Moody Tongue Brewery is the only two-star Michelin brewery in the world, and it’s right here on the South Side of Chicago! Typically, I take my husband Brian out to a steak house for his birthday, but this year, I thought I’d switch it up and take him here. He loves beer, and his “Untappd” app entries grow every week. Well, he was super excited to add 10 new beers to his app, and I was excited to add another…
Gosh, I can’t even count the number of times I’ve enjoyed Avec in the West Loop neighborhood of Chicago. It’s cozy, casual, fun, loud, and always delicious with a super interesting and diverse wine list. When people ask me where to eat in Chicago, Avec always makes it towards the top of my list, and now that they’ve been featured in the FX series, “The Bear,” they are more popular than ever. I visited most recently with a friend on…
The Shedd Aquarium has been a favorite for young families in Chicago for a long time. With the addition of the Oceanarium about 20 years ago or so, there is a lot to do here, and you can easily spend an entire day at the Shedd with your family. I highly recommend getting here at open, especially on the weekends, because this museum gets super busy, and because it’s geared more towards kids, you’ll have a lot of strollers to…
July 31, 2023 I was excited to try Boqueria Restaurant, which opened relatively recently in the West Loop neighborhood of Chicago. I’ve been trying to find a superb Spanish Tapas restaurant since my favorite – Salero – closed in 2018. While I found the food at Boqueria fine, there was nothing really too stand-out here. I think my favorite thing about this restaurant is the vibe here. The bar and all of the walls are decorated with canned Spanish food…
Chicago, USA, August 10, 2023 Brian chose the new-ish restaurant Porto for my birthday extravaganza this year. Porto boasts one Michelin star, and it’s super well deserved. I always feel like one-star Michelin places can be really hit or miss, but Porto is a massive hit. The Vibe Immediately upon arrival, you can’t help but notice how incredibly designed this restaurant is. Extraordinary care went into every tiny detail of this place, from the cool wallpaper, to the massive stretch…
Momotaro has been a staple for Japanese food and Sushi in the busy West Loop neighborhood of Chicago since it opened in 2014. I have been here about five times, and this time, we came to celebrate one of our wedding anniversaries! It was a very busy Saturday evening, and, unfortunately, the service was really lacking this time, and I feel like this place is starting to decline a bit in quality and service. This restaurant’s design is minimal and…
I’ve been lucky enough to be hitting up some of my absolute favorite neighborhood spots over the last few weeks and bringing you all the details. Dusek’s is a restaurant in the Pilsen neighborhood on the south side of Chicago that has been around for about 10 years, and we have been coming here since about 2015 when we moved in to the area. This restaurant has ebbed and flowed as far as quality and service, and I’m here today…
The Duck Inn has been a favorite of ours, and of many, since it opened in 2014. We moved to Bridgeport, a neighborhood on the south side of Chicago in 2015 and we’ve been frequenting The Duck Inn several times a year ever since. We’ve spent a New Year’s Eve here, Mother’s Day brunch, an epic tasting menu that was called the “Baller” with gobs of fois gras, and other insanely rich dishes, as well as many other evenings and…
We find ourselves in Valparaiso and Chesterton, Indiana quite a lot. Our kids live here with their mom, so it’s often the case that we’re over here finding something to eat or some activities to do. We’ve been meaning to check out Blockhead for a while, and, after all, I’ve never heard of a brewery/sushi bar combo restaurant before, so we just had to go. Admittedly, I’ve been generally unimpressed with Valpo’s restaurant offerings over the course of the last…
I often think about how lucky I am to live in such an amazing city with incredible restaurants, sports teams, activities and architecture. We always make it a point to become members of one or two museums at a time – as a family of six, it’s worth it because it pays itself off within one or two visits. The one membership I keep renewing forever into eternity, though, is for the Art Institute of Chicago. Often rated as one…