This weekend Ryan came to visit us in Chicago for a fun weekend in the city. When we lived in Fort Worth, we saw him at least once a week, but we hadn't seen him since Tanner and Zena's wedding in July, so a visit was long overdue. You would have thought Ryan was the local this weekend; he was telling us where we should go, which way to go, leading us around, etc.
We kicked the weekend off with dinner at
Lou Malnati's, a traditional Chicago-style deep dish pizzeria that Ryan recommended. The pizza's take 45 min to make, but was worth the wait! Neither Landon or I are huge fans of "Chicago style" deep dish pizza since it's so thick and filling, but this is one of the best places in the city to get Chicago style pizza (so they say; we've only tried a couple of places) and it really was quite tasty!
 |
| All smiles waiting for our pizza |
 |
| Malnati Chicago Classic |
After stuffing ourselves with pizza, and still only finishing half, we trekked all the way over to the John Hancock Center for a drink at
The Signature Lounge at the 96th. We were 96 floors up and got a table right by the window! Talk about a breathtaking view!
The picture doesn't do it justice, but the view was absolutely amazing. We stayed for quite a while, just taking in the view and all the pretty, city lights. Drinks here were pretty pricey (almost worth it though) so we took a cab over to
Timothy O'Tooles, where a pitcher of beer was only $10. After ordering some late night nachos, and nearly shutting the place down, we walked all the way home in the drizzling rain. Why we didn't get a cab, I'm still not sure :)
Saturday was a day completely filled with walking. We took the train over to Lincoln Park and walked all around. We didn't have a destination in mind, we just wanted to walk around and explore. It was a perfect fall day for it too. The morning started off rainy, but turned out to be a nice day with just a slight chill in the air. We walked up and down sidewalks lined with cute shops and restaurants; we even ran across a Texas flag!
We estimated that we walked at least 4 miles that day. Our bodies were so physically exhausted, we had to take a train the remaining .9 miles left home. The best $2.25 ever spent!
Once we got home, I changed clothes and freshened up for dinner, while the boys relaxed and caught up on football.....
Nick, Landon's coworker that we went to the Cubs game with (who told us where all we had to go while in Chicago) told us the best Italian food was at a place called
La Scarola (rumor has it, this is where all the old mobsters used to hang out). We couldn't get a reservation until 9, but we took it anyway and went about 20 min early in hopes of getting a table. No such luck. We were told it would be at least 9:15 before we could get seated, and the restaurant was so small, there was no where to wait, so we went to a little place around the corner called
Iguana Cafe. We weren't sure what we were getting ourselves into, since these were some of the only places in the area, but this turned out to be a really neat place! It was a coffee house/restaurant/lounge and a perfect place to kill half an hour with a glass of wine and some spinach artichoke dip.
The timing was perfect and we were seated immediately once we got back to the restaurant. Ryan shocked us and ordered grilled octopus as an appetizer. We had never had it before, and even though the tentacles scared us a little, we powered through and tried a bite. Surprisingly tasty!!
Landon and I are both HUGE fans of chicken piccata and tend to order it quite often. Even though I make
this recipe at home once a week, we can't ever get enough and ordered it to share for dinner.
I think I learned how piccata is SUPPOSED to taste! I won't lie, mine (Giada's) is good, but this was delicious!! The capers were huge and the sauce was perfect. No left overs this time.
While we were at Iguana Cafe before dinner, the couple at the next table over was sharing a crepe that looked too good to pass up. After dinner we went back to get one of our own, except that turned into two of our own. Ryan ordered one filled with berries and Landon and I shared one with bananas, caramel and Nutella. The perfect ending to a perfect day!
Sunday was a dreary, rainy, day so we took our time getting up and around that morning. Ryan suggested chinese food for lunch and found a place with good reviews, so off we went. We were a little hesitant since right before leaving, Ryan asked "Do y'all like duck?" This is what we walked up to....
Those would be roasted ducks hanging in the window.... a little frightening. After walking in, the restaurant itself was nice and really crowded, so that calmed our nerves a little . We decided to go all out and share a duck. When in Rome....
This arrived....
And just a few short minutes later, turned into this....
That's right. An entire duck was sliced for us table side. We all agreed it tasted just like the dark meat of a chicken. It had great flavor and was exceptionally moist. They don't let any part of the duck go to waste either. They used parts to make a soup as well as fried rice. They even brought us bread and veggies to make sandwiches with.
We were quite the adventurous eaters this weekend!
After lunch, we had to take Ryan to the airport so he could catch his flight. We had such a great time with him this weekend; thanks for coming to visit us friend!
