Last Days in Chicago

After enjoying the area for the last thirty years, my wife and I are leaving Chicago. If you had one last place to eat, which was quintessentially unique to our area, where would it be? We are on a relatively modest budget. I have really enjoyed this forum. You have provided us with places we never would have discovered on our own. I know I'm ultimately the one who should choose The Last Supper in Chicago, but I'm also interested to see where everyone would go if they knew they only had one meal left in this wondrous city.

There would be no contest, as I would never leave town without having one last pizza from:

Vito & Nick's
8433 S. Pulaski

I'd eat a large sausage(pizza) all by myself.

depends where you are going

This is one of our possibilities. We probably would add garlic, and remember to order the pizza well done.

We're going to Sioux Falls, SD. We'll be eating in quite a bit.

Can I pick two?


Ideally, my last meal would be a beef, hot/dipped from Al's on Taylor. Eat it standing-up, with an order of fries. My tears would blend perfectly with the au jus.

If I was pressed to sit-down, I'd get a reservation for Blackbird, and eat 2 entrees and have 5 or 6 Hendrick's martinis. Plain olives.

These places are at least making me looking forward to making the decision.

Clearly, it would be Sabatino's for ravioli with meat sauce. There's nothing like it anywhere else.

I don't know if you've checked out the Roadfood (www.roadfood.com) web site, but go to the search menu for places in Sioux Falls.

As far as my last meal in Chicago, it would probably have to be dogs and fries from Gene's and Jude's.

Given that you may be lacking for ethnic cuisine in Sioux Falls, I might go for an ethnic cuisine that Chicago does particularly well, like Mexican. I know the folks here have lots of thoughts about great Mexican food, so I won't embarrass myself by making a specific suggestion.

ekpaster wrote:Given that you may be lacking for ethnic cuisine in Sioux Falls, I might go for an ethnic cuisine that Chicago does particularly well, like Mexican. I know the folks here have lots of thoughts about great Mexican food, so I won't embarrass myself by making a specific suggestion.

This leads well into my recommendation.

If I were moving to SD and had limited funds for my last meal, I'd make sure my last meal was on a sunday morning and I'd head to Maxwell Street Market.

Best,
Michael

That's a tough call!

Please keep in mind you can get a lot of Chicago faves shipped frozen to you, from italian beefs and pizzas to indian dals and vietnamese eggrolls! Heck you can even get Old Style in S.D., if you wanted! lol.


I think I'd have to have a week of last meals!

Happy Trails!

Food Nut wrote:There would be no contest, as I would never leave town without having one last pizza from:

Vito & Nick's
8433 S. Pulaski

I'd eat a large sausage(pizza) all by myself.

I read the initial post, and pondered the thought a minute. I then thought, I think it might be Vito and Nicks for me. Then, Bam, Food Nut hits that on the first response.

I have not been to the original in about 20 years. Have made it to the satelites though.

Last time there, the bar area had a ceiling with blue "italian" lights around it, and the tables had these grooves in them where my father would run a toothpick through and plow out 20 years of gunk in them.

Thanks FN, and V&N gets my nod. When you eat pizza at a place, you sometimes say "This tastes similar to X,Y,Z". Never have I found a pizza that I say, "This tastes like Vito&Nicks"

Much like Kitchen Monkey's suggestions, before I moved to Vegas I had a weeklong festivity I called the Culinary Tour of Chicago. It gave me an opportunity to eat all the things I'd be missing as well as eat with all of my homies on various nights they were available.

My Last Suppers included:

Buffalo Joe's
Pizza at Lou Malnati's
Nuevo Leon
A Proper Chicago Hot Dog (at Polk & Western)

gmonkey wrote:Much like Kitchen Monkey's suggestions, before I moved to Vegas I had a weeklong festivity I called the Culinary Tour of Chicago. It gave me an opportunity to eat all the things I'd be missing as well as eat with all of my homies on various nights they were available.

My Last Suppers included:

Buffalo Joe's
Pizza at Lou Malnati's
Nuevo Leon
A Proper Chicago Hot Dog (at Polk & Western)

Yes, Grace, but where might you have your last meal when you come back?

Seriously, Mrs. JiLS and I would probably wind up at Sabatino's for our last Chicago meal. This would include Manhattans at the bar, a grotto table, and enough tips to the strolling musicians that they give us a private concert. Plus a bottle of wine from the reserve list (they love you and it shows when you order one), a tableside prep entree (maybe steak Diane), and two flaming desserts. Then some wind-down time in the lounge.

My vote would be a hot dog of your choice, along with duck fat fries (Fridays & Saturdays only) at Hot Doug's.
I know if I ever left Chicago, this would be a regular stop upon my return visits.

I definitely am going to have to extend this to a Last Supper or Two, plus lunch. In the last week, we've been to Nuevo Leon twice (my wife, who is also six months pregnant, is not happy about the thought of life without this place), along with Al's and Jimmy's Hot Dogs. I will need another pizza before we leave. We ventured to Romano's last week and enjoyed a panless. We even had fun watching a cute little mouse scurry all over the barren dining room. I guess Blackbird is going to have to wait until we have some more money. I really enjoy Vito & Nick's, but the last time we went, we had some problems with some of the other customers staring at us throughout our meal (I'm going out on a limb and guessing because some folks out there are still not used to interracial couples; I thought I had something on my shirt for the first half of the meal). In spite of this, one more Vito & Nick's might be in order. We also had the pleasure of dining at Sabatino's last month...this might be the place.