esterday was divine. It hit 73 degrees and was even muggy at times ( I know, I won't be celebrating that fact in another month or so). We took full advantage of the weather and the city and went exploring.
We started out downtown (my office building, actually) and walked from there up Michigan, across the Chicago River and wound up at the
Istituto Italiano di Cultura, where I will be taking Italian classes starting on Monday.
From there we walked across Grand, stopped in the Bloomingdale's Home store, and bought a Cuisinart blender/food processor (spurned by a hummus fiasco earlier in the week).
Magic Mike then proceeded to carry said blender/food processor as we walked up Wells, through Old Town to Lincoln, and up Lincoln to Roscoe where Mike took a rest in a Starbucks while I got a much-needed haircut at
Sine Qua Non Salon.
45 minutes later I picked up Mike (and blender) and we walked further up Lincoln, past Grace, to
Deadwax Records. Yesterday was national 'Record Store Day', so we thought it our duty to pay our local one a visit. It's been
ages since I've been in an independent record store, and I forgot how addictive it is once you start searching for records and CDs.
While we don't have a record player (although we entered Deadwax's raffle for one!) we still wound up taking home two records:
We bid Deadwax adieu and continued our walk up Lincoln to home. Dropped off our Cuisinart (please god let it work), changed our shoes, and then rode the bus up Damen to Foster. Walked Foster to Clark, noticed the crepe shop that Brindha and Gary had taken us to when we first came out to visit a couple years ago, and then hoofed it over to the
Hopleaf Bar.
Now.
If you've never been to Hopleaf, it's pretty phenomenal. It's ALWAYS busy, even though the bar doesn't open until 3:00 and the restaurant doesn't open until 5:00. So the plan is to get there at 3-ish, have some cocktails, and then at 4:45 start elbowing your way to the front of the line to get seated at 5:00.
Instead we got there around 4:00, had a couple of cocktails, then decided not to buy into the "elbowing" aspect (that's
so New York) and just have faith that there were plenty of tables to go around and we would get seated in fine time.
At the bar - Michael started with a Kwak, served in a nifty glass contraption:
Yum! I opted for a subdued glass of Steven Test Sauvignon Blanc (2006).
Next Michael tried a Tripel Karmeliet, which was good as well, but no Kwak.
I had another Sauvignon Blanc (not a good idea to be too adventurous with wine in one afternoon and on an empty stomach).
Still at the bar, Mike next tried a Verhaeghe. Antoher yummy one, but Kwak was the definite winner. I still worked on my second glass of vino.
We were seated!
Another glass of wine (ugh today) and we split an order of mussels in coconut-curry (w/ginger, sweet potatoes, jalapeno & Kafir lime leaves) with frites and aioli.
We also decided to order two sandwiches for our main dishes so we could split them. Michael got the Duck Reuben on marble rye (Pekin duck breast, slow-roasted, with cranberry cream cheese spread, house made sauerkraut, emmenthaler, and more pomme frites). I ordered the Toasted Nueske Ham on pumpernickel, gruyere cheese & apple-tarragon coleslaw, and - oh boy - more pomme frites.
Dude.
Good.
Stuffed, drunk, and frited out, we finally left and decided to walk it home. It was still light out and warm (but not so muggy!) and it was a lovely, meandering, giggly walk home.
Burped and sighed on the couch for a while, then decided to calculate exactly how much walking we did. Just under 10 miles.
Fast asleep at 9:30.
It was a good day. :)
