointment I decided to give bad butter a try. I left it to chance and didn’t set my alarm and only resolved to go if I woke up early enough to be able to walk to where our rental car was parked (13 min away) and drive from that location in river north ish area to Ukrainian village (12 min away) and do all this prior to their opening time of 8am. As fate would have it I woke up at 7:07 and I ended up parking and arriving at bad butter right at 7:42 this probably put me somewhere 15th to 30th in line. I was able purchase everything by 8:10 so I consider that relatively acceptable. After my arrival and before opening the line got super insane that picture I took was right at 8 when they let the first batch of customers go in and was stretching down the block so if you’re gonna go, get in line before opening. I read that people wait over an hour which again seems ridic even though I broke my own rule of no line waiting.
I am happy to report the pastries were out of this world good. Better than anything I’ve had in LA recently. Dan definitely knows how to do laminated pastry and balance flavors. He has a bunch of seasonal pastries I got sour cherry and corn and blueberry and lemon Kougin Aman, along with the harissa labneh monkey bread. All of it was so fucking good. I’ve never had a ham and cheese croissant with mustard inside but what surprised me was how puffy and crispy the croissant remained and how he achieved so much rise especially with a fluid such as ground mustard seed. I would say the almond croissant is not the best I’ve ever had (still very very good) but otherwise the rest of those pastries are all up there for their category. Only regret was not ordering their seasonal tomato danish.
If you’re gonna do a bakery in Chicago this is the one but go early lol.
5 Likes
Awesome, I love their chicken fried steak.
2 Likes
Nice! Might be the lightest tasting chicken fried steak I’ve ever had which is the biggest oxymoron
2 Likes
