Today, March 4, 2012, is the City of Chicago’s 175th birthday. If it’s one thing Chicago has taught me it’s this: If you can’t love Chicago, you can’t love anything. Chicago is a complex that is complex: The fickle and brutal elements. The concrete. The segregation. Clout. The multilayered fiefdoms of government. The endless flat … Continue reading Blow out the Candles, Chicago. It’s Your Birthday.
As of this writing, it’s an incredibly mild Leap Year Day in Chicago with temperatures at 60 degrees Fahrenheit! It’s gotten me in the mood for baseball! My beloved Chicago Cubs‘ first preseason game will be on March 4 – the City of Chicago’s 175th birthday! – and the home opener is April 5 against the Washington Nationals at beautiful and historic Wrigley Field. April is quickly approaching… Continue reading “Why I Love Baseball. Oh, Let Me Count the Ways.”
I got three meal invitations for this past weekend that I could not refuse. I don’t mean that in a Godfather way.
Restaurant Week in Chicago was in full effect and I wasn’t intending on joining the Open Table RSVP scuttle, but a girlfriend with whom I hadn’t seen in too long texted, so I accompanied her to Boka. Another girlfriend invited me to be the fourth on a reservation for Girl and the Goat, a place I’d been jonesing to return to enjoy a full meal. And finally, I took up a suggestion for Sunday post-church brunch at a new-to-me Ethiopian place, Ras Dashen. Interestingly, of these three, the humble, least-hyped, least expensive restaurant is the joint whose food most impressed me. Continue reading “Chicagoings-on, Food: For He Who is the Least Among You”
If I can return to BCN, I’d come during warmer seasons. And next time, I’d love to catch a FC Barcelona match, brown my bum on the beach and drive out to some wineries for cava tastings! We visited at the end of November, and though the sea keeps its climate fairly temperate, I was surprised by how many visitors came to chilly BCN. We had plenty of company. My companion and I repeatedly whispered to each other, “I can’t even imagine how this [subway, rambla, other attraction] must be in the summer.” It must be wonderful madness. Continue reading “A Wish, A Little More Money, A Quiet Goodbye. Barcelona Part 5.”
