Don't You Wish You Lived In Chicago?

Last night was my quarterly girls night out (GNO) with some friends I've known since college. For each of our seasonal dinners, we head into the city from our respective workplaces and meet up somewhere with good food and good drinks.

Someone -- and I don't remember who, but unfortunately it was't me -- had the inspired choice of one sixtyblue. It's not our traditional Loop or near the Loop choice, as it was at Randolph and Ogden, but I am so going back there again.

We'll start with the cocktails. While I tried all of these, it doesn't mean I actually ordered them all. I only had three. And I took the train into the city and home.

The Spring Fling and the Veev Southside were really unique drinks that weren't overly sweet, so you could drink them during dinner. The Spring Fling was really fun with both kumquats and mustard greens. I was a little iffy on the mustard greens at first, but they were just crushed for flavor like the mint in a mojito.

The Pom Paradise was quite dangerous. It was really sweet with a lovely undercurrent of pineapple. And it didn't taste like there was any alcohol in it whatsoever. That is a dangerous combination though. And the Velveteen Rabbit? It sounds a little iffy with carrot juice and ginger and such, but it was a really unique and spicy drink that worked well with our main courses.

Speaking of food, it was delicious. The portions weren't huge, but we all left very full. We shared appetizers, and we happily could have just ordered more and been happy.

I didn't eat the foie gras or the gulf shrimp because those just aren't my things, but the smoked king salmon served on a bed of hashbrowns and the herbed ricotta dumplings were heavenly. I ended up being the rude one and using some of the delicious, hot sourdough bread to sop up the cream sauce leftover from the most tender, moist dumplings I've ever tasted. You wouldn't expect hash browns to be the base for smoked salmon, but it actually worked well. I'm thinking the chef has something for hash browns in general, as the foie gras also came served on a round of hash browns, and we had hash browns with a garnish of carmelized onions as one of our shared sides.

It was quite difficult to decide on the entrees, as well. The table next to us was served the bison ravioli, which immediately decided two of my friends. I would never have dreamed of bison as a filling for ravioli, but one of my friends shared. It was a little drier than I'd expected, for some reason, but it was rather flavorful, and the cream sauce kept it from being too dry.

I finally decided on the seared yellowfin. It was served with shaved hearts of palm, fresh wasabi cream and some other flavorful accompaniments. Although I was slightly disappointed by the presentation, as it was large chunks strewn across the plate which made it slightly difficult to cut into appropriate bite-sized pieces to eat. The grilled salmon my last friend ordered was done to perfection, and the English peas worked really well with the Scottish salmon (we were joking that they'd be feuding by the time the food arrived on our table).

We somehow managed to save room for some dessert, and it was difficult to decide between the brown butter carrot cake, the chocolate souffle tart, tres leches, and more. We decided on the sticky toffee date cake and the trio of sorbets.

While we waited for them to arrive, the server brought a dessert amuse bouche. I love those. This one had mini tapioca balls in the bottom of the glass, strawberry compote, and some raspberry ice scoop on top. That was such a clean way to refresh after our dinner, and we all drank them quickly. One friend wasn't a fan of the tapioca balls, but if you like bubble tea, you'd be content with this as a treat.

Then our desserts arrived. After my first taste of the cake, I questioned my decision to share the desserts and not keep one for myself. It was served also cut into three chunks, which I thought was odd, but it was sweet and moist and had a unique bite. The toasted coconut ice cream and bits of honey granola garnish added a nice complement to the cake.

While we all loved the toffee date cake, the sorbets didn't go over quite as well with my friends. There were three flavors served on little shortbread cookies. I preferred the sorbet to the cookies, but one of my friends finally scraped the sorbet off the cookie to just munch on the cookie. Unfortunately, I can't tell you what flavor the sorbets were, as no one told us when the desserts were served to us - one of the few service mistakes we had. I was the only one who enjoyed the very sour one, that we decided was lemon. The orange sorbet, I was told was quite good, although that disappeared before I had the opportunity to taste it. The third one we think may have been guava or papaya. It was much less flavorful than the others, and it was also the only thing left on the plate when we left.

When our bill arrived, they also delivered some take home goodies. We were povided with fresh caramels that didn't make it out of the restaurant. And by fresh, I mean still slightly warm and oh so gooey and buttery. We also received a little chocolate cake like thing. Again, I'm not sure what it is as no one told us and mine is uneaten as yet, but they look delicious.

I was very happy that I had chosen to wear black, as just about all the patrons in the restaurant were also wearing black. However, I was happy I wasn't wearing all black so that I wasn't mistaken for the wait staff.

The front bar was hopping. When we were waiting for the rest of our party to arrive, I was a little concerned that it was going to be another loud dinner (like the Gage Cafe we ate at for winter), but the dj (and yes, there was a dj in a cute little glass booth) was only spinning records for the front bar. Once we were brought back into the main part of the restaurant, it was much quieter. No one lost a voice this time around.

We sat at a table in front of the kitchen, which had pluses and minuses. One of my friends didn't like looking into the open kitchen, but I always enjoy watching the preparations of food. Then again, I like to cook! Because we were in the row of tables closest to the kitchen, we were sometimes served from behind our banquette. This was awkward, as the servers had to stretch over the back of the bench to our table, and it was too far a reach for them to do naturally. I would recommend changing that for future patrons.

Aside from that, the service was fairly attentive without being overbearing -- with the few exceptions already noted. It was disappointing that our server wasn't with us each time. We had to tell those who delivered our food which dish went to which person. I would have expected better of a restaurant this caliber. No one ever explained dishes as they were set in front of us, except for the amuse bouche. I always like hearing about my choices again, especially when they're somewhat unusual, and I may not remember what exacty I ordered.

It was a wonderful meal, and I'll happily return there again. Even more of a pleasure was receiving our bill. Even with our drinks, the meal wasn't nearly as expensive as we'd expected it to be. It wasn't like a meal out at McDonalds or Chili's, but it was still less than we were fearing.

So ... if anyone is interested in enjoying a meal that focuses on local and organic foods, let me know. I'm happy to return to one sixtyblue to round out a dinner party!

San Antonio - Yum!

As I mentioned, my husband and I went to San Antonio last week. We had a great time, sans one small incident. But I won't talk about that other than to say that 30-23 in OT is much closer than it looks, folks.

We did the good touristy things like going to see the Alamo. In fact, we managed to spend almost three hours there. I think I absorbed pretty much all the Alamo history that I'm going to. If anyone wants to ask me about Clara Driscoll or the Battle of San Jacinto or how much it cost for an acre of land in Mexico, I'm your girl!

We originally tried to go on Monday before the game, but the line was incredibly long, wrapping around the block. We decided to go instead on Tuesday, when we figured most people would have gone home. Unfortunately, the line was still almost as long as it was the previous day, but that's ok. We waited, and it wasn't too bad.



Imagine that. Another picture that I'm not in.



We also saw the Tower of the Americas, but only from the ground. As best I can tell, it's kinda like the Space Needle in Seattle. With a restaurant on top. And an observation deck. Considering that I turn down opportunities to go in the Sears Tower and had a huge claustrophobia issue when my husband made me go up the St Louis arch, we decided to skip it. It was a cool picture at least.

Ostensibly, we went to see the Alamodome.



Or at least the inside of the Alamodome and a particular team who was playing football there. Unfortunately, it didn't quite go our way. Northwestern didn't quite have enough to finish off Mizzou, and that's all we'll say on that topic, thank you.



And now that this part is complete, we'll talk about the part of the trip that was most enjoyable. We spent a lot of time on the Riverwalk. At Christmastime (the only time I've been to San Antonio), they put up cool Christmas lights on the trees around the river and on the boats that go around on it. My husband thinks they should be there permanently, since they add so much to the atmosphere.



Yeah, ok, so my picture turned out horribly. I actually took a bunch, both with and without flash and at varying levels of focus but couldnt' figure out how to get the lights to show up right. (Irene? What am I doing wrong?)

So why hang out on the Riverwalk? Why enjoy San Antonio? Because of the food of course!

Our first stop was Rita's on the River, where we had some rocking margaritas. And I had some great tortilla soup, while my husband enjoyed his nachos. This ranked as the second best margaritas we had on the trip. And yes, this is how I tracked it. This was just our late lunch though, as we needed something to eat but it was too early to really have dinner.

When we finally ate, dinner was delicious fortunately. We had dinner at Ibiza's, which is part of the Hilton, but it's not your typical hotel restaurant. The food was excellent, and their margaritas were the best we had. By far, which shocked me. I had the most tender filet that had a fantastic side with asparagus and fried onions which doesn't sound nearly so good as it was.

The next morning, we went to El Mirador, which is a restaurant in Southtown away from the Riverwalk that a friend of mine who did her residency recommended. Vicky gave me tons of great recommendations, and she insisted that I have a margarita or two on the rocks there while enjoying brunch. So I did. They were the third best margaritas, and the food was fantastic. And surprisingly cheap. I'd definitely return to this one. We actually ate late enough that a) we missed brunch and had lunch instead and b) we didn't really need to eat again until dinner.

We did have a little snack, though, but for the life of me, I can't remember where. It obviously wasn't memorable, as I did a pretty good job of tracking where we ate.

That night, we ate at Boudro's. Oh. My. God. It was the best guacamole that I'd ever eaten. They make it tableside there, which is kind of fun anyway. It cannot possibly be built up too much though. Literally the best I've ever had. I watched carefully to see how much of what they put in so that I could recreate it at home. I've made it twice since I got back late Wednesday night. Guess what Tasty Tuesday is this week! Sadly, I can't remember what my dinner there was, although it was good. Their margaritas were way down on the list though. The prickly pear margarita was fine and interesting but tasted more like it came from a mix than anything else. My husband got a regular one on the rocks and was even more disappointed than I was. I'd go back in a heartbeat for the guacamole though.

The next day, we went to Mad Hatters for breakfast, which was another of Vicky's recommendations. They're a really cute little place that specializes as a tea house in addition to the sandwiches and more that they serve. I had a chicken salad sandwich on sourdough. The bread was disappointing, as it didn't have any of the kick of sourdough that I love, but the chicken salad was truly unique. It had spinach in it, which I would never have thought to add. And of course I had some tea. I had a really hard time deciding what tea to get. A really hard time. If it weren't such a long walk from my hotel, I'd have gone back for more kinds of tea. I ended up with a mango ceylon tea, but so many others I could have chosen. And the sandwiches were huge, almost Perry's (downtown Chicago -- and a place I really miss having lunch at) big!

Again, that was mostly our lunch. However, we decided to have a snack before walking over to the Alamodome for the game. So we went back to Boudro's. Just for the guacamole. Now, had Boudro's and the guac not been a Vicky recommendation, I probably would not have gotten it. Really, do I need $8 guacamole? Yes. Yes, I do. In fact, when we went for our umm snack... my husband and I each got our own order. It's really that good.

Tuesday morning, we had brunch at a restaurant near our hotel, The Original Blanco Cafe -- because I guess there were imitators. This was much more of a local hangout, and as usual, we didn't get our acts fully together until it was almost lunchtime, so it was more like lunch than anything else. I was disappointed, as my food was really not at all flavorful, but let me clear Vicky's name and tell you this wasn't one of her recommendations.

Dinner that night was with some friends from home who arrogantly wanted to meet for dinner on Tuesday so we could celebrate the Cats' victory. Yeah, not so much. Pesca's on the river was quite good though, although I was disappointed by the service. As in they forgot to take my drink and dessert order and neglected to serve me any wine. Here I strayed from my ways and got a raspberry lemon drop. Both the other woman and I were not impressed. The food, on the other hand, was fantastic. I had a seared ahi that was meaty and perfectly served, if a bit salty. Everyone else enjoyed their meals, as well. Dessert was iffy though. Like I said, I got skipped over in ordering, but that turned out ok. Their chocolate cake... well, no one ate it. It got passed around to all six of us and finally the fourteen year old boy finished it. The apple galette was equally blah. And the creme brulee was incredibly eggy, with bubbles evenly dispersed throughout like an omelette. It wasn't bad, but I'd definitely never order it again. Fortunately, the cheesecake was decent with a really thick crust, but I can only eat a bite or two of cheesecake because it's too rich for me.

Our last meal in San Antonio was breakfast the day we left. I asked Vicky for another recommendation since we'd used up all her breakfast recommendations already and our going it alone didn't turn out so great. Both she and MaBunny's MIL came up with the same recommendation: Mi Tierra. We headed over there to get some pastries, and I was shocked for a couple reasons. First, I'd been there before. When I was in San Antonio the last time, we'd eaten here for lunch one day (and I saw my mom drunk for the first time ever, which was highly entertaining) and we'd liked it so much that we went back for breakfast another day. Second, they had hardly any of their pastries in at 8:30. I settled in with a cherry turnover to hold me over, as I wanted to take something for the plane ride and layovers that wasn't airport fast food. Yum. But too crumbly to take on the plane. Luckily, I also remembered that they had fantastic Mexican hot chocolate, so I had a cup of that, too. Yum! Before we finished our breakfast, they replenished their stock though, and we got a few Mexican goodies to take on the plane. Phew! This is one that I want to go back to and have a real meal, as I remember it (and the margaritas) being quite good.

And that's my summary of the important part of my trip. Where's the best food, and who has the best margaritas. I'm trying to figure out what that says about me! In any case, we had a ton of fun, and I hope we go back to another bowl there -- this time with a different result.