Shana "Shasta" C.'s Profile

This was my second visit to Lake Geneva Tattoo, which also sometimes goes by Lil' Greg's Tattoo.  My first tattoo there was done ten years ago by Chicago Ed.  Yesterday I received my second, by Lil' Greg, and am IN LOVE.  

The first tat still looks just as good as it did on day one and I have total confidence that the second one will look as good ten years from now as it does today.  Why? Because Lil' Greg makes 'em that way.

He's one of the last remaining "old school" artists, trained by the guys that made the swallow tattoos you see on all the girls nowadays popular the first time around.  He knows his shit and he's been doing it for well over twenty years.  

What's more is that he could charge custom outrageous prices, but he keeps it reasonable.  The man is a genius.  

Mom and Auntie got tats too.  Both of theirs were done by Alan, who's a wiz with the small details.  My mom's bracelet tattoo looks damn near real.  Fantastic.  I'm tempted to return to Lake Geneva for all my future tattoos, despite the fact I'll be living across the country.

Had late lunch/early dinner yesterday with Mom and Auntie after getting our tattoos done at Lake Geneva Tattoo.  Was pleasantly surprised!  

All the food was solidly good, the presentations were much more artistic than expected, the beer selection is decent, and our service was good.

I ordered the Filet Wedge Salad which was cooked just the way I ordered it, tasted great, and looked beautiful.  Auntie ordered the spinach artichoke.  It was better than many places, and the presentation was more creative.  Mom's chipotle chicken fajitas were very american, but still, very tasty.  

We started off by sharing a cup of chicken tortilla soup, which was actually the least satifsying part of the meal, but we were all famished.  The desert, pecan pie a la mode, was wonderful.

Our server wasn't terribly well versed in her menu options, but she did say she was new, and she did serve us well.

Seriously? No.  

It's not the shop.  The shop is nice.  It's not the artists, they're just fine.  It's the work and the prices charged.  

Accompanied BFF and Auntie to get their second and first tattoos, respectively, last year.  BFF got a cupcake on her calf, a bit smaller than a real cupcake.  Auntie got a quarter sized, one color, yin & yang on her ankle.  

BFF was charged $150 for her tat which has at least one imperfection and Auntie, well that's the kicker; they charged her $100 for a quarter sized, one color, totally easy design.  And they did a kinda shitty job with it.  She actually had to go back months later for a touch up on it, and they tried to charger her! (Can you hear my eyes rolling?)

Now, I'm no proponent of price shopping for a tattoo.  I think you pay for what you get.  In this case, she should have gotten the best fucking yin/yang possible.

One of the artists did an ok drawing for an idea I'm working on.  He told me it'd cost around $400.  After talking to more and more artists and folks in the biz, I am extremely grateful that I decided to hold off that day.  The cost of the design he proposed was double what it should have been.  The design itself was mediocre too.

I don't have a beef with this place.  I'm just giving my honest opinion.  No tattoo should come from a place with "factory" in the name, it seems.

It's SO Cute!  And the patio is really lovely.  And the painting on the wall outside (which is inside the patio) is fucking hot. And And And...These guys are great.

I'm a little sad to see the amazing bbq joint that used to live in this building is gone, but happy that it's been replaced by someone equally fabulous.  My man and I were guests at a birthday party dinner of about 15 people.  The staff at 90 Mile were very helpful and accommodating.  They informed us of the best way to order for a large group and set us up with a nice table despite they're not taking reservations.  

We ordered the red snapper and guava empanada.  The snapper was fucking awesome.  I don't even know how else to describe it, but I will of course try.  It was crispy, meaty, flaky, savory, accompanied with great fried plantains and healthy doses of minced fresh garlic, onions and tomatoes.  The meal is not for the faint of heart, as you receive the entire fish, eyeballs and all, cooked to crispy hot perfection, on your plate.  The empanada was also really tasty, though I'm still not sure I know what guava tastes like since it tasted mostly like red pepper and goat cheese to me.  

I was jealous of the Cuban sandwiches at the table though, not gonna lie.

We also finished off with one of each of their offered desserts.  The flan was out of this world.  Like a love child between custard and jello.  Love indeed. I wasn't mad about the bread pudding, but there was some amazing fruit filled pastry thing that was...amazing.  Right then, that about does it.  

(p.s. try the cafe cubano)
(p.p.s. wasn't nuts about the mango shake I tasted)

I'm somewhere between 2 and 3 stars for Viand.  
To wit:
They have a really well priced lunch special which is nice, and good looking, fancy topped, burgers with shoe-string fries for only $5, but then, it seems to take 30 minutes to get the burgers to your table.  

There's a great $5.95 lunch special menu, from which I ordered the fish n' chips with curry.  I think that's where my main disappointment came in.  The batter on the fish wasn't cooked long enough, so the area where batter met fish was mushy.  I should have sent it back to be cooked more, but the first half of the first piece was actually really good.  By the time the soggy-ness became apparent I already felt committed to my mediocre cod.

The curry sauce for the fish n' chips definitely satisfied, and was even better when blanketing a tangle of those little fries.  

My co-workers all enjoyed their burgers, with the exception of one who got a chicken sandwich which was to boring to eat.

I'm not sure why I'm so decidedly blah about Viand, but something about it - the extremely slow service? the four hosts at the front who couldn't seem to answer a question with any speed? the mushy fish? - just rubbed me wrong. I think I'd go back in for another shot, with a burger probably, if I were going to be working in this hood longer.

Wow.  I'm really stunned that BHB doesn't have like hundreds of 5 star reviews.  I think I've been saving my experiences so that I could come at all y'all Yelpers with the stunning raw power of my love for this bakery.  They are fucking MAGNIFICENT.

I gazed at it adoringly when I rode by its old digs on Chicago Ave., but was too shy to go in.  The cute girl on the block, surely she wouldn't notice me.

Then I pulled up my gumption when I noticed she lived in my new neighborhood too.  Coincidence?  Time to find out.  

First time I tried BHB I stopped in to grab two croissants for a road trip that day.  I wanted to see what my beloved looked like up close, and also impress the person I was road tripping with.  I wound up being the most impressed of all.

The second encounter was on my 27th birthday when I had the brilliance to request a BHB birthday cake.  My mom lovingly obliged and got a cake that was too large I almost couldn't eat it for breakfast every day for a week and a half.  It had custard, a la boston cream donuts, in the center and ganache frosting.  Holy shit, if I die young let me go with a cake from BHB.

Me and the bakery love of my life were warming up to each other.  I got bolder.  I stopped by casually for a cupcake.  Even after torturing the cupcake, by making it wait a full day for me to eat it, I swooned when its adoring sweetness graced my lips.

I became hell-bent on spreading my love around for all to delight in.  For my bestie's birthday, she who actually aspires to be a baker, I went in for the gold and ordered her the cake of her dreams.  It was a coconut cake (her favorite) called The Anna (her name).  We were bedazzled.  There's lime in the frosting!! Fucking Genius!

Me and BHB are good pals now.  I stop by for cupcakes or coffee whenever I'm in the hood.  I crouch and read all her amazing descriptions (Holy Mole cupcake!?  Veruca Salt??!!!!).  I order more birthday cakes from her.  I got Mom the chocolate and peanut butter cake for her birthday recently.  Mom is the queen in all things chocolate and pb.  She was blown away.  She tells all her ladies in the burbs about the bakery with the peanut butter frosting.  

All the ladies in the burbs think I'm the best daughter, but really, it's the Bleeding Heart. Show owner comment »

As Iago in "Aladdin" once said, "I might die from lack of surprise."

The food was good.  The beer was on tap.  We sat a table.  Loud music played.  It was dark.  There are heavy drapes on the window and nearly cute arrangements of almost funky chandeliers hanging up above.  That's seriously how I remember it: like through the fog of some muscle relaxers but without the drug induced serenity.  

I think the major fault of Rocking Horse is that they don't know what the want to be yet and so they are solidly uninspiring and uninteresting.

I stop by this coffee shop most times I need to visit my doc's office down the street because I'm always way too early because I usually forget where Lincoln Park is because I avoid Lincoln Park.  So, I do it out of the necessity to kill time, most of all.  

The staff is friendly, which may be a rare thing in icy Lincoln Park, but is not so much in sticky, hip Logan Square where I'ma come from.  The coffee is hot.  So's the tea, and it comes in a bag.  There are various baked goods and grilled cheese available.  There is a bathroom.  And ice cream.

Really, if ice cream can't get you a star from Shasta "The Icecreaminator" then you're not living up to your potential.

It's the lay out and 'art' of this place that kills me.  I think they went for "living room, cozy, charming and thrifty" in their decor attempt but what they wound up with was "pre-school run by a bunch of grandmas who love end tables with sharp edges".  They have a huge space, and that can be a challenge I understand...I don't know.  I'm done analyzing it just like I'm done patronizing it.

Note: this review was written by someone who just wanted coffee and a magazine, not by a college student or "writer" who enjoys spending hours in a coffee shop.

I would give the Logan four stars if their beer were cheaper.  But it does come in its can and not a crappy plastic cup, so maybe I'll give them 3.5 stars.  

I saw CocoRosie here last weekend and was prepared to be disappointed.  I was the opposite!!  I was worried the sound would be reminiscent of dodge-ball day in elementary gym class, and it was not!  The decor is much nicer than anticipated, the entry is quick and simple, the sound really solid for such a venue.  

CocoRosie also was way fucking more awesome live that I'd have hoped.  Sweet.

Writing reviews for notorious places around town always feels a little disappointing to me. I guess I'm not one for being part of the peanut gallery.  But, when a place is good why grouse about it?  

M. Henry is bigger, cuter, and less pretentious that I'd have guessed.  We also had no wait for a table for four at prime brunch time last weekend.  

Each of the four dishes ordered were beautiful to behold as well as perfectly spiced.  My friend had been telling me about the famed egg sandwich prior to our arrival, saying she always wishes she could order something else, but just can't.  I wondered how an egg sandwich could deserve such praise, but it's the seasonings (and the bread, and the cheese, and the potatoes, and...)!  They put rosemary, sage, cat-nip I don't know! It's just really good.

I ordered the peasant's quiche (does that seem like an oxymoron to any one else?) and loved it a bit more than a quiche might need to be loved.  My friend stopped me from putting it in my purse to take home and build a shrine to.  Ok not really, but the crispy, cheesy top and the buttery, flaky crust brought my love of quiches, beforehand thought only to occupy a sliver of my heart, to epic, if dramatic, proportions.  

Across the table from me was a veggie sandwich with roasted veggies, mounds of some fancy french soft cheese, and again the best spices for the plate.  Whoever designed that recipe must have a really cute kitchen.  Don't ask me how I know that, I can just taste it.

Finally, the coffee was great.  Our server was a bit of a cold fish, but I was warmed enough by the food, sunshine, and cherubic spicy chocolate cookie dessert to forgive and forget.

I wish I had a charming-sugar person who likes to eat out as much as me to take me to M. Henry every day so I can try it all.