John and JoAnna Visit - Feb 2020

Duck Duck Goat

Our first visitors in our new home in Chicago were John and JoAnna who came for a short weekend.  We were lucky that it was not too cold and we packed the weekend in with food and drinking!

Time Out Market

They arrived on Sat morning at 7am - we picked them up at Midway and then went back to the house to get settled and catch up.  We then set out for an afternoon of food/beer tasting in West Loop, organized by Shawna.  We stopped at the following places:

• Monteverde - tried the hamachi and cacio whey pepper pasta.  Both very yummy.  This is a nice, modern Italian restaurant.
• La Josie - lively Mexican restaurant.  We tried the chili relenos and carnitas tacos - both quite good.
• Ballast Point Brewery - took a break from food and tried a beer here.  Lots of good beer choices on tap.
• Gus' Fried Chicken - casual place serving spicy and crispy fried chicken.
• Duck Duck Goat - lively Chinese restaurant.  We tried the duck and goat dumplings and the crispy duck noodles - very tasty!
• Time Out Market - food hall with lots of food stalls and three bars.  We tried the chicken katsu from Brian Fisher (yum) and the chili cavatelli from Band of Bohemia.

Monteverde

We polled the group and the favorite dishes were the two items from Monteverde, the carnitas tacos from La Josie and the crispy duck noodles from Duck Duck Goat.

Ballast Point

We went back to the house for a nap to rest up for the evening activities.  We then stopped at Lottie's for a beer before heading to dinner at The Vig which is a gastropub in Old Town.  We shared the shishito peppers, corn fritters, brussel sprouts salad and peri peri chicken pasta.  Food was OK.  After dinner, we went to Second City for the 11pm improv show - it was interesting to see the comedians think quickly on their feet but we didn't find them to be very funny.  Back at the house, we had some popcorn before retreating to bed at 1am!

Second City

On Sunday, we slept in and relaxed and then went for a walk on the 606.  It was a nice sunny day but a bit windy.  We then grazed for lunch at a few spots in Wicker Park, stopping at the following places:

• Piece Brewery - really good pizza and beer.  We shared a jalapeño and italian sausage red pizza.
• Big Star - cute taco place.  We tried the guacamole, queso fundido and carne asado taco.  Pretty good.
• Links Taproom - lots of beer choices.  We had a beer and a chorizo hotdog which was tasty.

Happy JoAnna

We went back to the house for a nap and then watched the Super Bowl and had gumbo before we had to drive them back to the airport for their 9:40pm flight!

And Happy Shawna!