Brian "armchairdj" D.'s Profile

I have to agree with all the glowing praise for Dr. Joe. He took the time to talk through all the wear and tear I've put on my shoulders and upper back at the gym and in various accidents over the years. Sure, the adjustments and other treatment helped a lot. But so did all the thoughtful advice about how to approach my fitness regimen in a way that will preserve my joint and skeletomuscular health for decades to come.

This is a pretty typical high-end gym: Good, clean facilities; very helpful staff; nice pool; decent track; tons of equipment; and a low-key atmosphere if you go off-hours.

Sure, it's expensive, and it's often hard to get ahold of the people who can make things happen if you have questions or billing issues. And of course it's busy if you try to work out at peak times. And yeah, they're a little, um, aggressive with the upsell. (Don't ever give them a friend's email address for a free trial membership if you value that friendship - the friend will get spammed and cold-called to death.)

HOWEVER ... I'm giving FFC Gold Coast four stars for their one killer feature: A fantastic array of Pilates services, from great group classes to absolutely stellar 1:1 training. I've been working out 2x/week with Katie Manolatos for about three months now and in that time I've lost 17 lbs and seen my actual abs for the first time in my life. (I'm 37 and have been a gym guy for more than 15 years.) The majority of the other Pilates instructors are top-notch, too. (There's another Katie - Katie Del Pietro - who's excellent.)

Katie M knows how to work around my various aches, pains and old injuries and give me a stellar workout every single time. Despite having spent a chunk of change on my training sessions, I still try to make the excellent free mat classes, too - they're what got me to the point where I could even consider private lessons.

So, yeah, FFC Gold Coast earned my four stars because their top Pilates guru has basically given me a new body. If you're looking for a place to practice Pilates and the Gold Coast is convenient, I highly recommend giving Katie a shot.

I've gotten thousands of dollars of work done here - two full sleeves, two large leg pieces, a sizable back piece and a huge chest piece - and drive all the way up from Chicago every time I get the hankering for more work.

Kevin Lytle, my artist, does amazing original designs: I start with a concept and source art (mostly comic-book stuff) and he utterly transforms it into something better, different, and yet still true to the spirit of what I was looking for. (See http://tattoo.briandil.../ for more info.)

The other artists are all really cool, as is the crack staff at the reception desk.

I live in Chicago but have covered my body in artwork done in Livonia, MI - what higher recommendation could I make?

The decor is cute. Interesting wood tables and chairs, exposed brick, OK lighting. I could do without the art on the walls, but whatever.

The service was mediocre. If you're selling $25 pizzas, you need to be a little more friendly, attentive and personable. "You guys ready?" should not be your opening line.

Mostly, though, I'm bummed about the food. The varied bruschettas are served on thick, extremely hard, not-especially warm toast that, when piled with ingredients, is almost impossible to eat. A thinner bread, or a softer one, would have been a huge improvement.

And then the pizza. The margherita's crust had a nice, crackery thin-crust consistency. It wasn't charred, though it would have benefited from coming out of the oven about 60 seconds earlier. Still, I liked it.

But the rest: Sad. The barest drizzle of really flavorless tomato sauce. Two lonely leaves of fresh basil stranded in the middle of an 18"-long pizza, and a few more tiiny flakes of the stuff sprinkled into the sauce.

The cheese was fine. I'm 99% vegan but this was one of my 1% days so I didn't order the pizza cheeseless. There was a thin layer of really nice mozzarella that, to be honest, barely qualified me for a vegan cheat day. Even when I did regularly eat dairy I was a light-on-the-cheese guy, so this was perfect for me.

Still, if not-quite-burnt crust and not-too-much-cheese are the biggest compliments I can dish out for this pizza, I think you can tell what I thought.

Aimee took great care of me, a first-time home buyer. She explained every little thing, often twice; always made herself available on short notice to address my questions or concerns; and took great care to guide me through buying a home during a period when I was also switching jobs and racing to get a first-time homebuyer tax credit. I'd recommend her to anyone.

Totally agree w/ Jeremy K, who said this was a dental boutique, not a dentist's office.

On my first visit, they wanted to take a bunch of pictures and x-rays even though my previous dentist had done the same only one year earlier. I said OK, fine, as long as my insurance will cover it. They said it would.

Lo and behold, I get a bill for over $100. I call to find out why and it's the x-rays and pictures. Turns out some of the ones they took were not standard and customary and "some insurance companies won't cover them.

What part of "only if my insurance will cover it" did you not understand? Are you going to pretend that you haven't dealt with my insurance company 100 times w/ other patients and know exactly what they do and do not cover ahead of time?

I insist that I was very clear w/ them about wanting only preventative services that my insurance would cover. After a few back-and-forth phone calls, they agree to comp it because of the "misunderstanding." I decide, OK, I'm going to give them another shot.

I soon regret my decision. The use of email for communications isn't all it's cracked up to be. Over the next several months I get several spammy marketing emails from them - including one reminding me that my dental insurance benefits for the year will run out Dec. 31 and maybe I should come in and use them up @ Kimberly Smiles. I unsubscribe.

Then I realize 6 weeks or so later that I'm overdue for a cleaning. I guess you have 2 choices: Either get an appointment reminder by email and put up with a bunch of spam in the meantime, or don't get an appointment reminder at all. How about some fine-grained email subscription preferences like any halfway competent online business would offer?

The final straw comes during appointment #2. I immediately recognize the office manager as the person I dealt with on the phone. She goes out of her way to pander to me, but there's a barely detectable edge of sarcasm as she repeatedly refers to "those issues we had last time" and exaggeratedly goes over any and all possible add-on services with me.

I get the most perfunctory teeth-cleaning I've ever received. Then I go to settle up and they charge me an $8 administrative fee to run my insurance. That's right, unlike every other dentist I've ever used, they consider it a premium, for-pay service to bill my insurance company for me. My FSA won't even cover this ridiculous fee. Sure, it's $8. But that's the last $8 they'll ever get from me.

It's a shame, because Dr. Caldwell herself is very nice and seems competent. But the transformation of dentistry from a health essential to a cosmetic smorgasbord has blurred way too many lines.

If you are more interested in people dropping a grand on whitening or 25 grand on veneers, then just advertise yourself as a cosmetic dentist. Trying to serve run-of-the-mill, dental HMO patients who want cleanings and fillings alongside your upscale target audience just doesn't work.

I was a member of this club for about a year. Great facilities, wonderful pool, clean locker rooms, decent amenities. The only annoying thing about the layout is that it's so spread out vertically (7 floors!) and horizontally. Walking up and down stairs and through the labyrinth locker rooms probably added 10 minutes to each workout.

I mostly went to swim and to lift weights. I rarely had to wait for or share lanes in the pool - just watch out for senior-citizen water aerobics class schedules. As for the free weight area, It gets crowded at peak times, but if you go in off-hours it's not hard to lift hardcore for an hour or more without people bugging you to work in or breathing down your neck to hurry up. I sometimes like to do giant sets where I monopolize a squat rack, a cable machine and a decent amount of floor space for 30 minutes straight. Unless I went at noon or 5 p.m., this was never a problem.

LSAC Illinois Center really distinguished itself when I wanted to cancel. Based on my contract, they were legally free to bill me for a full month after I asked to quit, but they didn't. It was a few days until my next automatic payment and they just closed my membership at the end of the current billing cycle. So many gyms bill you for the rest of the current billing cycle plus the entire next billing cycle. LSAC could have, but didn't. I really appreciated that.

Sure, the memberships are expensive, but I found them to be on par with other full-service downtown gyms such as FFC Union Square. Pool, ball courts, climbing wall, classes, etc. - if the location works for you and you can afford it, I highly recommend this facility.

I won't add to the kvetching about parking because, hey, why are you idiots driving the the gym? Save some carbon and burn some calories; walk or bike to the gym.

Oh, yeah, why would you bike? There are exactly 3 outside bike racks and they're in an incredibly narrow alley between the bldg and the parking garage. People by the dozens lock their bikes to the saplings outside. The staff told me to park my bike in the parking garage. Um, hello, that's the steepest parking ramp I've ever seen. I'd need to rev my engines over at Target and bike across Logan Blvd. at full speed to build up enough momentum to get up that ramp.

The locker room's also a nightmare. Here's a hint: If I am dressing and undressing, I NEED A FRIGGING BENCH. How is it that only 1/3 of the lockers in this joint offer benches so I can sit down and tie my shoes?

Overall, this joint is like Bally Total Fitness but without the contract. It's great not having to sell your soul for a three-year contract to use a cheap, full-featured gym. But you get what you pay for.

On the plus side, the pool rocks and is rarely crowded. I've only had to share a lane 1x in the several weeks I've been using it at various day and evening hours.

Look, I grew up eating at Chi-Chi's at the Lakeview Square Mall in Battle Creek, MI. What do I know from authentic? All I know is that the pinchos vegetarianos releases dopamine directly into my brain and the guacamole's affordable and delicious. I'm vegan and too scared to ask what's in the refried beans. I just order them without the normal dusting of cheese and hope for the best. The pico's probably the best I've ever had - spicy and sweet in equal measure. My peeps and I eat here weekly.

Been going here for years. Now that I live in Logan Square, I'm a regular. Unfussy but solid service, great and varied entrees, affordable brunch, yadda yadda yadda. Plus a permanent menu of staples like the $7 tineka peanut butter sandwich and the $8 chickpea tagine that I can always count on no matter what's on special.

My only complaint is that the specials are rarely vegan. I love the aforementioned staples but would love it if they weren't so often my only options. That said, the staff will always do backflips to do you up a vegan version of the specials when that's possible. For a $12 salad where 90% of the food cost is a fancy cheese, that's pretty pointless, but often they can remove a single garnish and meet your meat- and dairy-free needs. Woo-hoo!