Stuff to do In Chicago

[citanul]

rogue,

at pequods, did you have pan pizza, or thin crust? one of the things i like about pequods as opposed to other chicago places is that they make their pizza "deep" by just making a thicker, doughy, crust, instead of making a huge layer of cheese. i usually do takeout, but fat tire on tap means that i'm headind out there asap.

glad you had a good time. you sound like you got out to see a lot of stuff for a short trip. sunset is absolutely perfect for hancock tower, nicely played.

quids,

lapoker basically nailed carmines. it's not the best of any type of the food you can hope to find there within a short walk of the place (either italian, or steak, or seafood), and the constant flow of 60 yo men with 20 yo women kinda puts me off my food anyway.

[TurdFerguson]

Glad to hear you enjoyed your trip. FYI, I live about 3 blocks from Pequod's (you're right, it is terrific, as is the neighborhood), so feel free to PM me next time any of you are in the area. I promise I won't steal your pizza!

[7ontheline]

Chophouse>>Carmines.

Chophouse Prime Rib was probably in my top 3 steaks I've ever had.

[guids]

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Anyone ever been to Carmine's?

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the food is pretty good, but it is one of the cornerstones of the infamous viagra triangle. you are probably too young to be hanging out around there.

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you left out the most important info. are there cougars?

[Rogue5]

I went for the jalapeno and pepperoni (awesome combo) pan pizza, it was great, though my mouth was burning pretty good by the end. I'll probably go back next time I'm in Chicago (probably won't be too long, and I think there's a realistic chance of my company opening a new office there in the future, I think right now I would be pretty tempted to volunteer to run it and move out there, I'm growing tired of my current situation.)

How is real estate in the area? I found some really cheap apartments on craigslist and some cheap condos on realtor.com (well, seems cheap compared to the Northeast, I mean, I live in NH (in the biggest city in the whole state!) and thought the prices were comparable).

my only regrets were not seeing a Cubs game, and not going to one of the good steakhouses that were reccomended.

[inside??]

"First thing I noticed is that Cicero Ave is pretty ghetto... but I did find a Chipotle."

This is possible the saddest thing I have ever read on 2+2. You are in the I consider the greatest food city in the United States and you go to Chipotle? AAAAAAAAAAAH! Poker Bob pretty much nailed what you should have done. There is no other city that has a better Italian Beef, Hot Dog or Sausage than Chicago. Do yourself a favor and next time you go make sure you hit these. Sausages at Wrigley are out of this world! Portillo's is awesome. Get and Italian beef with hot peppers,a Chicago dog, add a beer and you will be in heaven!

[pokerbobo]

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"First thing I noticed is that Cicero Ave is pretty ghetto... but I did find a Chipotle."

This is possible the saddest thing I have ever read on 2+2. You are in the I consider the greatest food city in the United States and you go to Chipotle? AAAAAAAAAAAH! Poker Bob pretty much nailed what you should have done. There is no other city that has a better Italian Beef, Hot Dog or Sausage than Chicago. Do yourself a favor and next time you go make sure you hit these. Sausages at Wrigley are out of this world! Portillo's is awesome. Get and Italian beef with hot peppers,a Chicago dog, add a beer and you will be in heaven!

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I'm pretty sure this is the first compliment I ever got in any forum....Thanks.

PokerBobO

[citanul]

rogue,

if/when you're back, feel free to drop me a PM, i'd love to go for beer and pizza, or a game.

chicago real estate is in general much more affordable than the other large cities. you can, of course, break the bank if you want, but you'd have to go sort of out of your way to do so. a lot of it depends on exactly what you're looking for, and your neighborhood of choice. i'm assuming you're talking about buying, not renting? (the rental market is also much more reasonable than elsewhere.)

you can get a very nice 2 bedroom rental apt in almost any of the good neighborhoods for around $1500/mo, and can, if you look, find better deals than that.

if you are looking purchase, you can do a quite nice 2 bedroom in a good northside neighbhorhood, or south loop or printers row, for under $350k. if you're looking for specifically lincoln park, the prices are a bit higher, with nice places going around $500k.

craigslist is a great place to browse to get a frame of reference though. for some reference, ted lilly (cubs pitcher) just bought a rather huge mansion type thing in southport corridor (a few blocks west of wrigley), link.

anyway, if you want to talk about stuff like the real estate market or whatever, just pm me. i have a feeling this is getting too specific for general tastes.

[Rogue5]

wow, I was similiarly ridiculed for hinting at going to the Chipotle in Times Square last time I was in Manhattan. you have to understand, Chipotle has been this legendary burrito place for months now, and when I finally had the chance to experience the wonder it was a big deal.

now that I'm no longer a chipotle virgin I'll be able to look past it to see the really great places, and only end up there when I need something fast.

[citanul]

rogue,

yeah, a large part of the chipotle mythos comes from its quality relative to other fast food.