I think Vital Info or someone did this on another board once-- suggesting an alternative Taste of Chicago which involves actually tasting around the city. But heck, I'll do it again, because the answers always come up different. If I wanted to taste around Chicago, here's how I'd schedule my day, incorporating lots of LTHForum-related finds:
8:00 am. Swing by Dinkel's for a chocolate bismarck to give me strength to make it to breakfast.
8:30 am.
Edgebrook Diner for excellent eggs and perfect hash browns.
9:30 am. Sip on Grand Avenue to sit in their garden out back (you'd never guess such a bucolic space existed on such a utilitarian street) and have coffee while reading the paper, or maybe they have wi-fi by now and I can read LTHForum.
10:15 am. Swing by D'Amatos for some bread, and beat the rush at Bari for a
Bari sub, which I will save for later (so what if the bread's four hours out of the oven by the time I eat it instead of two).
10:30 am. Dim sum in Chinatown. Should it be the ever-reliable and comprehensive Phoenix, or one of the smaller places in the mall like Shui Wah, not as varied or always as good, but likely to have something you've never seen before? I won't decide till I get there, though I must say, the authentic Beijing atmosphere of the mall usually wins out over the more touristy feel of the rest of Chinatown.
11:30 am. Eat my Bari sub in the car as I head north to go see a
Hong Kong or
South Korean crime film at the Landmark Century theater. Good thing I have some food with me since there's nothing around there. I could have gone hungry!
2:00 pm. Zip north up Ashland and make a run along Devon east to west:
B&M Bakery to see if they have the chocolate croissants, then either La Unica for a Cuban sandwich or head toward the Indian/Pakistani part to see about something like the chicken boti.
3:00 pm. Go back down Western so I can stop by The Cheese Stands Alone and get a few things.
4:00 pm. It's summer, so the porch or whatever you call it at
El Potosi might be a pleasant place to sit and grab a light snack.
5:00 pm. Make the week's run to Paulina Market.
6:00 pm. I'm not that hungry, but Thai food's light. Off to TAC Quick for boar pad ped and whatever else Erik's posted about lately. (If I get hungry, there's always leftover Pequod's pizza to snack on, with those great burnt edges.)
8:00 pm. Hard decision-- Scooter's for hot fudge sundae, or Anthony's on Southport for Italian ice?
9:00 pm. The phone rings. People are meeting for spicy chicken wings at the
Hourglass. Gotta go!
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