A Taste of Chicago

We splurged and decided to stay in the heart of Chicago since we were spending two nights, so we drove straight from Milwaukee to our hotel. We got there in the evening, so we got settled into our hotel room and then set our sights on some deep dish pizza. Just around the corner from our hotel was Pizano's - one of the highly rated deep dish joints. We walked over, got a table outside, and ordered heartburn with black olives on top. I came to Chicago in 2008 on business but was sadly giving veganism a try at the time, so this was my first Chicago deep dish (and actually my first deep dish ever, come to think of it). It was Tom's first trip to the city, so this was a new experience for both of us. An incredibly delicious and cheesy experience.

We were stuffed after dinner, so we felt the need to walk around rather than go sit at the hotel full and uncomfortable. We decided to walk to the nearby Navy Pier to walk around and take an evening ferris wheel ride. It was a nice walk along Lake Michigan, and the pier was alive with people even as it neared midnight.

view from the top of the ferris wheel

After Navy Pier, we headed back and called it a night. The staff at our hotel told us that we'd arrived at the start of a great summer tradition called Taste of Chicago - a 10-day event where about 60 local restaurants set up stands in Grant Park downtown and offer tastes of their full menus. We quickly decided that we were headed there in the morning!

We got a late-ish start on Saturday but made our way out to Taste of Chicago for lunchtime. It's free to attend, but you buy tickets to use at the various restaurants' stands, and food items range from two tickets ($1) to 12 tickets ($6). Tom and I opted for the "taste" sizes of things rather than full entree sizes so that we could try a wider variety of foods before getting too full. We somehow managed to spend $48 and eat all of this:

And not pictured: the chocolate fudge and vegetable samosa that were our first victims. We. Were. Stuffed. We wandered into the bordering Millennium Park, posed for a photo, and then collapsed into a food coma.

Eventually, we kept going, because we had a lot more ground to cover that day. We walked to the giant metallic bean (I love the bean!!) and stood in wonder with lots of other tourists. What is it about this that's so mesmerizing, and why do humans love looking at their reflections in it so much?

From Millennium Park, we walked to the Magnificent Mile - Chicago's main commercial drag. I imagine locals do their shopping elsewhere - it's quite touristy - but it was fun for us. Also around the Magnificent Mile: the canal running through downtown and a BEACH! We also must have seen at least six bridal parties (and as many bachelorette parties later that night).

After hours of eating and walking and walking some more, we headed back to our hotel to rest for a bit. We had a late dinner at Quartino, a lively Italian tapas spot. It was in an area a little removed from the touristy spots, so we got a feel for the local nightlife. We split some shrimp, pasta, and pizza tapas along with some zeppole (Italian version of fried dough) with honey. And of course, we each had a quartino of wine. This place doesn't even sell portions as small as one glass! We returned to our hotel full and happy yet again...

When I came back from my 2008 business trip, I raved to Tom about how great Chicago was - it's smaller and cleaner than NYC, and even though they're both on the water, you feel it more in Chicago. Now Tom loves it, too. If only these winters weren't worse than New York's! This is a great city, and we'd like to come back.

Up next: Toronto, Ontario, to visit old friends!