Brick's Picks

Used to be my favorite Chicago restaurant

     I really like to eat.  But more than just eating I really enjoy the restaurant experience.  There is something so satisfying about having people you don't know bring you food.  Dining allows me to spend quality time with friends and family and to experience new and sometimes extremely satisfying experiences that become memories.  And I'm not a snob about it either.  I can enjoy the well apportioned filet mignon right after a dog at the ball park with equal "relish".  One of the things that I am really looking forward to this summer is finding those great historically proven eateries of Chicago or discovering the new hot spot before it becomes the new hot spot.  Life is too short to have a bland diet.  So I thought that I would write about my favorite restaurants that I have already determined so that I have a specific menu of venues with which to measure.

Brick's Picks (Restaurants and Food)

Korean: I'll start with what I know best.  The single most important thing that I did when I first started dating this woman I know to ingratiate myself to her mother was to eat her cooking like I had been starving for days.  It was the first time I had ever eaten Korean food and I loved it from the start.  To date the best place that I've been for great Korean food is San Soo Gab San.

Chinese: Close on the heels of Korean food in terms of ethnic food we typically eat is Chinese.  When we go to Yu's Mandarin Resaurant I typically will get "ja jang myun", a noodle dish which is actually Korean, but I've also had lots of the Chinese stuff from Yu's and it is really good too.


Japanese: We don't really have an actual Japanese cuisine restaurant that we frequent, but I really liked our recent trip to the Slurping Turtle, a new ramen noodle place that just opened in Chicago and it is getting great reviews.  And as for the Japanese hibachi steakhouse kinda place Lisle's own Tairyo Restuarant is one of my son's favorites.

Italian: If you want to leave a place 5 pounds heavier than you were when you got there, then Maggiano's Little Italy is what you're looking for.  And if your dinner wasn't enough they give you an additional meal to take home with you built into the price.  Crazy amount of very good food.

German: 5 years ago this would have been a no-brainer.  I went to the Berghoff on my first trip to Chicago and it became synonymous with the city for me.  The food, the waiters, the buzz, it was a great place.  But it closed and then reopened under new management and it just isn't even close to the same.  So now when I'm looking for food from the "fatherland" I just stay in Lisle and go to The Bavarian Lodge.  They are so close and so popular that people park their cars all through our neighborhood when they go there to eat.  And, oh yeah, they don't have a lot of parking.

Middle Eastern:  Yeah I know, not typically on the main list of ethnic restaurant categories but  I've got a place that fits the description so I'm adding it.  I could eat the chicken shawarma and the lentil soup daily from the Naf Naf Grill.  They are awesome!

Mexican: Angie Remigio's house.  But when she won't cook for me I usually end up at Cozymel's.  It kinda has a corporate feel, but the food is good and they just added a seafood chili relleno to their menu that is outstanding.  If you are just looking for a burrito and some horchata then Los Burritos Tapatios is a very good place that I pass by on my walks down Ogden Ave. most everyday.

Chicago Style Pizza: This is a very specific category of pizza and my selection for this is also one of those Chicago iconic places that is as much about the history and crowds as it is about the food.  The Original Gino's East is the king of CSP.  You may be wondering why the specificity about pizza?  Well it's because I come from a town in Indiana that has a chain of restaurants called Pizza King.  Most kids are raised on a steady diet of this stuff from about the time when their teeth come in and become so addicted to the pizza that it is the first place they visit when they return home from their adventures abroad.  Hail Pizza King!!

Seafood: I wasn't much of a fan of seafood coming from the Midwest and a family that didn't experiment at dinner time much more than to decide which type of potatoes to have with their meat.  But after our trip to Hawaii where we literally ate the fish as they came off the boats I have sought out good seafood more often.  We have a place in Lisle that is always busy named Chin's 34th St. Fishery.  They actually post the airline bills of lading on their door as you come in so you can see that the fish is fresh.  They are also honest and helpful.  I left my wallet at our table and didn't know it for a couple of hours.  When I returned it was waiting for me in tact.  That kind of thing will always get a place a return visit from me.

Hot Dogs:  Their hot dogs are good, very good, but they may not be the best (hey they're hot dogs), but you absolutely can not beat the experience of the drive in at Superdawgs.  It makes me glad to be a convertible owner.

Steaks:  I'm about to lose all credibility here because there are so many really great steakhouses around but in all honesty when a steak is what I'm in the mood for we usually head to Texas Road House.  If you can see past the hokeyness of the peanuts and the birthday saddle, you get a consistently good steak when you go there and they are very accommodating.  I also could eat two baskets of their rolls and honey butter at each setting (but I don't).

Upscale Eclectic:  So this could easily have been my pick for steaks but I had this category in mind when thinking about J Alexander's.  They don't have an extensive menu, but it is all over the place.  My absolute favorite item is the Cajun crab cakes!!

Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives:  If Guy Ferrari ever retires I want the Food Channel to know that I'd be happy to be the "Guy".  We started checking out the places that he visited that were within driving distance a couple of years ago and it has been fun.  I think our conclusion at this point is that Hackney's on Harms has been the best.  If you've never had a hamburger on pretzel bread, put it on your bucket list.

Breakfast: I guess the Swedes know how to start the day.  Ann Sather's has the most delicious breakfasts on the planet.

Desserts:  This discussion begins and ends with the New Orleans Beignets from The Grand Lux Cafe on Michigan Ave. in Chicago.  Never really tasted anything better.

So those are Brick's Picks for restaurants.  I have left lots of good places out and if you want a suggestion  or an opinion those are always free, just ask.  I'm going to put a bunch of my pictures from these places down at the bottom because what else am I going to do with them?

Tairyo

J Alexander

Maggiano's

Chin's

Naf Naf

Ann Sather's

Slurping Turtle

The Grande Lux

Los Burrito's

Son Soo Gab San

Hackney's

Superdawgs

Yu's

Hair on a Brick

The last time I cut length off of my hair

     So I made the decision that if I was going to write this blog that I was going to do it with courage and not shy away from the controversial polarizing topics like so many of today's namby pamby bloggers do.  And so today I tackle the question that seems to be on the minds of most people I know or meet, "What's with the hair"?  

     In the course of my lifetime I have sported many a coiffure, and the fact that I can use such a sophisticated word appropriately and in context should display that I am not one with which to trifle.  But the question remains why does a 49 year old conservative (for the most part), respectful (again for the most part) Christian husband father teacher wear his hair like a bass player from a seventies garage band named "Standard Transmission"?  It defies a logical explanation.  And there is the answer, I don't want to be easily explainable.  Oh, there are many other variables that go into this decision including such things as:

• the longer my hair the more it hides the gray
• I like it
• I'm an attention seeking neurotic living in the world of teenagers who can be cruel with their biting comments and notebook characitures 
• it whips around when I drive my convertible 
• but mostly, the easily explainable thing.

 
     There really is a point to be made here and not just the "be a self indulgent narcissist thumbing your nose at society" point.  I believe that people tend to judge the world in five second intervals.  They look at how you're dressed, give you an attractiveness rating, listen to maybe the first sentence your speak, and by then they have your pegged.  Typically it creates a fight, flight, frown, or friend response that is powerful and lasting and up the the perceived rather than the perceiver to change.  It's a hard habit to break because we convince ourselves that our perceptions are always correct.  When was last time that you thought to yourself, "man I was completely wrong about that guy"?  But most of the time the perception is way too shallow and narrow and stereotypical.  I want people to be circumspect about me so that they might be the same about others.  At this point you might be saying something like, "Dude, it's just hair.  Get over yourself."  You would be right to say this; rude and totally 90s, but right.  It really isn't all that big of a deal.  And I'm not claiming it is.  I'm not trying to shake up the world, but I try to do a little here and there to keep people guessing.  So if you see a slightly graying, long haired guy smiling as he walks the streets and beaches of Chicago this summer, don't judge him too quickly.  He might have an ulterior motive.  He might not want to be easily explainable.

Brick at 49

The look of a contented man.

     For the past few days I've been wondering why I, or anybody, would want to take the time to do this blog thing.  You know going in that most often you're probably writing it more for an audience of one and at times you might not want to read it either.  But I do think it is cathartic in the way that a diary or journal can be by allowing a person to create hard copy thoughts.  The thought most dominant in my mind lately is that I'm 49 years old.  I'm thinking about it because there are lots of changes going on in my life right now that are disruptive to my long established routines.  They are long worked for changes and good things, but still disruptive.  This woman I know has a new impressive job that comes with long hours and a long commute.  My son, let's call him Chip, is gearing up to leave the house that he has been the central focus of for the last 18 years to seek higher education in the wilds of Indiana.  We are going to spend two months in "The Second City".  And I'm about to hit the half century mark.

       This isn't a "middle age crazy" rant.  First off I think I'm beyond middle age unless I plan on living to 100; I don't.  Second I'm not uncomfortable with my age.  I like it.  Next year I will have the longest tenure of any teacher in our building and I like that.  I've accomplished some things, taken on responsibilities and I feel like I've made a contribution while having made positive impacts on lives.  Writing contemplatively makes this seem like my obituary, but its not meant to be.  I'm just cataloging contentment.  I'm pretty sure I'm a good husband, at least this woman I know indicates that I am, and if the my son is any indication of my skills as a parent then I'm an outstanding father because he is an outstanding human being.  I wish I could take all the credit there but I'm happy with just a little and really happy with the man he has become.

Sunset, Mallory Square, Key West

     So with all this contentment and happiness and birds singing and flowers blooming why I'm I so myopically focused on my age?  I think it is because of the perspective that it gives me of the world.  I've always been a fan of Richard Carlson's line "Don't sweat the small stuff...and it's all small stuff".  With the few very big exceptions of Faith, Family, and Friends, I buy that philosophy.  The stuff that was important to me in my teens means next to nothing to me today.  The priorities of my twenties are a mixed bag of successes, failures, and jettisoned dreams.  And so on.  And I'm sure that when I'm 59 I'm going to have even more perspective and wonder, "What the heck was I thinking 10 years ago?".  But that is where my head is at right now; it's all small stuff.  If I can pay the bills and go for walks and find new restaurants to explore and spend time with my family and friends and at church then the other stuff is just the minutiae of distraction.  That is the back story to explain "The Summer of Brick".  If I have the chance for a two month vacation why wouldn't I take it?  I am so looking forward to this.  It will give me time to do some more thinking.

"its all small stuff."

 

The Summer of Brick

Our summer digs

      Did you know I'm a blogger now, I blog.  Or at least I will be this summer because we are renting a two bedroom apartment in this building on the 51st floor for the months of June and July.  Why would we do this?  I think the best answer to that question is another question, why not?  My wife has long ago forbidden me to mention her by name in any of my Facebook postings and so I will continue to honor that prohibition in this blog, but on occasion you might hear a reference to "this woman I know".  It is always the same woman.


       I'm starting this blog now just to get used to writing and to figure out how to post, etc. but once summer gets here I will attempt to post daily for the two months and relate the daily goings on in a city that I have lived close to for 28 years, but in reality I barely know.

     


I have said many times that I use Facebook as my blog but I've begun to feel a little restricted on what I feel comfortable posting on there because of the diversity of my friends list.  I have a great suspicion that even though I'm not going to limit who follows this blog, it will be a lot smaller list of people.   

View from the roof on the 60th floor

View of Navy Pier from the living room