SandraB's Profile
ENO??
Yes. Dynamic room, great street view and a lot of fun. Unbelievable wine list. Crappy chocolate. Average cheese.
Restaurants in Beverly/Mt Greenwood?
There are two or three worth mentioning.
Koda's on Western is a French bistro...managed by the guy who used to manage Bistro 110. Good food.
Mulcrone's on 95th is American fare...CIA graduate does the cooking.
Fox's Beverly Pub on Western has very good cracker crust pizza.
Hot Chocolate - Vosges, Moonstruck, Others?
We think Hot Chocolate is great and hope it succeeds.
On the North Shore Chocolate Box in Winnetka has great homemade hot chocolate. It's not sweet but extremely chocolatey...and they have homemade marshmallows in three or four different flavors. You could do worse than a spicy hot chocolate with cinnamon marshmallows.
Wolfgang Puck's A-Go-Go-Gone
Agree completely that it was awful. An unhappy experience to eat there. Though, they did have a couple decent wines by the glass.
Shaw's?
It's the midwest and so it's never as fresh and "bright" as the east coast when talking about seafood.
I continue to go to Shaw's and recommend it. ( I think the whitefish is the best dish ) But none of the negative comments surprise me.
Deep Dish Pizza (no chains)
It's nice to see the non-chain recommendations. Believe that's what this board is about. A few months hiatus from discussing Chicago's best deep dish pizza just might be good for everyone's soul.
Breakfast/Brunch in SW 'burbs
Mulcrone's on 95th a bit west of California. For brunch, don't think they do breakfast. Chef there is a CIA grad and has worked in some fine restaurants.
A unique Beverly experience is the Original House of Pancakes on Western -- same chain as Walker Bros. It abuts a KFC. You can order a combo pancake/fried chicken platter. No kidding. I wouldn't call it fine dining and you'll hate yourself later, but it's different.
Coda's Bistro (or Koda's Bistro) also on Western is a fine dining option as well. Not for b'fast, though.
Best of luck.
Grant Achatz--Cancer
It's very sad news but he is handling it with incredible class.
dessert: hot chocolate or tru?
We've only been to Hot Chocolate once but were pleased with the meal and dessert. We had sandwiches (Tuna melt) which were very good and the desserts exceeded our expectation. Great homemade potato chips with the sandwich. The quality versus price we thought was good. Ambiance was great.
Chicago wine stores
Sam's downtown does have a huge selection. The difference between Sam's and WDC is that the latter only sells (very) good, drinkable wine (whereas Sam's sells everything). WDC per bottle prices are 20 - 30% less than Sam's and other liquor stores. We once bought a couple cases for an event and asked for a discount and we were told that they don't discount cases (as Sam's does) because the bottles are already discounted. We stopped going to Sam's years ago because the quality at WDC is so high and the prices reasonable. More for Chicagoans, though, as the lcoations are out of the way.
Gio in Evanston
Went to Gio about a year ago. The food was very average but the service was atrocious. Horrible attitude towards paying customers.
Nsxtasy is right about other, better Italian in Evanston.
Pastry / Baked Good / Confections
juilletdix...unfortunately i agree with you...you'll find a good product here and there but across the board NY is much more serious about its pastry
Best Italian?
I've eaten at Bice Chicago, Bice London and Bice Buenos Aires. And, the next good meal I have at a Bice's will be my first.
Volare is nice. Coco Pazzo can be very good.
Frontera/Tompolobampo: 2nd Time Not a Charm
Add my name to the list of those that have been underwhelmed. Have to admit that months (versus weeks and days) have seperated my visits, but we've stopped going to both. Perhaps if we went all the time they'd recognize us and treat us better, but we're not going to make that bargain.
Frontera, Caf.Spiaggia or Chic.Pizza/Oven Grinder?
I've seen other pizza discussions on this board and there's certainly a strong bias for the deep dish. I can tolerate the deep dish once in a while but my preference is thin and neopolitan. In addition, believe it takes far more skill to make a good neopolitan pizza. I've been in the kitchen when a deep dish is made, and believe me, no artistry is required at all.
Know I'm in the minority but I've always been underwhelmed at Frontera. His chef opened up a restaurant on Milwaukee Ave that was very good but it's been a couple of years.
Dinner in Waukegan
We had no expectations and ended up having a great time. Want to see what others say but the food was really very good.
Dinner in Waukegan
THank you so much for asking. I meant to write Gurnee but had a brain cramp.
Dinner in Waukegan
We stumbled upon a place in Galena this past weekend that was great called Monkey Dish. Waiter said it was started by a couple guys that split from Melman. Nice, creative food (all in small serving sizes), good wine and beer list. Very attractive interior.
St. Louis Business Breakfast
Will be in St. Louis next week for a business breakfast and would appreciate any suggestions. Needs to be moderately quiet and private (not tables on top of one another).
Anywere from Central West End to Clayton.
Thanks in advance.
How much will a dinner at Charlie Trotters set me back?
Have a friend who is an accomplished, fairly well-known chef who took his wife to Trotters when they were visiting three years ago. He loves to tell the story that he stopped at the Rock and Roll McDonald's on the way back to their hotel because they were still hungry. There are less expensive options though we've always enjoyed the food.
Absolute best burger in Chicago?
Valid point that afflicts many discussions. The responses mix different categories food products. For the basic burger...I like a char version such as CrossRhodes in Evanston.
Looking for good chicken shawarma...
Pita Inn on Dempster in Skokie has excellent chicken shwarma...not too lean. Falaffel is good as well.
FDA changing chocolate rules?
This is clearly an issue of multi-nationals using the organizations that they fund to compel the FDA to allow for a change in recipe. Why would they do this? Because the growth among mass marketers has been flat to down, they need to take cost out to "create earnings growth." Meanwhile, the small chocolate makers -- gourmet and prestige are growing.
IMHO, it's not sufficient to merely say that we don't like the change. We need to be specific about why and be clear about who is harmed.
