The Chicago Thread

[allegro]

main & sherman. the parking lot across from vogue was literally my back door. six and a half years (and it was my first apartment...this one is my second).

Oh wow one of my best friends lived there for years! Halfway house and laundromat right next door!

I'm posting in the Chicago thread and this started playing in iTunes. :-)

[eversonpoe]

sarah and i really want to check out three dots and a dash. a few of our friends have already gone and they LOVE IT. the guy who opened it is the guy who originally started (and bar tended) at the whistler.

[allegro]

sarah and i really want to check out three dots and a dash. a few of our friends have already gone and they LOVE IT. the guy who opened it is the guy who originally started (and bar tended) at the whistler.

Heh, that looks like the Hala Kahiki with food :-)

I have a LIST of Must Check Outs, including but not limited to:

* Girl and the Goat

* The Publican

* Blackbird

* Alinea

* In The Raw (my neighborhood)

* And, in your neighborhood, Elizabeth

[eversonpoe]

Heh, that looks like the Hala Kahiki with food :-)

I have a LIST of Must Check Outs, including but not limited to:

* Girl and the Goat

* The Publican

* Blackbird

* Alinea

* In The Raw (my neighborhood)

* And, in your neighborhood, Elizabeth

those are all awesome-sounding but...a bit out of my price range. i usually go for the $30-$50 a meal for two people. haha.

my friend went to hala kahiki recently and had a lot of fun, so it's definitely on my list.

[allegro]

those are all awesome-sounding but...a bit out of my price range. i usually go for the $30-$50 a meal for two people. haha.

Yeah, I hear ya, wait until you're old like me with a lot more expendable cash. :-)

(Not all of those are expensive, though; Publican and Girl and the Goat are pretty reasonable!)

I've lived here for decades and only went to Hala Kahiki for the first time LAST YEAR with friends. It's legendary, I guess ya gotta go at least once, it was ... meh ... just okay. Kitchy!!!

I'll try to think of some MUSTS in your price range to recommend.

I still wanna check out Hot Doug's but I don't want to stand in line.

[ninedead]

we stayed in elmhurst which was a great little suburb, parked down by the metra on a sunday for free and rode the train to downtown and back for only 7$ unlimited. great weekend in chicago. my wife and i have been discussing it and are going to look into moving up there. we really liked elmhurst and wonder what anyones thoughts on it are? is there a better suburb than there or is that a nice one to live in? the suggestions we got from locals were that it was a great place to live but expensive which we kinda figured anyway. if we do move, probably going to take a year to get everything settled but im definitely excited about the thought and hope it works out.

[virushopper]

oh, definitely check out wicker park. i don't venture there all that often because it's hard for me to get there from lincoln square (as i hate taking buses), and SOME of the people who tend to populate that area are people around my own age with whom i'd really rather not associate (i.e. "hipsters" who think they're better than me because they look like hobo hippies or whatever...not trying to be an elitist, just telling the truth). that said, there is so much cool STUFF in wicker park that it's usually pretty easy to ignore all the douchebaggery. food: don't know if you're vegan or vegetarian, but native foods is freakin' delicioius (even if you're a carnivore). lucky's sandwich co has giant and tasty sammitches (and they're one of my a/v customers). francesca's is my favorite italian chain (family owned) and their wicker park location is great. they also have donuts as part of a sub-business they recently started called "glazed and infused." shopping: there's a chrome store, lots of shoe stores & clothing stores, and lots of assorted cool kitschy stuf relaxing: the park itself is pretty nice, and if the weather's good, you could plan a picnic or get carry-out from somewhere. they also occasionally do movies in the park (i saw "earth girls are easy" back in june), but i don't think they extend into october. also, on your way TO wicker park, check out logan square (my fiancee used to live there) - lots of cute bars & restaurants. my favs are boiler room (pizza & awesome drinks), the whistler (their drinks are amazing, handcrafted wonders), and the rocking horse (never had a bad meal there). the square itself has concerts and other events all the time, but probably not much in october. hope that helps! enjoy your time here. october is my favorite time in chicago.

The Blue Line stays west toward Logan Square and Wicker Park/Bucktown so if you take the Blue Line to the Damen stop there's lots to do, there, just walk around and hang out, see this. (Be very careful with your smart phone on the El, btw, big rampant crime related to that here, don't whip out your smart phone on the El). Check out The Reader to see what's happening when you'll be here. Note that The Double Door is in Wicker Park. Chicago is the home of the Blues; if you're into the the Blues, take the Blue Line downtown and walk / cab it to Buddy Guy's Legends. Good music and great food.

Thanks guys! Much apperciated! Now comes the hard part of planning it all out.

[eversonpoe]

we stayed in elmhurst which was a great little suburb, parked down by the metra on a sunday for free and rode the train to downtown and back for only 7$ unlimited. great weekend in chicago. my wife and i have been discussing it and are going to look into moving up there. we really liked elmhurst and wonder what anyones thoughts on it are? is there a better suburb than there or is that a nice one to live in? the suggestions we got from locals were that it was a great place to live but expensive which we kinda figured anyway. if we do move, probably going to take a year to get everything settled but im definitely excited about the thought and hope it works out.

if you're set on living in the suburbs, elmhurst probably isn't the one i'd choose. there's some nice stuff there, but it's really not very easy to get to the city (especially when there's a lot of traffic).

my parents moved to wilmette when i was almost 9, and they're still living in the same house (it'll be 18 years this october). i like wilmette a lot, but some people don't.

my fiancee's sister & brother-in-law moved to park ridge last year, which is a nice place, too.

it really depends on what exactly you're looking for, if you're planning on having kids (or if you already do) and are considering what schools they're going to attend, etc.

i think evanston is the perfect balance of city & suburb, and it's the furthest south you can get before you're actually in the city (at the north end, obviously). it's right up on the lake, too. as i said a couple posts ago, i lived there for six and a half years, and i'd gladly move back.

[allegro]

we stayed in elmhurst which was a great little suburb, parked down by the metra on a sunday for free and rode the train to downtown and back for only 7$ unlimited. great weekend in chicago. my wife and i have been discussing it and are going to look into moving up there. we really liked elmhurst and wonder what anyones thoughts on it are? is there a better suburb than there or is that a nice one to live in? the suggestions we got from locals were that it was a great place to live but expensive which we kinda figured anyway. if we do move, probably going to take a year to get everything settled but im definitely excited about the thought and hope it works out.

I got my B.A. from Elmhurst College, and I really like Elmhurst, it's has a cute little downtown area and it's a mini version of a college town.

I disagree with @eversonpoe about access to the city from Elmhurst; the Metra train ride is actually FASTER than mine because my train (the Union Pacific North) HAS SO MANY FUCKING STOPS, I swear I can sometimes walk faster than this god damned train. Four stops in Winnetka, 4 stops in Highland Park, 3 stops in Evanston, the train barely starts moving and you're stopping again, and I swear the Eisenhower (expressway) is often faster than the fucking EDENS (expressway) due to what is known as the "reverse rush" (traffic going INTO THE CITY is worse than leaving the city). In Elmhurst, you're very near O'Hare, 294 (the Tri-State tollway), North Avenue, etc.

The only thing I did NOT like about Elmhurst is its lack of diversity, and the place knows ZERO about health food. The Starbucks downtown didn't even offer fat-free milk when I was last there, and there is ONE health food store downtown and not a Whole Foods to be found. And there was some Muslim-bashing at Elmhurst College and a few professors I know there said don't blame the kids, it's the NEIGHBORS.

[eversonpoe]

i always forget about the metra because i've literally only taken it about 6 times in my life. ha. i've always just driven (got driven when i was a kid) or taken the L.

[ninedead]

Loved the downtown in Elmhurst!! That was one of the reasons for our considering the move.

[ericy210]

Shout out to Naperville and Downers Grove, minivan driving brothers and sisters!