We woke up to another rainy day in Chicago. A light drizzle never hurt anybody but thankfully our plans were mostly indoors.
Within the West Loop neighbourhood, you will find the epicentre referred to as Fulton Market District. Fulton Market used to be an industrial area full of meat-packing warehouses. Nowadays, it's a trendy area filled with popular restaurants, bars, retail, and hotels.
For our first meal of the day, we walked over to Au Cheval. A cross between a pub and a diner, it was once touted by Bon Appetit as the best burger in America. Pretty strong statement if you ask me. Wait times can be up to 3 hours on the weekend, so we chose to go on Monday right when they opened.
Considering their claim to fame, the cheeseburger is a must-order. Be warned that the single cheeseburger ($14.99) actually has two patties while the double has three. You also have the option of adding an egg (+$2.99) and/or bacon (+$6.99). Of course we added both.
The burger patties are grilled to medium, with melted American cheese, finely diced onion, pickles, and Dijonnaise. The burger is well-seasoned (could be salty to some) and pretty juicy. The egg adds a bit of creaminess but the star of the show is definitely the bacon. Thick-cut pieces of pork belly, the bacon is meaty and super succulent. There's also a slight sweetness to it, almost like it's candied with maple syrup or brown sugar. Do not skip the bacon!
We also tried the foie gras ($25.99) with scrambled eggs and toast. The scrambled eggs were perfectly cooked. Silky smooth and fluffy. The foie gras was served in sizable chunks with brown onion gravy. The gravy was both sweet and salty thanks to the caramelized onions. Delicious! It's also a dish made for sharing. We weren't able to finish it all just because it was so rich and decadent.
Straight from Au Cheval, we walked a block over to Chicago's own outpost of Levain Bakery. Levain Bakery needs no introduction, but if you've been living under a rock, it's a NYC institution best known for their giant chocolate chip cookies. I have no idea when I'll travel to NYC, so I settled for trying it in Chicago.
Knowing how big the cookies are, we just bought one to share. The new caramel coconut chocolate chip cookie sounded tempting, but we stuck to their signature chocolate chip walnut cookie ($5.00). The cookie is basically a huge mound of dough baked at high heat. The result is a crispy, craggly outside with a gooey, melty centre. Make sure to eat it when it's warm!
After a quick coffee break at the hotel, we hopped onto the subway to the Art Institute of Chicago. It was the perfect rainy day activity. You can spend hours inside getting lost (like we did) and exploring all the different rooms.
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| A Sunday on La Grande Jatte (1884) by Georges Seurat |
Even with a map in hand, the museum layout was pretty confusing. There are so many different levels and stairs, but as long as you keep walking, you'll be able to find the most famous artworks.
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| Sky above Clouds IV (1965) by Georgia O'Keeffe |
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| American Gothic (1930) by Grant Wood |
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| "Untitled" (Portrait of Ross in L.A.) (1991) by Felix Gonzalez-Torres |
This was one of the most unique pieces in the museum and it made for a good souvenir. Essentially a pile of foil-wrapped candy, visitors are allowed to interact freely and take a piece of candy. The pile has an "ideal weight of 175 lbs", which people believe corresponds to the average weight of an adult male. The interactive nature of the art, where the candy pile depletes over time, is supposed to parallel how the artists' partner, Ross Laycock, died due to AIDS-related complications in 1991. However, the candy get replenished constantly, which grants it endless life.
After the museum, we walked down State Street to do a bit more shopping. LT wasn't as prepared for the chilly weather so we were on the hunt for a cheap hoodie or jacket (Primark ftw!). When we began feeling tired, we popped into Magnolia Bakery. Another NYC institution, I knew I wanted to try their famous banana pudding. They were out of small cups so we ended up with the medium. Filled with sliced bananas, Nilla wafers, and creamy vanilla pudding, this was delicious! The vanilla pudding was mixed with whipped cream, so it was super light and airy.
We popped back to the hotel to rest for a couple of hours before our dinner reservation at Rose Mary. Rose Mary is an Italian-Croatian restaurant helmed by Top Chef (season 15) winner Joe Flamm. The restaurant is named after his grandmothers, Mary Rose and Mary.
The restaurant was just around the corner from the hotel so super convenient. I believe I made reservations a good month in advance. They do accept walk-ins at the bar but a reservation is probably your best bet. The kitchen is open so the restaurant can get quite loud. The food is meant to be shared and the menu is split cleanly into vegetables, pasta, risotto, fish, and meat.
The first dish that came out was the tuna crudo ($22.00). Slices of raw tuna dressed with veal aioli, shallot-beef fat vinaigrette, and crispy capers. The veal aioli gave the fresh tuna a creamy, rich quality. It was also balanced with just the right amount of acidity from the vinaigrette. But the star of the dish for me had to be the crispy capers! Little pops of salty, briny crunch. No caper was left untouched.
Another favourite of the night were the zucchini fritters ($14.00). These came out piping hot. A crispy, craggily exterior gave way to soft, mushy (in a good way) zucchini. The zucchini was naturally sweet and it almost reminded me of eating yam tempura. The pesto aioli was a good accompaniment but I did wish the pesto flavour was stronger.
An Italian meal is not complete without pasta. We got one of Rose Mary's most popular dishes, the radiatore 'Cacio e Pepe' ($19.00). Cacio e pepe is a Roman pasta dish that literally translates to "cheese and pepper." It's a simple pasta that combines grated pecorino cheese, black pepper, and hot pasta water into a thick, cheesy sauce. I've never seen radiatore pasta before but it's unique ridged shape helped the sauce cling to the noodles. It gave me adult 'mac and cheese' vibes. Super rich and decadent. It was almost too much for me so I would definitely recommend sharing this one.
Our final dish was cevapi ($20.00), a grilled minced meat sausage popular in Croatia and other Balkan countries. The sausage is caseless, similar to Turkish kofta, and is generously spiced with onion, garlic and paprika. It was served with lepinja, a type of flatbread, with various condiments: avjar (red pepper sauce), kajmak (a rich cheese spread), and diced red onion. It's a fun, interactive plate where you can DIY your own sandwich. The lepinja was made with sourdough, so it had a tangy quality. I was reminded of foccacia, crispy and oily on the surface but fluffy on the inside. However, I sort of wish the crust was more tender. It was almost too hard to bite through with all the ingredients nestled inside.
All meals should end on a sweet note, so we walked a few blocks to Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream for dessert. Jeni's is a chain of ice cream shops that originated in Columbus, OH. You'll even find their pints in thousands of grocery stores nationwide. How I wish they came to Canada! All of their ice cream flavours sound so delicious!
The night was cooler so we lucked out with no line! A standard scoop ($6.95) lets you choose two flavours. LT was a bit boring and got darkest chocolate and honey vanilla bean, while I chose brambleberry crisp and rainbow BFY. Brambleberry crisp had brambleberry jam swirled throughout vanilla ice cream with bits of oat streusel. The ice cream was smooth and creamy and I loved the bits of crunchy, toasty streusel. It paired well with the rainbow BFY since both flavours were tart and sweet. BFY stands for buttermilk frozen yogurt and it combines raspberry, key lime, and passion fruit flavours. My favourite ice cream flavour since I was a child was rainbow sherbert. This hit all the same notes.
Looking back on this day, I didn't realize that we had three desserts. Calories don't count on vacation.
- CT
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