The annual Christmas Party in suburban Chicago, scheduled for the 17th, was cancelled this year because of the funeral in early December of my 93-year-old father-in-law. Some of us already had reservations, including my daughter Rebecca and husband, who had plane tickets, hotel reservations and Chicago Bears tickets. So we planned a 24-hour stay in the Windy City to join with them and daughter Marissa and husband for part of the weekend. The city had a nice, clean dusting of overnight snow, but remained dreary and near freezing.
While some traveled out to the suburbs to have lunch with Grandma and other relatives (Grandma paid for all at her favorite Chinese buffet), I stayed downtown, walking briskly down Michigan Avenue, with a Starbucks warm-up halfway, from north of the river, south to the Art Institute. The lions in front sported large wreaths:
From the head of Hadrian to the haystacks of Monet--and even some old Dutch Masters, there was, as always, so much art to see. The fee is now $18, so we wanted to get our money's worth! We took a rather quick look at the new modern wing. The large windows there provide a good view of the city:
Walking back to meet the others at the Westin Chicago River North, it was already getting dark--before 5:00 PM. The street lights on Michigan Avenue appeared almost magical. This is a totally unedited photo:
The glowing lights were becoming visible at Millennium Park and skaters were enjoying the ice:
From the Westin we walked for appetizers and drinks while we decided where to eat dinner with our group of 6--everyone but daughter Erica, who had to work. We finally made reservations at Quartino's, although we couldn't be accommodated until almost 9:00.
What a fun and festive atmosphere! Serving was European style with small plates piled high in the center of the table, ready for lots of tasting and sharing. We had duck prosciutto and penne alla vodka and pizza and many other things that I could not pronounce. I thought a couple of things deserved pictorial documentation. Not a totally new food to me, I tasted one small piece of the roasted baby octopus:
The coppa di fruitta was beautiful and tasty:
And the dark chocolate fonduta, served with strawberries and house-made biscotti was fun:
For an authentic Italian experience, I would recommend this place. Because everything was shared, we sampled a wide variety of foods without spending a fortune.
The men enjoyed some Moretti la Rossa and the women shared a litro of Maurigi Bacca Rossa. What a fun evening in the city which we have all grown to love!
I had wonderful food all day and hopefully walked off some of it. We had free parking with our groupon deal for a hotel near the Hancock. If you have a place to park, especially on a Saturday night, you walk and you walk again. One would think that after all that food and wine and walking I would have slept like a baby, but no. Wi-fi was included but did not connect on our 17th floor. I did have a book along. Too soon, it was time to pack up and go home.
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