Chicago times

Caught up with friends Ron & Mary Monday night at Alcove in Evanston. This place is a hidden gem. Excellent food and open on Monday nights when our first choice ended up being closed. All menu items marked. #dinnerwithfriends

Then we had another full week of social engagements - La Bouchon on Tuesday and Guatemala Tikal Sabor Chapin on Wednesday with Frank. 

Le Bouchon might be Phil's favorite restaurant in the neighborhood - hard to say - but it's for sure his favorite French restaurant in the neighborhood. Service is relaxed and friendly even though it's never less than fully packed with diners and the din of happy customers.  I know it will surprise everyone to read that Phil ordered the duck and the foie gras. We split the fabulous toast of morels. Since we are seated as if in Paris, conversation with neighbors is a part of dining here. We met a young Russian woman who came here as a child and her dining companion a Floridian living somewhere in Indiana. Before they sat down the couple who occupied the table advocated heavily for the morels. We took their advice. It's not exactly a place where everybody knows your name but we have always had fun interactions with other diners, which just enhances the friendly vibe. Now if only we could enlarge the menu to carry some favorites from Lyon. 

We went for some Central American (Guatemalan) food at Tikal Sabor Chapin. IMO the best choice were the Garnachas, but both the meat dishes were excellent, as were the picaditas chapinas. The ceviche was very tasty. Weak link IMO were the tortitas de camerones. BYO, Frank brought an excellent white riojas from Mugal. Our white burg showed very poorly but the red burg showed very well. So we were fine in the wine department.

We had leftovers one night and I cooked a couple of nights and on Saturday we met Ron & Mary and Mike & Leslie along with a musician buddy of Mike's for dinner after a concert by the friend (Jason Wilber is his name). We dined at C'est Bien Thai - not my favorite but it had a later night reservation available for seven!

Thus was our week during mid June in Chicago. 

The Week Family visited

So now it is June and we have a fair number of things on the calendar already...

June social began Monday - we met up with Frank for dinner at Aroy Thai. Good food, good wine, good conversation. Best dish was definitely the sticky rice with pork shoulder. Called Sticky Rice Pad Jeow.

Tuesday we had pizza at Pat's because it was a lovely night to sit outside- finally warm enough.   Then Wednesday Steve and Suzanne were arriving after midnight so we went to Sochi for dinner... Viet - Michelin recognized and priced accordingly. Fortunately the service and dishes also met the level of expectation set by the pricing. All the dishes were excellent but my favorite was definitely the shaking beef, followed by the original egg roll. Phil preferred the Slap Mama Crab rice and the duck salad. #Recommended

The next day S&S went for a LOOONGG walk with Lee and Phil had a number of things on his calendar so S&S and I went to the new cafe aorund the corner for lunch. Then we all met up for a glass of bubbly and then went off to dinner. First evening out during a visit from family. We had French-Canadian at Dear Margaret. Excellent meal in every aspect. Terrific dishes and fabulous service from Shannon who was extremely helpful with menu guidance. The winning dessert was the paw paw tart. The rest of the menu was all so wonderfully designed and prepared it would be hard to choose even a few winners.  But the asparagus wins for best color presentation. #highlyrecomemded

Friday night Phil went off to a Judy Collins concert with Ron & Mary and S&S and I met up with Lee & Nick at Mon Ami Gabi for dinner.  It was a fabulous dinner with friends. Everything was superb. A classic bistro that exemplifies all the best dishes of the genre. My skate was first-rate! And the salads were marvelous. The shrimp cocktails got great reviews. The evening was enhanced by two great wines. A 1996 Branaire Ducru and an excellent Hudson Little Bit vineyard Chardonnay 2019 vintage.

There were four steaks at the table and then my Skate...

A lunch of salads and an omelet with spinach and feta (for me) at Golden Apple and then Saturday night dinner at Proxi with the whole group of six... 

The whole mishpucha tonight. Proxi with all six of us. Fun evening as usual when we all get together. #friendsandfamily #friendsarefamily  We had great cocktails to start (after a round from the mixologist at Diego's Bar - check out the last photo) All food items and cocktails described in the marked "menus."

Cocktails at Lee & Nick's

The full menu- for reference

We made arrangements to see Lee & Nick again soon and Steve & Suzanne have penciled in dates for Tenerife... They had a 7 AM flight the following morning so we said our goodbyes and they were in PDX before we got up LOL. Fun visit with family.