Bill "Travel Guy" M.'s Profile

I was drawn to this Yelp event by the prospect of visiting this space in Astor Tower, a building designed by one of my former bosses, Bertrand Goldberg (architect of Marina City and River City). The colorful and clubby interiors of Maxim's are beautiful, although a bit cramped for this evening's stellar Yelp turnout. I did get to snag a ham + cheese crepe and a few mini-cupcakes along with two drinks, which provided me enough energy to enjoy seeing the parade of colorful masks worn by some Yelpers (sorry - I did not have one!).

I visited the fairly new Argo Tea "tea-osk" inside the west lobby of the Willis-Sears Tower during lunchtime. There was no line at all, so the wait for my bubble tea with little chewy raspberry cubes was minimal. There are a few stools around which you can sit and enjoy your drink, and the "world" music being played was pleasant. The good thing about Argo's location is that you do not have to venture past the security check-in like you would if you were visiting the Starbucks or Corner Bakery inside Willis-Sears.

I have some fond memories of dining at the old Berghoff, so thanks to Yelp I had my first experience at the "new" Berghoff. I had missed last year's Yelptoberfest here, but I am certainly glad to have attended this year's version. I didn't seem to miss much (aw I missed the root beer float??) but did enjoy brats with kraut and mustard, a giant warm pretzel, a mini-reuben, a mini-potato pancake, a sorta-like-German chocolate cake "whoopie pie", and a few very tasty alcoholic beverages. My +1 and I got a kick out of the funky Yelp lunchboxes (with thermos inside!) and the old-school German band. Everything seemed to be well-organized, as there never seemed to be much of a wait in line for anything. The only decent line was when we were a few minutes early and were waiting to get in, but we pretended to be in line for the Oprah show (haha) and enjoyed how the exterior side wall had paint blotches shaped like countries, states and great lakes (you had to be there).

Another great party - thanks again to Andrea, Colleen and Jelena (and Colleen - very cool outfit!!).

I stopped by Provenance just to pick up a carton of Nice Cream, the fabulous artisan ice cream by fellow Yelper "Kris W". This store carries each of the four seasonal Nice Cream flavors. Provenance carries an interesting selection of premium-brand foods, so if you have a few dollars to burn, pick up some tasty treats here. It is coneveniently located very close to the Western - Brown Line stoop.

I've been sitting on this free pizza coupon coaster that I received from HomeMade Pizza at the recent Yelp Summerfest. On a lazy and cool Sunday afternoon, I cashed in. The cheery young lady behind the counter was very helpful, and she said I did not have to buy anything to get the free pizza. I did buy a small salad with pear, blue cheese and walnuts. My order came out very quickly. The sausage and caramelized onion pizza is apparently their most popular model. It was good the first time out of the oven (it comes out VERY HOT), and good again as leftovers the following day. The pizza was very fresh though it was not great, but perhaps that is because of my lack of skills in the kitchen.

What is this place called - Wicker Park Tavern, The Tavern, The Tavern (Wicker Park) ??

The best part of the Tavern are the sofas, which are great for kicking back, people-watching and chatting with your sofa mates. Otherwise standing in a crowded bar is not my idea of a good time. We came in for a beer a bit past 9PM and were told they were no longer serving food that day. They cranked up the music as they anticipated a bigger crowd about 11PM on a Saturday night, so that was our cue to leave. Well, the beer was good.

My only experience here was a drink on a Saturday evening. The music is rather loud, and the TV's showed basketball and skateboarding (???) though the atmosphere is not anything close to a sports bar. Fortunately the booths are very cozy. My friend confounded the server with her first two drink choices (not listed on the martini-heavy drink menu) and settled for a double kamikaze, which she contended did not resemble what she is used to with a kamikaze. I was pleased and "beery" with my Chimay Ale, the priciest beer selection on the menu.

What the heck is this glossy Chinese restaurant doing in Logan Square (next to a mattress shop)? Thanks to a Groupon offer, our group of four was lured to try out the food. The interior lobby greets you with a wall of shiny and serene Buddha heads, and the dining hall is comfortably chic as it does not fall into the clichés of dragons and red gateways run amok. We had a relatively early dinner reservation, and even though we came a bit late it was not a problem to be seated. The place is BYOB, but their short beer list is not bad (we all went for the Kirin).

The Groupon offer was for a 5-course meal featuring Chilean sea bass. I was the lone dissenter of our group and ordered a la carte to avoid the seafood special. The special meal featured crispy unagi with salad (was that eel?), lobster and corn bisque, peppercorn beef tenderloin, sea bass over a bed of noodles, and dessert. I ordered pork pot stickers, which were delicious and quite sizeable. My entrée was champagne lemon chicken with broccoli, which was good though I liked the beef better (yeah we all shared). The feature dessert was chocolate volcano cake, but we were allowed to pick three different desserts (glazed sorbet ball, mousse cube, volcano cake), and these are rather rich for a Chinese restaurant. I liked the little flourishes here, such as the bowls of rice delicately striped with soy sauce so they look like scoops of ice cream, and the food was all well-presented. It seemed all of the food was very good...except for the sea bass! All three of my dining mates were not thrilled by the fish, which is odd since that was the item that lured the crowd here. There were some minor service issues too (two servings of sea bass instead of three on the family plate, and Groupon cost added to total bill even though the Groupon is a prepaid item). Still, the Groupon discount was incredible ($13 instead of $50 "rack rate" for the 5-course meal) in comparison to the a la carte pricing. Overall we did enjoy the "fabuloso" dining experience at Friendship.

As a Yelp old-timer I have attended many a Yelp event, but again I have to tip my summertime hat to the Yelp crew (Andrea, Colleen, and now Jelena, plus a cast of thousands) for setting up the BEST YELP EVENT EVER!

The indoor/outdoor setup at the Irish American Heritage Center was perfect (thanks in part to the good weather), so the mass of humanity was allowed to spread over many fun places and spaces. the IAHC building reminded me of my old grade school, so I happily threw in a few dollars into the Pot O'Gold.  

Here are some random memories of Yelp Summerfest:
PhotoBooth
Yelper Kris and her delicious Nice Cream samples (chocolate + basil = yum!)
Matilda beer!
HomeMade salad in a martini glass
Astronomer Joe and his camera contraption
The amazingly long line for the Croatian sausage (cevapcici), which was really delicious and actually worth the wait
Seeing fellow Golden Elite Ellen M (and Andy too)
Seeing newer Yelpers like Lisa C and Val
Colleen doin' that Katy Perry song (Go Colleen!!)
Dragos the Romanian sticker man
Yelp goodie bag filled with miscellaneous goodies

Yelp Summerfest was truly Yelp-tastic and will never be topped (but you know it will be one of these days...)

O'Callaghan's was the site of a mini-reunion amongst a few of my ex-co-workers. One of my colleagues did a great job of reserving the space on the second floor (I imagine the experience on the first floor would be much more crowded and therefore more annoying). There was plenty of space for our group, and plenty of good beer going down as well. The big screens were showing a couple of ballgames, so what more can one ask for at a bar? Another group was coming up to this space as the last ones of our group (including me) were shuffling out, but there was no pressure for us to leave from the staff, so that was cool.

It was really good to see some of the gang from the ol' office, so that's why I picked this as my 1000th review.