Jack's North Shore Eats

Long Winter

I am so tired of this winter...

I long for a great meal on the beach...

any beach...

any meal...

More Bar Food

The great thing about bar food is that it requires so little energy on the part of the patron. Unless you're Alex...

Bar food usually comes neatly packaged, but, in this case, it doesn't stay that way...

First he releases the beast, then he fixes it...

My burger was the buffalo cheese burger. It required nothing but a little mayo...

All of this is, of course, available at Hamilton's on Broadway just south of Devon.

Day 1: 10.23.06

To celebrate the first day of the new year, I have photographed everything that I ate today...

This was my coffee on the way to the gym. After the gym, I get new coffee...

(Don't tell Alex; he'll think I am spending too much money...)

And a little something...

Then, after a lot of hard work and emailing, I eat lunch. Alex said last night that he was in the mood for burgers, but I wasn't feeling it. So, I went to the workers' cafeteria and got a cheeseburger to inspire me...

It wasn't very inspirational, but it was a little surprising. The Cafeteria Lady actually gave me a double bacon cheeseburger! Who knew?

After that, I needed something sweet...

That hit the spot. On the way out of the factory (and on the way to the store), Ruby gave me a little something to tide me over...

Daim, that caramel is good! A trek through the grocery store left me a little hungry, so I had a light snack when I got home...

And then, I got around to making my man his dinner! Cheeseburger and fries, coming up!

Alex helped out with the fries and I made the burgers and the dressing. It was purple onion, orange pepper, cherry tomatoes, avocado in a mayo and Dijon mustard spread. Filling in for a bun was some fresh sourdough bread, toasted...

Here's to another year of fantastic eats on the North Shore!

Mas

We have the best friends in the world! To help Alex and me celebrate Jack's North Shore Eat's 1st Anniversary, they got us a really sweet card and a gift certificate to Mas...

(Mas is Serbo-Croatian for "This is the restaurant my parents gave me the money to start so I would move out of their basement and start meeting people my own age.) I loved the whole caving-in roof thing...

And the food was good too...

We started with some cocktails...

That's my whiskey sour. Alex had a Pisco Sour...

(Next time you see him, ask him how his egg whites were!)

and some appetizers:ceviche and jamon and spare ribs...

We ate so much, I had to get another drink! This was my caipirinha (That's Brazilian for capybara.)...

Then we moved on to a nice bottle of wine. (I thought it was kind of cool to name a wine after Don Martin, but not to call him a "ho.")

And then we thought we ought to order dinner before they kicked us out for loitering...

Alex had the venison and it looked and tasted fantastic. I had the carne, a New York Strip blackened. Heaven...

(Right after I took this picture, the people sitting next to us abruptly told us that they wished they had asked me to photograph their trout because it was "really kickin'" I tried to pretend that the wind was blowing so hard that I couldn't hear what they had said, but Alex gave me a look and the guy was only sitting a foot and a half away from me. So, I said something weird so they would leave us alone. That was a close one!)

We had a little bit more wine left, so we ordered some desserts to pass the time with. Alex had the poached pear with goat cheese...

And I had the pumpkin tiramisu...

Excellent meal provided by most excellent friends. Thank you all!

My Adventures with Larry

Sometimes Larry pops back into town and we have to have an adventure. Tonight, we went to a liquor store, a bowling alley, the grocery story, and Larry's house twice before I got to have a beer. Whew.

But then we found Alex and he joined us for some of that beer and some great Thai food from Tube Top Thai in Skokie. It's a BYOB...

And so we did...

The the most excellent appetizers were cumi cumi and meang kum...

(This was a new one for Alex and me. We decided that we probably shouldn't use our hibiscus plant at home to duplicate this...)

Dinner was delicious, as always. Alex had the Three Flavor Fish...

Larry had the Pad Gra Poaw Level 3... (The spicy level is from 1 to 4 here. Larry's dish ended up being spicier than mine; I ordered a Level 4. So, my theory is that if you want great spicy food from this place, make sure you flirt with the owner like Larry does...)

I ordered the Pad Prik King Level 4...

I love the smoky flavor of this dish...

I tried some of Larry's food and mixed it with my own. I ate a lot...

Come back soon, Larry, and bring the family!

Brazilian Meat

Brazilian meat. Just meat. Alex and I were at a Function for the Factory that was held at Asado Brazilian Grill in Evanston...

Alex got a salad and then looked at my empty plate. "Where's your salad?" "Salad?" I responded. "This is a M-E-A-T restaurant, honey. Besides, I don't speak English..."

Here's the "salad" stuff Alex was talking about...

The meat was good (except for the garlic turkey - avoid that one), but my favorite was...

Candy...

Tweet Again

Adrianne's birthday was a couple of months ago and we just now got around to going out to brunch to celebrate. I suggested that if we wait a little longer, we could celebrate two of her birthdays at the same time. No one listened. Alex and Quincy were there, of course, and so were a lot of other people, but there weren't as many people as there were condiments on the table...

(That's my empty bloody.) Simon's pancakes...

My burrito...

Alex and the eggs b...

Millicent's something-or-other...

Mrs. Muldoon had what appears to be something flat. (Did I mention I had a bloody or two?)

Leaving Elpedia and the something-or-other again. (I tasted it and it was quite good.)

Broadway Cellars

There's a new restaurant here on the North Shore called Broadway Cellars. This is the third restaurant to try this space, but, like The Room and South, I don't give it long...

The food was good, but not good enough to overcome the horrible service, lousy decor, or confused theme...

If there was a highlight to the evening, it was the bread pudding...

But what wine goes with bread pudding? And there is the problem with Broadway Cellars in a nutshell. It has a theme, but it really doesn't adhere to that theme. Their follow through on the "wine restaurant" is scattershot at best. See my review at Centerstage Chicago for more details.

Taking Mother Out...

Mother's last Saturday in the City we took her to Mia Francesca's on Bryn Mawr, also known as Francesca's on Bryn Mawr...

A spot of wine...

And then to dinner...

And some dessert...

The food was great. The service was horrible. I probably won't go back. Oh well...

Ethiopian Diamond

Always wonderful...