(making) No Little Plans: Chicago 2015 pt 2

I brought a bag of Garrett's popcorn blend to my niece and nephew (ages 3 and 5, respectively) last time I visted them, and the looks on their little faces once they got past the brown + orange look of the stuff was priceless. We had to drag it away from them or they would have consumed it all in one sitting.

I've only had a few but Chicago dogs are legit. And I'm not crazy about having a lot of salad on my junk sandwiches (and yes, a hot dog is a sandwich).

I still have never had a beef (outside of ILX).

I forgot about the Gym Shoe. That's a hellacious looking sandwich. The South Side is OTM with their crazy Chicago sandwiches.

Is the Gym Shoe a variant of the Horseshoe?

Chicago style dog is #1 but I've gained a deeper appreciation for deep dish over the years.

Chicago mix popcorn is so addictive but I don't get Chicago's claim to it is exactly. Like caramel corn and cheese popcorn both already existed and were frequently already sold together in tins (albeit in separate compartments) so did someone just mix them together in Chicago?

Chicago dog, Italian beef, and Maxwell Street polish are all amazing. Deep dish pizza is not really pizza, but it's alright.

a 1-gallon tin of Garrett's popcorn is $33

tears emoji tears emoji tears emoji

In addition to making me hungry, this thread is also making me frustrated at the lack of availability of any of these foods anywhere on the east coast (you can do mail-order for the hot dog and related meat items, but it's expensive, and no substitute for a hot dog/Polish place on every block. And deep-dish does not exist outside of Chicagoland).

Chicago-style giardiniera
Everything else

Well, Escape Goat, I often miss many delicious east coast foods such as real and delicious subs on the correct style of roll and proper thin crust pizza that doesn't taste like it's been cooked on a greasy cracker that's had all of the flavor sucked out of it* and scrapple.

*Homeslice and Piece here in Chicago do pretty well, though, so my frantic homesick pizza cravings have subsided somewhat.

We need to work out some kind of exchange program where I overnight you an Italian beef and you send me a scrapple sandwich.

I'm in.

WILL TRADE GROTTO 4 GIORDANO'S

I wanna try the UNO chain bcz even though I know it won't be "real" Chicago "pizza", I am sure that it will still taste great (kind of like how Olive Garden breadsticks taste great even though they're not real food)

WILL TRADE GROTTO 4 GIORDANO'S

― Y Kant Max Read (Stevie D(eux)), Friday, August 14, 2015 7:45 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

DEAL

1. Chicken Vesuvio - never had it but it sounds amazzzzingg
2. Malort
3. Italian Beef
4. Chicago-style Hotdogs
5. Deep Dish Pizza

6. Chicago Mix Popcorn

Saganaki - Is this a Chicago specialty?

Jibarito - Fuck a plaintain

The Parthenon claims to have invented it, yeah.

*Homeslice and Piece here in Chicago do pretty well, though, so my frantic homesick pizza cravings have subsided somewhat.

LaRosa in Skokie has great thin-crust...or they used to, years ago, when it a restaurant and not just a tiny carry-out place (I'm astonished it's still around).

when it *was a restaurant

Oh wait - chicken vesuvio doesn't sound THAT amazing now that I know those are peas and not capers.

xxp re saganaki huh I had no idea. I thought I had it in NC, but who knows.

Oh, it is widely available elsewhere. Nevermind.

The most unavailable important regional food to me is the sno-ball, which inexplicably hasn't left NOLA, especially the ones made w/ evaporated milk. It is like delicious actual snow.

hahaha i'm p sure gr80 kept trying to give me Malort but it never seemed to pan out

I did too but the bartender didn't even know what it was! I think that was at the Manhandler?

Chicken Vesuvio was kind of underwhelming when I tried it, tbh. And the place I got it was supposed to do it pretty well.

Also Jeff makes a pretty compelling case.

I used to work in Italian restaurants when I lived there and omg, I miss vesuvio.

Hey Chicago folk, you should listen to my friend's new music podcast where he plays records for Chicago musicians and chats with them:

http://cast.now-is.org/

Ep 1 features Fred Lonberg-Holm. It's interesting, heady, and will expand your out music knowledge while giving you enough time to clean your entire apartment.

Cool, thanks. Looks interesting. Me and La Lechera just saw Lonberg-Holm play this past weekend.

i've seen him a zillion times. i think he has played with literally everyone.
i don't really understand the concept of the podcast though -- he records musicians reacting to recorded music?

Yeah, as a jumping off point. It's not unprecedented -- Downbeat magazine has had a feature for decades where they play records for an artist and ask them to talk about their reactions to them. Although IDK if I've heard it done as a podcast before (which is actually better, since you can hear the music). I think other music mags do similar things as well.

Didn't Wire do that?

Yeah I was going to say that's where I've seen it, Wire's Invisible Jukebox.

Sorry THE Wire

I get my wires crossed.

yeah I was trying to remember who had Invisible Jukebox, it is indeed the Wire

maybe i've seen that before? idk. i'm glad more people know fred l-h now thanks to it!

I was told the second ep is Olivia Block

ooh she's cool
i wonder if i would recognize this person?! i've probably shared air with him at least once.

http://i62.tinypic.com/2pra1oy.png

Ha!

Stupid Oak Park schools don't start until Aug. 31st, so it has been two solid weeks of Camp Dad. I think we've run out of things to do. The other day we hit the Surgical Museum. Today, because every waterpark and lazy river is closed for the season, we're hanging at 31st street beach.

xpost both The Wire and Downbeat have similar features.

CPS doesn't start until Sep. 8!

My high school in NC started the 1st week of August, which is awfully early.

That's really early.

I always went to school in a resort area so classes never started until after labor day since just about everybody old enough for working papers had some kind of a tourism industry job.

will inspire lots of "Cubs sleepover" fanfic

http://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2015/08/30/jake-arrieta-no-hitter-mustache-pajamas

i wondered why it smelled smoky when i stepped outside this morning)...

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-extra-alarm-fire-in-lincoln-square-20150830-story.html

r.i.p. lincoln lanes!!! ;_;

Everything is burning! I didn't see any mention upthread (and haven't read much in the way of news about it), but Second City caught fire last week, as well.

the last time I was there was a few years ago and lol we were tasked with "escorting" my nephew to Lollapalooza, an experience I do not want to relive (not cuz of my nephew, he's great, it was lollapalooza that was gross)

but yeah my wife's aunt is gonna put us up in a hotel for a night so we can go out and do city stuff sans children.

I would like to avoid being shot tho, yes.

Drinkers? Got a budget? Want it packed or just want to chill?

I drink, my wife does not. would just be curious to see some music in a non-huge/lame venue.

btw do you guys still allow smoking in bars? that shit is gross

would be down for a FAP too of course, if ppl were interested

No smoking in bars. Looked and didn't see any interesting music that night (or at least nothing that caught my eye). Ooh, I take it back, there's this:

https://www.grantparkmusicfestival.com/2016-season/a-journey-through-time

Free, Millennium Park. Great place to hear some music/have a picnic.

I like Philip Glass, wife is devotee of NG photography, sounds like a win/win

thx buddy!

No smoking in bars anymore, that was squashed years ago.

I think there is a ST:TNG showcase playing those days we could go enjoy together.

I would like more details on this TNG showcase

like a public screening of TNG? I might go to that

if there's weed involved

I made it up!

Also I don't have any weed. Chicago continues to disappoint.

how can you crush my hopes like that

I'd FAP too, perhaps others as well. Calendar is clear now, but let's touch base in July.

my wife would welcome the opportunity to argue about Star Trek :)

Jeff thrives off of being a constant disappointment

So did we determine if this is the most recent Chicago thread? Anyway, I would like to talk a little bit about gun violence (not that we sadly don't have enough threads on that subject). Last year my wife had a co-worker whose husband was shot and killed at a bus stop in Roger's Park, around 5pm, by some asshole gang member who drove by, thought he recognized an enemy and decided to open fire. More recently a 6-year old was accidentally shot in a friend's Palmer Square neighborhood, and last night/yesterday there was a chase and shooting on the lakefront, up north, around Waveland :

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-lakeview-lakefront-park-shooting-20160612-story.html

While not occurring at the same rate it does within a couple of specific neighborhoods, the gun violence here is clearly not self-contained. What should the city be doing?

FWIW, I live in Oak Park, and it looks like a couple of weeks ago some dude walking back to Berwyn from the train in the middle of the night got in a fight with some guys in a parked car and was shot in the gut, just a few blocks from my house. Police called it an "isolated incident," but it does not make me any more comfortable.

I don't know what the latest Chicago thread is, I should start a new one.

Chicago 2016: Our credit rating is lower than your credit rating

I'm in yr airport, it's ok. Drinking a beer, I know it's what Jeff would want.

I used to greatly prefer midway, but southwest using it as a hub meant it was so packed the last time I was there that there was nowhere to sit!

I'm at o'hare, it still sucks but my plane is supposedly on time, so it's ok