Graham and Amy Visit - March 2020

Capturing the essence of the visit - dinner at Elske

We had our last visitors for a while due to Coranovirus - Graham and Amy flew into Chicago for St Patrick's Day weekend.  We originally had planned on various activities but since all events and tours were canceled and all museums closed, we resorted to lots of eating and drinking.  Graham called it his food inspiration tour!

Amy flew in on Thursday and stayed with a friend and then joined us on Friday.  Graham flew in on Friday and took the train where Keith met him at one of the stops and then came to the house.  After giving them the tour and letting them get settled, we began the food extravaganza - we went to dinner at Smyth, partaking in the Omaha tasting (which included 20 courses) and the wine pairing.  The restaurant is nice and the food was quite good - although some courses were better than others.

Keith waiting for food!

Razor claims at Smyth

After dinner, we stopped at Lottie's for one beer - well at least most of us - Graham pretended to drink his but really got rid of it in the bathroom!

Lottie's

On Saturday, we slept in and then continued the tour de food.  Our first stop was to see the new Starbucks Reserve Roastery on Michigan Avenue.  The store has five floors and includes a shop, restaurant and bar.  Very cool digs.

Starbucks Roastery

We then went to the Purple Pig where we shared several dishes that were all very tasty - ricotta gnocchi, pork tongue, meatballs, artichokes and pate.  While the food was good, we did not like the location - in a lobby of a high rise.  Continuing on Graham's memory tour of favorite places, we stopped at Bandera for cornbread which was quite good.

Pork tongue at Purple Pig

Cornbread at Bandera

We then had to walk off some calories so we walked along the river over to West Loop where we went to Time Out Market to show Graham the new spot (we didn't eat anything here).  We tried to then get into Au Cheval to try the famous burger but the wait was too long so instead we had ice cream at Jeni's Ice Cream - yum!

Back at home, we took a nap and then showered to head out for more food! For dinner, we went to Elske which is a very cute restaurant in West Loop (very near Smyth).  We did not do the tasting menu but instead ordered a la carte and we shared several dishes that were all very yummy - bread, hamachi, risotto, chicken, wagyu flat iron and all four desserts!

Scrambled eggs and chicken at Elske

We were stuffed....well, so we thought because we then went to Cabra for a night cap and ended up ordering two tasty appetizers - snapper ceviche and goat empanadas.

Nightcap at Cabra

On Sunday, we chilled in the morning and then headed out for the final food extravaganza.  We went to Tzuco for lunch where we had some very flavorful Mexican dishes - duck waffles, chilaquiles, papadzule crepe, pork pabil (our favorite of them all) and chile rellenos.

Pork pabil at Tzuco

 Of course, we needed dessert so we went to Bang Bang Pie in Logan Square and shared the berry, honey, lemon and chocolate turtle pies - so good.  We then drove Amy to the airport and on the way back, we walked around Pilsen to see the colorful murals.

Pie at Bang Bang Pie

Murals in Pilsen

Back at the house, we relaxed a bit and then Graham packed up for us to take him to the airport.  We had to stop once more for food to try the fondue at Quartino that he could not stop talking about.  The restaurant serves Italian food and is located in Streeterville.  We tried the fondue, bacon wrapped dates and white bean dip.  The fondue is Italian style so not what we expected.  While we didn't like it near as much as Graham, Graham was quite happy to have had it again and even better, he scored the recipe from the waitress.  We then drove Graham to the airport and vowed not to eat for at last three days!