I knew I forgot to do something yesterday – post to LJ. And I had such a nice M-W-F pattern going, too…
Well, as I commented last week, we had company in town. On Friday datahawk joined us after work and we had a lot of fun all weekend, and since you clicked you get to find out what we did.
So rasslor, Data, takaza, linnaeus and I headed down to Boystown after work. It was a nice night out and we wound up walking all over to fun places like Batteries Not Included, Gay Mart (where the owner was his usual “charming” self), and Chicago Comics. Time sort of slipped away and before we knew it it was 9:00 and we were ail quite hungry. Originally, we intended to walk down to the Duke of Perth Pub for dinner, but it was a 40-minute wait for a table. A few doors up was Buca di Beppo, which also had a 30-40-minute wait, so we elected to Buca’s instead. We had an outrageously huge dinner of tortelloni, a selection of their baked pastas, and chicken Parmesan. I had a funny exchange with t he waitress where I completely missed all of her cues about the house red wine I ordered (“It’s chilled, you know. From the box.”). When I commented after a sip how utterly vile it was she laughed and said, “Look, I tried to tell you! That stuff is nasty – we use it for cooking.” She was very cool, though, and replaced the vile stuff with a more palatable merlot gratis. Hmm, I note that Buca’s has a location right by the Wyndham Franklin Plaza in Philadelphia, and they offer their menu to go. Hmmm….
We were slow to get started on Saturday owing to the late night the night before. Bob was shivering a bit, but seemed OK to go, so we headed over to Hot Doug’s “Encased Meats Emporium.” Despite the 30-minute wait to order, the meal was fantastic – Paul’s “Mountain Man” sausage (bison, venison, antelope, and elk, served with a black currant-brandy sauce and caramelized onions) and my garlic pork sausage (served with Swiss cheese-almond spread and whole roasted garlic cloves) were divine. The Chicago dogs were judged to be tasty, and the home-made corn dogs received approval as well. The fries made in duck fat were judged OK, but not worth the extra money since the regular fries tasted even better. Unfortunately, while we ate this, Bob seemed to be feeling worse and worse and was shivering violently. We suggested that he see a doctor immediately, and eventually talked him into it. Paul took Bob to the emergency room and it turns out that he had a very sudden onset of the flu – he was running a 102-degree fever.
Bob sacked out in our bed for the rest of the day, getting his doctor-prescribed rest and “aggressive water intake.” We had done all we could, so when we were joined by roho, genet, and feren we headed over to The Hopleaf. They seated us in the upstairs area (quite lovely!) and we proceeded to nosh on pommes frites and cheese and sausages while trying a variety of Belgian beers. Well, most of us anyway (Feren: “I like my beers thin and watery, thanks.”) We finished off the night chatting back at the apartment, and the evening was quite enjoyable.
Sunday morning, I got up around 8 AM to find Paul awake (no surprise) and Rasslor awake, too, which was a surprise. Apparently he was a bit better, though it was agreed that it might be better if he delayed his return to Atlanta by a day. Data headed off for another day of moving her grandmother’s stuff, and Paul, Dan and I drove out to Schaumburg for the MFF staff meeting. Bob wisely elected to stay home and rest.
The meeting was blessedly brief (27 minutes, baby!) though we hung around for about two hours afterward chatting and getting the “real” business done. We had a late lunch/early dinner with some folks at Red Robin afterward, then went back to the apartment and pretty much crashed for the rest of the evening.
Monday was a typical day at work, yay. Bob seemed to have caught his flight out OK, and I can safely say that anyone who cleans up the place before he leaves and leaves thank-you cards is welcome back any time! 🙂
Tonight we have dinner with Chouette to talk over constuff, and tomorrow is, as usual, LAFF Coffee. We have a party on Saturday night, and will probably crash in Antioch that night. Mmmm – I see breakfast at Las Vegas on the horizon…
I’ve always wanted to try Hot Doug’s. Gourmet hot dogs are just amusing.
I really wish his hours were a little longer (right now they’re 10 AM – 4 PM, M-Sa), but it’s understandable. Although there’s a whole kitchen crew, Doug takes the orders and keeps the place moving, and he’s there from before opening to after closing every day. But man, that place was rockin’ on Saturday afternoon, with a good 30 or so people in line. I’m sure in warmer weather the line gets insane. (By the way, there’s a great article about Doug and his shop on LTHforum.
That is a good article! Sounds like a fun and interesting place to eat at.
If you didn’t drill down into Chowhound article on Andouillette sausage, it is snickerworthy and worth a read. The dangers of culinary adventurousness…
Well isn’t that just perfect timing. Hot Doug’s is 4 blocks from my office, and 1 block from Midway Games where my friend Beth-Ann works. We’ve been looking for new local lunch places…
Hmm, that puts you pretty close to us. Have you made it to any of the LAFF coffee nights?
Nope. And what’s worse is that I live only 2.6 miles north of Cafe Boost. Just a quick shot down Clark and I could be there.
Actually, it’s directly across the street from Midway 🙂 I’d be astonished if she hasn’t eaten there before.
She actually just responded to my suggestion we go there. She has indeed been, but it’s a very small place, and there’s usually a line out the front door at lunch time. So we’re planning on meeting there at precisely noon. Worst case, we’ll head to Ceif O’Neills or something.
Chief O’Neill’s is another place on my list of restaurants to try. I hear they have quite a tasty brunch, among other things.
Well if we end up there, I’ll let ya know. Otherwise we’ll probably be there in the next week or two…