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…
I love traveling to Europe during the shoulder seasons – April to May or September to October. There are usually better prices, fewer crowds, and you generally get a better feel for a city as to what it would be like there as a local. Unfortunately, I’m not sure if Venice really has a shoulder or low season! While I’m sure it was less busy in April than it is in the summer months, it was still chock full of…
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…
Well, before you’re totally inundated with Bali content in about two weeks, when I go back for the first time in 14 years, I thought I’d do a little reminiscing before I left for this newest adventure. I studied for a semester in law school in 2002 at the University of Melbourne in Australia, and I had the opportunity to visit Bali during my stint in Oz, traveling solo, before traveling solo was “cool”. All of my photos are on…
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…
Let me tell you, I never thought I would be a Disney Bride, I never really even considered it my whole entire Disney-loving life; but when the circumstances for Brian’s and my wedding changed drastically (involving lots of drama including the event planner stealing a bunch of money from our original reception restaurant venue and then taking off into the sunset), I was back at square one after a few months of planning and deposits. We had already booked a…
Valle is easily the nicest restaurant in Oceanside, and probably all of North County, San Diego. It’s new, it’s Michelin recommended, and if you’re into elevated, true Mexican cuisine, I wouldn’t skip trying out Valle. Honestly, I knew nothing about the place before coming here with my family this month, but we had really great servers who told us about the owner’s culinary and winemaking history in the Valle de Guadalupe in Northwestern Mexico. This is where most of Mexico’s…
Some of my extended family moved to Oceanside, California, just about an hour north of San Diego and an hour south of Orange County, about 25 years ago. My folks followed about 10 years ago, so I have been hanging out in this area of California for a long time. On my most recent trip, I was looking for something to do that I’ve never done before in O’side, and stumbled across the fact that Oceanside is one of 14…
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…
We ate dinner at almost all of the restaurants on offer at the sweeping Nayara Resort in Costa Rica and I can say that they were all good. We only skipped Las Terrazas (though for breakfast, it was the best complimentary buffet breakfast of most resorts and hotels I’ve been to worldwide) and Mis Amores (but we did have their lunch menu by the pool several times and absolutely no complaints there!). There were a few stand-outs, though, and so…