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This is my favorite traditional Chicago-style pizza (see my review of Caffe Florian for a discussion of my favorite pizza in the world). Anybody who lives in Chicago who hasn't had a Giordano's...
This is my favorite traditional Chicago-style pizza (see my review of Caffe Florian for a discussion of my favorite pizza in the world). Anybody who lives in Chicago who hasn't had a Giordano's pizza should be ashamed of themselves. Visitors to Chicago should eat at Giordano's. For many people, a single slice is enough, since it's about 3 inches thick and weighs half a pound. Deep dish pizza takes a while, but the Giordano's in Hyde Park is supernaturally slow. I mean slooooooooooooooooow. Soooooo slooooooooow. So B yer own B and be prepared to wait for you pizza, and your menus, and glasses, and the check, and anything else that you might reasonably expect to be delivered to your table in the course of an evening of dining.
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This antiquarian bookseller is clearly owned and operated by people who love books. There is always a fascinating display of rare books and other artifacts in the windows. There are many rare...
This antiquarian bookseller is clearly owned and operated by people who love books. There is always a fascinating display of rare books and other artifacts in the windows. There are many rare offerings that are, alas, too expensive for anybody other than serious collectors; but they also carry some standard used bookstore fare, and there are plenty of items that would make good gifts for people who like old, interesting books.
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For some reason, the block of 53rd Street with Windy's Deli is not the most often travelled, and so this place is often unknown even to people who have lived in Hyde Park for years. Some of their...
For some reason, the block of 53rd Street with Windy's Deli is not the most often travelled, and so this place is often unknown even to people who have lived in Hyde Park for years. Some of their stuff is expensive, some of it is cheap. They sell sandwiches and kung fu movies. The sandwiches aren't the best in the world, but the cheap ones are really cheap, and this place is a real business run by real people.
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Half of this store is a pet supply and grooming shop, and the other half is a store with everything you need for brewing your own beer. The guys who run this place are awesome and knowledgeable....
Half of this store is a pet supply and grooming shop, and the other half is a store with everything you need for brewing your own beer. The guys who run this place are awesome and knowledgeable. They run classes in brewing and winemaking, they make wonderful mead, and they're great to talk to about beer and brewing. It's a small shop, jammed completely full of equipment, ingredients, and literature. Be prepared to spend a while there. There's typically only one person working, and they spend a long time with each client. If you're the third person in there, it might be 15 minutes before they can help you. Of course, you then have an ideal opportunity to browse through brewing magazines or talk to whoever else is in there.
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Orly's has been around for as long as I can remember (though I think it was gone for a while a few years back) and yet I've only eaten there a couple times. The reason for that is that,...
Orly's has been around for as long as I can remember (though I think it was gone for a while a few years back) and yet I've only eaten there a couple times. The reason for that is that, unfortunately, the food is not that great and substantially more expensive than it deserves to be.
The cool thing about this place is that there are tables by the bar with inlayed backgammon sets. You can get pieces from the bar and sit around playing backgammon and drinking beers.
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This is a pretty decent cafeteria-style Indian restaurant on 53rd Street. It smells delicious, and it is pretty delicious, but I always end up feeling like it should have been $2 cheaper. With so...
This is a pretty decent cafeteria-style Indian restaurant on 53rd Street. It smells delicious, and it is pretty delicious, but I always end up feeling like it should have been $2 cheaper. With so many other options so close, I rarely feel like going here.
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Disclaimer: I have only been to the Hopleaf twice, and people who I trust say that they like it and that I should give it a third chance. However...
The Hopleaf has somehow managed to build a...
Disclaimer: I have only been to the Hopleaf twice, and people who I trust say that they like it and that I should give it a third chance. However...
The Hopleaf has somehow managed to build a reputation as the foremost beer bar in Chicago. It's true that they have many good beers, but when I look at their menu, I see nothing that I can't get cheaper somewhere else in Chicago (Notably the Maproom, Smallbar, and the University of Chicago Pub.) Frankly, I have never seen such a long menu of beers that don't really excite me. Add to that a prevailing air of pretension, bartenders who didn't seem to give a crap that I was there, and the fact that they wouldn't even let me sit down because I wasn't willing to order expensive food, and it adds up to a place that I pretty much despise.
So there you have it. Forget the Hopleaf. Go to the Maproom.
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The Green Mill was a speakeasy back in the days of Al Capone, and it appears not to have changed much since. The cash register is clearly very old, and it's really cool looking, but it has the...
The Green Mill was a speakeasy back in the days of Al Capone, and it appears not to have changed much since. The cash register is clearly very old, and it's really cool looking, but it has the unfortunate habit of chiming and clanging during bass solos and other quiet parts of songs.
These days, the Green Mill is one of the foremost jazz clubs in Chicago. Kurt Elling and Patricia Barber both have standing gigs there, and both are well worth the $7 cover. Get there early, or else you'll be jammed in back with the loud men who came to pick up girls and can't be bothered to shut up so that you can hear the music. The front is quiet (and non-smoking) and you can sit practically within arm's reach of the musicians. The drinks aren't cheap, but they aren't ludicrously expensive. Every time I've gone, there's been street parking out front.
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Named, presumably, for its size, the Mathbox is a place to go early if you want to sit. All the seats are at the bar (during the summer there are tables outdoors, but the interior is awesome and...
Named, presumably, for its size, the Mathbox is a place to go early if you want to sit. All the seats are at the bar (during the summer there are tables outdoors, but the interior is awesome and it's dangerous drinking a manhatten from a tilting, wobbly, table) in this tiny, wedge-shaped place.
Now I will make a bold claim:
The Matchbox is the best place for cocktails in the city of Chicago.
Admittedly, there are many swanky joints serving martinis that I've never had the cash or the shoes or the desire to try out; but I'll bet you that the Matchbox will give them a run for their money.
Their liquor selection is outstanding. I rarely have the opportunity to sit at a bar and wear out the bartender's ear asking "what's that?" "what's that?" "what's that?" Luckily, the bartenders here are outstanding and friendly and, when it isn't really busy, happy to chat.
The care that they put into their drinks is wonderful. A manhatten comes with black cherries that appear to be jarred by hand. A margharita comes with a dusting of powdered sugar and a long, knotted, lime peel sitting across the top of the glass.
The first time we went there, we decided to splurge. We each had 3 cocktails ("we" denoting 2 people, for a total of 6 cocktails), with call liquors. Each time, we got the whole contents of the shaker. After three, we gritted our teeth and asked for the check, expecting to stay in for the rest of the week. The bill came to a whopping... $36? We were stunned.
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For 80 years, Valois has been serving short order breakfast and cafeteria-style lunch and dinner with a few soul food standards thrown into the mix. The food is good, the price is amazing, and the...
For 80 years, Valois has been serving short order breakfast and cafeteria-style lunch and dinner with a few soul food standards thrown into the mix. The food is good, the price is amazing, and the atmosphere... let's start a new paragraph to talk about the atmosphere.
If a visitor to Chicago had to go to one place, Valois might be the place to go. It's been there for 80 years, and it's changed some, including a major remodeling and expansion a few years back, but it still takes me back to bygone eras. I think it's the old men in suits and hats sitting around, eating breakfast, talking, and reading the papers. I think it's a safe conjecture that some of these guys have been eating at Valois for 40 years. Of course, the place will also have it's share of families, cops, students, and whoever else is in the area. The accents heard behind the counter are from all over the world.
This is, for the most part, a get-in-and-get-out type of place. There are regulars who linger, but I'm not one of them, and you probably aren't either. The tables are always mostly full, the line is always long, and yet somehow it only takes a couple minutes to get your food, and there's always a seat free. Make up your mind and grab a tray before you get to the counter, then watch as your tray gets slid down toward the register and loaded with good things to eat and drink.
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