Restaurant Review: The Purple Pig

Ouch.

That's what I said about three hours after arriving at The Purple Pig.  As their sign mentions, there is "Cheese, Swine, and Wine"...and I had alot of each. My stomach was full. I had alot of wine.  In short, the pain I felt made for a perfect evening.

If you've never been, be prepared to wait as there are no reservations accepted.  But, come on a beautiful night like we did, order a bottle of wine, and wait outside while you agonize over the delicious smell of pig wafting through the air.  (Bonus recommendation: if you sit outside, watch the couples who walk up to the hostess stand. They walk up hand-in-hand with smiles from ear to ear... after hearing the wait will be upwards of two hours, they will immediately walk out.  The fella will have his head staring at the sidewalk trying to explain why he's an idiot and his date, with fire in her eyes, will look as if she is considering whether to cancel her Match.com account. Priceless.)

Oh yeah, about the food...  If I had one recommendation, it would be to try as many items as possible.  The company I was with did not share my passion for bone marrow or lardo, but I made them try it nonetheless and it was met with rave reviews.  In fact, one friend evoked images of Joey Chestnut as I sat across the table from him while he seemingly tried to break the record for the amount of bone-marrow-smattered-pieces-of-toast eaten in one sitting.  Not exactly a pretty sight, but I was glad he enjoyed it.

One of the other nice, little surprises at The Purple Pig is the wine list.  Most of the bottles were under $50, and there is a nice variety of wines from regions we don't get to see much of around here (Greece... Portugal...).  We splurged on a few of the more pricey bottles, which is to say I spent $40 less per bottle than at most restaurants I go to.

So, overall, great food, great wine, great atmosphere... on a cold or rainy night, the wait would've been a bummer, but the stars were aligned for my birthday meal.  Definitely worth the hype and worth a visit.

Cheers!

100 Bottles of Beer on the Wall...

It took me about four hours of brewing time (and at least eight Tecates), two weeks of anticipation while it fermented, about 16 ounces of beer on my sneakers while I bottled it, another week of waiting while it carbonated, and, finally, a beautiful golden brown ale. A professional brewmaster may criticize this amateur glass of beer, but I think its gorgeous.

I'll have to fess up... this is my third batch of homebrewed beer and the first one that I'd actually let my family and friends try (let's just say my first batch of beer tasted like a Bell's Hop Slam if it was brewed from sewer water and the second batch, while a bit better, tasted like a Leine's Red mixed with a shot of Hawkeye vodka). So, needless to say, I was very happy when I was finally able to pry off the first cap of this American-style ale to find that it was, well, pretty good.

If you've ever wanted to make your own beers, don't think twice. If for no other reason than to have a fridge full of shady looking unlabeled bottles. If you do go for it, check out Brew and Grow on Chicago's north side. If you have ever visited their older location, you may have expected Tommy Chong to walk out of the back room; however, their new location is huge, clean, bright, and their staff is knowledgeable and excited to teach you how to go about opening your own microbrewery. They have everything for beginners to the advanced, and, if you're nice, they'll let you taste one of their several homebrews on tap... which always taste a heck of alot better than my sewer-vodka infused batches...

Happy brewing - cheers!

Wedding Bells

I cannot lie... my wedding was perfect. Me and the bride decided to keep it small (I'll save you from having to count the heads in the photo - there were 39 guests). But, in addition, our love of wine and food (in that order) suggested we should drag all of our mostly-Chicago-based friends and family to Napa, California.

As you can tell, it was a perfect day, and, considering I have a propensity for overheating (see Marigold post), I was relived that it was a perfect 82 degree day with hardly a cloud in the sky. On top of it all, we had an incredible wine paired menu... not a bad day at all...

Cheers!

What I'm Listening To...The Tallest Man on Earth

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulKPDPSDNSc

As you could probably guess from the name of my blog, I'm a Dylan fan.  With that said, I took a call from a buddy of mine over the weekend, and he suggested I check out 'The Tallest Man on Earth' and his new album The Wild Hunt.  He suggested that he is a mix of Bob Dylan and Bon Iver... enough said, I had it downloaded five minutes later.

There were, let's say, "mixed opinions" in this household.  My wife was not exactly about to send a thank you card to my buddy for having this scratchy-throated voice serenading her on a beautiful Saturday afternoon; however, I was ecstatic.  I've been poked and teased for years for loving Dylan's unique-albeit unrefined-voice. But, I happen to love it.  This guy provokes me to think of a young Dylan and reminds me of such albums as The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan and The Times They Are A-Changin'.  And, before you call me an idiot, I am talking about the folk voice, not the intense political views nor classic poetic style.

As for the Bon Iver part, I don't quite agree, but give a listen to King of Spain and, hopefully, I didn't ruin your Saturday.

Cheers!

Restaurant Review: Marigold

For the legions of fans I've picked up since my first post, I wanted to share my first restaurant review. My reviews will be short and to the point. I'll say what I like or don't like and don't expect me to talk about the balance between salty and sweet-I don't know what that is, but I know when something tastes good.

A few more notes before we get to Marigold...

My wife and I are huge restaurant fans. Yes, we like the fancy stuff, but I also have to deal with my wife's "taco tooth" at least once a week (you're welcome Allende for the decade of patronage...and it's a travesty that Yelp only gives 4 out of 5 stars for this place, but I digress). We love to cook, but letting others cook for us is even better. In fact, this restaurant thing was most of the inspiration to actually start my own blog, and a little restaurant called Marigold was actually the restaurant that inspired me to pull the trigger... So here goes:

Let me take you back about three months. At the time I refused to have a "favorite restaurant" for no other reason than there are too many restaurants in this city to constantly go back to the same one (other than the aforementioned Allende, of course). Well, I found myself and my bride-to-soon-be sitting at Marigold for the fourth time in eight months. Why? Its unbelievable, that's why.

My favorite experience at Marigold is the first five to ten seconds after walking in the front door. I get sent into a near panic attack by the anticipation that is triggered by the intensely rich and deep aroma and tastes filling the dining room (Do you remember the first time you smelled Play-Doh? If so, its like that but for grown-ups). This anticipation is shear torture, and I love it.

The food is amazing, and let me stress that this isn't your father's Indian food...this is a contemporary Indian restaurant with amazing flavors; it does not have any of the textures nor overly-pungent odors of some other Indian restaurants (after spending two months in India, I have a somewhat legitimate opinion on the matter). Well, we've had two-thirds of the modestly-sized menu and have eaten more naan than one can shake a stick at - its all fantastic. But, my favorite restaurant serves my favorite dish: Lamb Shank Vindaloo. Rich, deep, spicy, intense vindaloo sauce served with a perfectly braised lamb shank. Its unbelievable. I sweat like I'm sitting in a sauna (note: I sweat while I eat ice cream - yes, really). I also love it when the dish of yogurt that's supposed to help cool my mouth is gone within the first six to seven bites. There are no flaws in this dish - it makes me happy, and it will make you happy.

The service also makes the meal, which continues to confuse me considering they only have one server. Well, actually, I don't know that for sure, but we've had the same guy every time and I don't think I've ever seen anybody else in there. So, this message about the service is dedicated to him: he takes the intimidation out of Indian food. He hasn't missed yet and my wine/beer glass is never empty. He makes suggestions and doesn't care if you ignore them; he answers your questions unpretentiously; he leaves his table time to a minimum (pet peeve: when servers spend half of my meal trying to be my friend). I wish he worked for me.

Luckily, I get to add two more benchmarks to this experience. After months of begging two of my friends to try Marigold, they each went there within the last seven days. They each loved it and raved about it. But, best of all, one of the two sent me a text that read: "Marigold is now, hands down, my favorite restaurant in the city." I guess that makes at least two of us...

Cheers!

Bonus recommendation: Fat Cat is next door and one of my favorite bars (who else serves Stiegel?). Its an eccentric locale to check out before or after a meal (their food is pretty damned good, too) or, as you'll read in future posts, a show at the Riv or Aragon.

Tangled up in Chicago...?

Because its my first post, I thought it would be appropriate to share a few reasons why I think Chicago is fantastic and set the stage for what's to come (for further background, since all of the other blog names with any iteration of "Chicago" in it were already taken, I paired my favorite song with "Chicago" to get the name... unoriginal? yeah, probably, but I became desperate after the first 32 names were taken).

Let's start with the fact that I've eaten at some of the best restaurants in the world without leaving the city limits, that Chicago has a global influence, but, when I travel abroad, we're only known for a 1920's gangster and a self-entitled musical that I still have not had the stomach to sit through, that we try to compensate for being one of the fattest cities by having one of the world's largest marathons (I promise that not one of my entries will ever discuss training regimes or marathon preparation, unless it refers to how much celery salt I like around the rim of my bloody mary while watching the race itself), and that this 5+ year old salt stain gets more flowers than my wife...

...I love it that the good guys have won two more world series than the other guys in the last 100 years, that sons can teach their fathers how things should've always been, that our football team has more hall of famers than your football team, and that two men actually made me love the NBA for a period of my life (I'm really trying to give it another shot Mr. Rose)...

We have a great lake (this isn't me, but it comes up when you Google Image Lake Michigan... thought it was funny), great music venues, great neighborhoods, great street festivals, and an incredible amount of great bars...

...I promise that this is just an introduction, and I won't be so link-happy going forward.  But, I will include my local favorites: restaurants, bars, experiences, people, news ... peppered in with some not-so-favorites, some gripes about my condo association here and there, and alot of very random things that will probably be out of place. But, its my blog, not yours... here goes Tangled up in Chicago,

Cheers!