SUMMER ZOOMS!

The summer continues ot race to the end...

 Excellent wines with great food in a neighborhood BYO makes for a perfect evening... Met up with Frank for Guatemalan at Tikal Sabor. My favorites were the garnachas and the picadita. But the churrasca was also a winner as was the ceviche.... All good choices. Menu items marked. Worthy choice on so many levels. 

Then a few more nights with places in the hood- first up- The Bagel

Since 1950 and, I fear, about to pass into history. Sure miss seeing Danny who ran this place for decades until his death.

Danny Wolf (Dan "Danny" Wolf) was the longtime owner and familiar face of The Bagel Restaurant and Deli at 3107 N. Broadway in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood. He ran the beloved Jewish institution for decades before passing away on 2022.  He was born in a concentration camp and a child survivor of the Theresienstadt ghetto. Danny helped out at the original family deli (opened in 1950 by his grandparents Chaim and Elsa Golenzer in Albany Park) from the age of seven.  He managed and ultimately owned the family business, guiding its moves—including the 1992 relocation to Broadway. 

I think I can say this in all honesty. It's not what it was, no deli is these days. It's a bygone era and a culinary tradition that time has passed by. 

Phil had a chicken soup with a kreple and a pastrami sandwich. I ate a half a plate of the pickles (half sour) and a half of a Devon Avenue sandwich which is pastrami and corned beef with Swiss. It was on my summer tour list because I am not sure it will still be there the next time I'm in Chicago for my summer restaurant rotation.  

Time passes.... things change. 

Then- Butcher and Burger- our trainer,Leslie, is on vacation this weekend so we had an afternoon "off" and went to lunch. We have always loved Butcher & Burger (even had dinner there on one of our anniversaries; it's BYO.) We had followed Allen Sternweiler from Zinfandel to Chef Allen's to B&B. He's about to move into new digs and a more upscale iteration of B&B, near Lincoln and Irving Park. Great news for us! 

I had blue cheese, onions, and pickles. P had something with cheddar. 😅 Outdoor seating was open, but the day was a tad too humid to sit outside. A great playlist of strong Motown made a good background for our "holiday" lunch.

After a big lunch we were looking for a quick and easy dinner. So we went to Orange Garden around the corner. We showed up about 40 minutes before closing time. This is another old favorite that I always worry won't be around for the rotation next summer. This one was founded in 1932 (per the menu.)

Google tells me it is  "Chicago's oldest continuously operating Chinese restaurant. The restaurant serves classic Cantonese and American-Chinese comfort food like chop suey, orange chicken, and Chicago-style egg rolls featuring peanut butter." 

I know WE have been coming here for as long as we have known each other (30 years) because it was a good place for Orange Beef (my personal favorite.) And, we always loved their egg rolls and soups. That's what I wanted tonight; an egg roll and a "small" hot and sour soup. Phil decided on an egg roll and wonton soup and Happy Family (with chili sauce on the side to liven up the heavily garlic dish.) Everything seemed extra tasty because it had been a really long time since we had the "traditional" Chicago style egg roll. 

This place has rarely had a packed dining room in all the years we have been eating here. What they do have, is a very brisk carry out business and tonight was no exception. The doorbell chime was going off regularly in the last half hour before closing.  In the last 15 minutes there was a steady stream of people picking up. Long live OG. 

Side story - for years they had this fabulous neon sign out front until the owners sold it to some rock star neon collector guy. (Actually the story is his wife bought it for him but I wonder if she cracked open her piggy bank to fund the gift or it was more like "look what I bought you honey" and he funded it?)

Per Google, "The iconic Orange Garden neon sign, widely recognized as Chicago's oldest working neon sign, was sold at auction for $17,000 to Billy Corgan and Chloé Mendel. The Art Deco masterpiece hung outside the legendary Orange Garden Restaurant in Chicago's North Center neighborhood for 90 years. It featured vibrant orange illumination with the phrases "Chop Suey" and "Chow Mein".

If this was a farewell - we ended on a high note.

the sign is gone but while I couldn't find myown photo of it I did find one on FLICKR by someone else - credit to them - but it looks pretty much like myh photo - which I will post if I figure out where I filed it LOL

Friday night - dinner at home - making short ribs (new attempt in the absence of the Costco shortribs which they have discontinued) these look promising but the "proof is in the pudding" as they say- VERDICT: MEH!

Fall classes are here and I picked the one I wanted to "attend" - which also happened to be one P was interested in as well... back to school at the end of September!

Class blurb:

"How can science reveal invisible worlds beyond direct human perception? This lecture series brings together professors who are leaders in their fields of astronomy, chemistry, robotics, nanotechnology, physics, and biological engineering to unveil previously invisible new phenomena. What do these discoveries mean for humanity?"

Saturday night - I cooked, Nick & Lee brought the flowers and John and Stephanie brought fresh skewers with tomatoes and basil from their garden.  A watermelon firecracker 🧨 was the cocktail of the evening (from our very favorite mixologist, Nick!) And, of course Phil was responsible for wine selections and somm duties.

So that was our first week in August. But we are in the press to hit all the faovrites and the listed places for dining before I leave in less than six weeks so stay tuned.

life continues

we have been at home but still socializing with friends as we head toward the end of our Chicago time this year-

Angela and Lee came for a visit from the UK and the three of them went to a Cubs game and then came over for drinks before heading back to her mom's place in Evanston.

Then Phil spent his weekend at the Evanston Folk Festival and I stayed home- created a new recipe, it is pretty good but too spicy despite the creamy sauce so I made some macaroni and used the leftover in a  cold pasta salad with mayo to cool it down a bit.....

Tried out a new combo of things around the kitchen. Pretty happy with this. Hot Italian sausage with an Alfredo sauce over some pasta left over and retrieved from the freezer. While. I was cooking and tasting I decided it needed a bit more acid, so I chopped some tomatoes. I really dislike red sauce as it has always tasted too sweet to me. I like pizza bianco for the same reason. I think this would be even better with a sprinkling of flat leaf parsley

We went to the Bagel one night as it was on our list of places to eat while in Chicago... still good

Haven't been to The Bagel since the long time owner Danny died. Nice to know that the new owners have pretty much kept the place as it was.  The food is still the classic deli - the quality is as good or better than it was in the past... Still attracting an eclectic crowd, but not late-night anymore.  Sadly it closes at 8 pm. There are no delis in Sevilla, so our pastrami/corn beef fix has to occur during the time we are here in the States.

The next night we ate at Psistaria Greek with Zack & Becky and their girls, Abby 12 and Maya 9. While we were dining with them the debate in the presidential race was going on - an appalling and entertaining  evening at the same time.  Here are a few memes post debate when Trump said "illegal migrants" were eating dogs in Ohio.

the man is clearly insane... but we move on- 

the next night we tried the Bayan Ko tasting menu - it was really tasty and an excellent value IMO.

Highly recommend the Bayan Ko tasting menu at the OG Bayan Ko location. The Diner is a few doors down and we agreed we should check out the dinner menu there (having only had lunch on a prior visit). Tonight we had the five course tasting menu with wine pairings of some tasty and interesting Spanish wines. I started with a Cuban Libre in my grandfather's memory. Then we had the menu and pairings.  Each course was really terrific with balanced flavors and textures. We are already talking about who to introduce this experience to, amongst our dining friends.  Menu and wine pairings attached. Thanks Lawrence Letrero and Raquel Quadreny

Although the higher end tasting menu restaurant only had one other table (3 top)  that night the diner two doors down (also the same owners) was doing more business...

Then we had dinner with Leslie after a session of training - we went to Tre Kronor - a huge disappointment:  Sad to report that a favorite from when we lived north of Foster will now be cut from the list. Food still decent (except for missing items from the menu that we weren't informed of until ordering the "we don't have that" choices) They are still nice enough to be BYO, but the server was not adept and we ended up with cork in the bottle.... Requested food be served extra hot as we were outside. Warm but definitely not extra hot. Phil and I looked at each other early in the meal and said "nice gal but not a server, probably a student." And there were no more than three other tables with customers the whole evening:a single woman, a single man, the three of us outside and one occupied table inside (which did turn over from an early bird couple to a three top around 7:30 or so.) I fear they are headed towards being out of business. The building, once a lovely "Kro" design as you'd see in the country in Scandinavia, has fallen into disrepair. Just no longer looking like a "going concern" as my father used to say. So I can't really recommend the place. Better to live on your memories of better times. 

A few more political cartoons from this year's match up - 

We have a quiet weekend planned and start ip with social plans again next week-