So this past week, James & I were hitting the Chi-Town scene to get some client work done. After talking to many different residents, we figure we did OK as far as things to do. We arrived in the late afternoon on Monday and fought traffic to get downtown from Orchard Field. Took us a little over an hour. Was not too terribly big as I was on a conference call for the first part, and James was on one for the last part.

That night, Aunt Niece and Uncle Mike picked us up and took us to dinner. They took us to the Chicago Pizza and Oven Grinder Co., and it was absolutely fantabulous. I think one of the coolest things for me was telling Mom & Dad that’s where they went, and their faces lit up and knew exactly where we went, and what cool things there were to eat there. If you are ever in Chicago, I HIGHLY recommend it. The “upside-down” pizzas rule.

After dinner, we got dropped off on Division street and commenced to hit a couple of bars. We were really looking for a sports bar to watch the game at, so not much bar hopping that night. We started at this “irish” place called Finn McCool’s. Note the double quotes around the word irish. It was advertised as such, but we should have known something was fishy when figure skating was playing on more than one of their big televisions. The only irish beer on tap was Guinness (Ok.. ok… it is the staple, but there ARE others). When I asked the waitress what other beers they had on tap she responded, “Well, we do have Miller Lite.” Ugh… I’ve been to Ireland, and while they may be slightly misguided and have Budweiser on tap, I never once saw Miller Lite on tap. We both had 1 beer and bolted.

The next stop was across the street and called The Lodge. Definitely much better. We watched the rest of the game (most of it anyway) there and then headed back to the hotel.

The next day we hit Michigan Avenue. The cabbie dropped us off at Nordstroms and we walked for a bit. Michigan Avenue is all lit up during this time of year, which kind of helps you forget about the cold, but not really. Jeebus it was cold. After wandering around there and hitting the North Face store, we hit Giordano’s which I still have problems saying. It was not planned, we were just wandering and saw the pretty neon signs. Quite a tasty dinner!

Next we did the bar hopping. First, we blew the wad at The Signature Lounge where James informed me that was the highest he had ever been in a building. We drank to that, but only once because each drink was about 12.50. Ouch.

Next we were off to Clark & Grand to hit many places. We started at Fado’s which is a place we hit many times in Austin. Great beer, good crowd and nice architecture. After one beer we walked about 5 blocks to the Stop & Drink. Cool name, great beer Finally, we walked across the street to Celtic Crossings, another irish bar. Very nice and great beer. Then we cabbed it home for the night.

On the grand finale wednesday night, we had some work folks that we hung out with. We started at a place called Scoozi, a wine bar on Huron. We simply drank there because the next place we were going was dinner, and it was fantabulous. For dinner, we hit Tavern on Rush, similar to a Del Frisco’s. Wow diddlefarkin wow. So amazing.

After that, Glenn, James & I hit a place near to Glenn’s home called the Corner Pocket. It was packed in there thanks to a holiday party, but we had a few beers and enjoyed playing pool. Then we cabbed it home to hit one last morning of client meetings. We got out early and tried to catch an earlier flight back to Dallas, but simply ended up sitting at O’Hare for 6 hours. whee.

So anyway… that was the fun! Highly recommend all the places above that got a positive review!