Even though we got into Chicago really late on Thursday night, we were starving, so we trundled off to a restaurant I wanted to try, Quartino. Luckily, it stays open until 2am and it was really close to our hotel. It was an excellent choice. It has a nice warm, casual environment, and it has delicious food. The food is mainly Italian, but everything is presented in small plates, like tapas. While I was doing restaurant reseach, I noticed Quartino had polenta fries on the menu. I just had to try them. They came in a cute little container, alongside some roasted red pepper salsa. They were so good! Crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside, and the salsa had a little bit of heat. I also ordered some caponata, which is one of my favorites - the fries also tasted good dipped in the caponata. I loved my dishes. I definitely want to go back to try other menu items.
My pals got some chicken and some bone marrow. Yes, bone marrow. When I say it smelled amazing, please know that I mean it. I really wanted to try it, but I stopped myself. Who knows how a vaguely vegetarian tummy will respond to pure beef fat?? I did, however, dunk a piece of bread into the chicken jus. Just once. Don't tell. (it was delicious)
Before we left for Chicago, we had our interns do a little research on breakfast places near the hotel. Even though we had just eaten at 1am the night before, by 9:30am, we were ready for some breakfast. We hadn't really decided on a breakfast locale, but whilst searching for an ATM, we happened up Eggsperience. It was a very cute place, very lively, with warm colors and pretty flowers all around. The menu was huge, but I opted for the breakfast panini, sans bacon. Once the food came, we realized that not only was the menu huge, but so were the servings! This sandwich was ginormous! But very tasty. And the hash browns were also delicious. I love me some hash browns. I never make them for myself - they're so time-consuming. I enjoyed these.
I just want to mention one work thing: when we left the Chicago Hilton from one appointment to another at the Hyatt Regency, we hailed a cab and were lucky enough to find the most fun cab driver in the world, Chubby. Chubby regaled us with stories about Chicago, his new grandson, the sights and the upcoming weather reports. He was adorable. And when we safely arrived at our destination, he put on a recording of Tony Bennett singing "Just in Time." So cute. He was a nice breath of fresh air in a sea of anonymous cab drivers (I haven't taken so many cabs in one day in years).Our meetings went from 10:30am to 5pm. We skipped lunch after that enormous breakfast. After that last meeting, we took one last cab to the hotel for a little lie-down before dinner. At first, we had hoped to go to Frontera Grill for dinner. I love Rick Bayless and I really enjoyed the restaurant when I went there in 2010. But I called ahead and they told me it was a two-hour wait. Uh, no. I wanted to go another Next Iron Chef contestant's restaurant (Maneet Chauan's Vermilion), but not everyone in our party was keen on Indian food, so we went to another Mexican restaurant near our hotel, Cantina Laredo. Luckily, it turned out to be a good choice.
The restaurant was really airy and pretty, with lots of glass and stone. We were seated right away, thankfully. We had to wait a few minutes before the rest of our party arrived though (we were split between two hotels), so, while we were waiting, I got a pomegranate margarita (SO yummy) and we ordered some guacamole, which was made for us tableside. We ordered it medium spicy, which was fine, except for my last bite, when I must've gotten a whole pepper along with the seeds. I thought I blew my taste buds out! I didn't want to slurp down my margarita all at one time, since I gave myself a limit of one, so I sucked on an ice cube for awhile. In the time it took for our other hoteled peeps to arrive, my tongue finally felt more normal again. Wow. 
(fyi, the photo-attaching nightmare is happening again. sigh) Anyway, although they had a vegetarian enchilada on the menu, I opted to get the shrimp tacos. They were quite tasty, though their idea of 'sauteed vegetables' seemed to be 'sauteed onions.' There were a LOT of onions on the dish, so I ended up pushing most of them aside. There was also some fresh jicama, which was great for crunch and freshness. There defnitely could've been more jicama. The black beans and rice were also very tasty. By the time I got to the third shrimp taco, I was pulling most everything off it except for the shrimp, then adding in the beans and rice. So, I almost made them into shrimp fajitas, I guess. But they were very tasty. :)
Even after all that food, even though I had NO business ordering anything else, I did end up getting dessert. I couldn't help myself. The tres leches cake with mango sauce just sounded too good to pass up. And I was right!!! Very light and tasty, sweet and savory. Really, the perfect ending to the meal. Everybody enjoyed it! They looked at me like I was a crazy person for ordering it, but then everybody loved it. Again, really, they doubt me when it comes to food?!?!
After all that food, a pal and I went to a piano bar, but, due to a kerfuffel with our boss, we had to leave the piano bar early (I didn't get to hear all of "Sweet Child Of Mine," darn it!), then decided to walk around and get some air. I'll post those photos at the end. This dinner was on the early side, so, would anyone be surprised that we were hungry for breakfast the next day?? No? I didn't think so. Again, our intern did a crack job finding fun places for us to eat breakfast. This time, we went to a Coffee Shop inside the Ohio House Motel. Hello, how could I not go to a coffee shop inside a hotel with Ohio in the name?! It was snowing, so by the time we got there, we were pretty cold. It was a cute little old-fashioned coffee shop, with only a few booths and some stools at the bar.
One American cheese omelet later (vegetarian, yes; vegan, NO WAY), my work pal and I went out again, braving the elements, and wandered up to Michigan Avenue, aka, Magnificent Mile. I got some more fun photos, which I will post at the end. I really like the architecture in Chicago and the vibe. I'm glad we're thinking of taking more trips there for work (always good to go somewhere with an expense account). I was sorry we didn't have time to check out any theater this time, but next time for sure. I hope. Next weekend, I'll be taking my first trip to Phoenix. I'm hoping we won't get any snow when we're there... ;)
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