www.chicagochophouse.com




Maybe not on a college budget, but if it is..................

oberhaus;671653 wrote:Holy shit. So how much does these dogs cost?

The "fancy" dogs are between $6.50 and $9.00 (for the foie gras dog). The normal dogs are $1.50 to $3.00 or so.

gorocks99;671689 wrote:The "fancy" dogs are between $6.50 and $9.00 (for the foie gras dog). The normal dogs are $1.50 to $3.00 or so.

That doesnt seem to bad. Im assuming they are decent sized? Like one fancy dog and fries will be enough for my fat ass?

FYI: According to their website hotdoug's is a cash only place!!

oberhaus;671655 wrote:My wife buys shirts from there online all the time.

Yeah, they are great. I have probably 15 of them.

oberhaus;671703 wrote:That doesnt seem to bad. Im assuming they are decent sized? Like one fancy dog and fries will be enough for my fat ass?

Last time I went I split fries, and had a fancy (wild boar) dog and a regular dog and it was filling. Not ginormous, but good enough.

With my recent quest to Chicago looming ahead this weekend, I've been asking all my friends and family about any pieces of information at all they know about Chicago. Well, one of my co-workers has a son who lives in Chicago and he forwarded along this little message to me. This sh!t is crazy! Has anyone heard about this?

My oldest son lives in Chicago...last week they had a huge snow storm ( over 24" in some area ).
Chicago always has parking issues, but has a unique practice called "dibs"

Briefly how it works is after the snow storm, you spend 3 hrs getting your cars dug out of the snow, you then call "dibs" on that parking space .....you "reserve" the parking space with a plastic chair or something. The practice is actually illegal...but widely practiced after snow storms . Candidates in the heated Chicago Mayors race all dodged the question as it is really a trigger point.

By unspoken urban law .....if you take a parking space that has dibs on it....your car is at great risk to damage...at the hands of mid westerners who strongly believe in Truth, Justice and the American way.

Some pictures and remarks about the practice....

http://chicagodibs.tumblr.com/page/1

Would you move someone's "dib markings" and take their spot?

Don't move someone's dibs. But, having lived here for nearly 6 months, I haven't seen anyone put out a space-saver in my neighborhood, even after the last big storm. It's probably worse on the South Side but up in Lakeview/Wrigleyville, it hasn't been an issue. Boston was FAR worse with this than Chicago is, I know that much. You should be fine.

What area of the city are you staying in, btw? That would affect how bad the parking is going to be ...

Apparently I'm going to be about 3 blocks away from Wrigley Field.

Hit up Ian's Pizza in Wrigleyville for late night food. They have all kinds of shit on pizza, mac and cheese, spaghetti and meatballs, lasagna, chicken parmesan, etc. My sister lives in Wrigleyville and said they had turkey, mashed potatoes and I think gravy on one around Thanksgiving. I had the buffalo chicken pizza and it was pretty good.

Street parking will probably be a b*tch on many streets around Wrigley - they require permits for overnight parking for most places close to the stadium. But I don't think you'll have an issue with people reserving cleared out spots.

Hit up a Brazillian Steakhouse.
Billy Goat Tavern is a cool place.
Walk down Michigan Ave
The Shedd Aquarium is cool for something to do during the day.
Soldier Field, Wrigley, The United Center
Ride the EL

I'm a huge fan of Chicago. I like it way better than New York. I find it to be a friendlier place than New York. Have fun.

How was it?

gorocks99;677953 wrote:How was it?

Dig out your car yet?

My daughter dug her car out on Saturday. She said it took about 30 minute .. not to bad the weather warmed up and it was eazy..

Belly35;677974 wrote:Dig out your car yet?

My daughter dug her car out on Saturday. She said it took about 30 minute .. not to bad the weather warmed up and it was eazy..

I'm letting mother nature dig it out ... latest forecast has us hitting mid 50s on Thursday!

gorocks99;677978 wrote:I'm letting mother nature dig it out ... latest forecast has us hitting mid 50s on Thursday!

Make sure your car is not by or over a street drain . Last year my daughter car was parked by a street drain and it got clogged the water backed up as high as the bottom of her passenger door and the inside of her car on one side was full of water...

If you are in Wrigleyville, you have to go to Giordano's and get a deep dish pizza. It is the best food ever. Just make sure you have your cardiologist on speed dial.

Tiger2003;671448 wrote:Go to Garrett's Popcorn and get a gallon of Chicago Mix. It is the best popcorn you will ever eat.

For a lunch or dinner- Exchequer Restaurant and Pub they have great deep dish pizza.

We were just in Chicago on our way to North Dakota.

Exchequer is great, but get the thin crust. If you want deep dish, go with Gino's East, Giordano's or Uno's. My brothe and sister live in Chicago. My brother had us all meet at Exchequer for dinner one evening. We got th ethin crust and it was excellent! He said the same as above. Deep dish, you have to go with the above standards.

All Chicago cabbies will take you to the nearest Gino's if youtell them you want Chicago deep dish. The restaurant was opened by two old cabbies and every year on their anniversary they give free pizza to the cab drivers. If you have a military ID card, all the museums and zoo's are free. Sears(Willis) tower is the same. Personally I would take the trains/Metra versus the cab. Not thta hard to navigate and all of the hotels customer service will give you directions and maps. Also, if you are staying at a hotel down town, show your key at the restaurants and they will give you seating priority, check with the front desk of your hotel for other tips.

gorocks99;677953 wrote:How was it?

It was really fun. I'm glad we went.

We arrived late Friday night (about midnight). We were disappointed with my friend's place. He made it sound like he had this really nice condo / apartment, and to be quite honest, it was one of the creepiest places I have ever stayed in. The complex itself wasn't bad, it was just his place - it was in the basement, there was no furniture, he had two twin beds that looked like they were straight out of the movie Ransom, and this creepy painting hanging up on the wall:



Anyway, Friday night... after we got all settled in... we decided to head out to Carol's Pub around 1o AM or so. We ran into two girls and asked if we were heading in the right direction, and they said we were, but that it was a ways down the road. They told us that we should head to Michaels (sp?!) so we asked if we could follow them and they said yes. Michaels was a pretty cool place. A ton of TVs, GREAT food (definitely recommend the chicken quesadillas), and just an interesting bunch of people.

Saturday, I woke up around 9:30 AM (MUCH earlier than my roommates) an decided to head over to the adjacent coffee shop next door called "Awake" being that my friend's place didn't have a TV or internet. Awake was pretty nice - free internet, delicious smoothies, and some decent "eye candy."

Once my roommates finally got up and moving, we decided to head over to N. Clark Street and find a bar to watch the OSU vs Wisconsin basketball game. On our way to Clark St., we walked by Wrigly Field.



I thought the rooftop seats were VERY cool; and from what we gathered from everyone we talked to that trip, they're actually the best deal / way to watch a Cubs game. Our first stop on Clark St. was Merkle's bar - which was super cool for personal reasons. After that, we crossed the street and hit up "Red Ivy" (an Ohio / Ohio State bar). There, we watched the game (unfortunately it had the ending we all weren't hoping for) and ate some of their phenomenal stuffed pizza (deep-dish pizza stuffed with chicken and sausage - AMAZING!).

It was also super cool because we struck up a conversation with two guys who were originally from Ohio and now living out in Chicago. One of the guys was a promoter for the bar. He happened to have been running some trivia contest. He had a flagged with him and asked everyone in the bar if they knew what it was. My table was the only one who knew that it was the Ohio state flag; and I was the only one out of the table who knew the formal name of that specific type of flag - pennant. Hence, I won a $25 gift card to the bar and we drank more

After drinking our brains out, it was about 5:00 PM or so, we decided that we better see some of the city. So, we tool the subway (I refused to call it the El) over to Hancock Tower and went up to the Signature Lounge. It was my understanding that you got basically the same type of experience as going to the top of the Sears Tower, expect you didn't have to pay because you were visiting the restaurant - all we had to do was purchase a few drinks. So, we each got the girliest drinks we could get and had a good time laughing and enjoying the skyline of Chicago.





Afterwards, we decided to head back out my friend's place a take a power nap since we had been drinking almost all night before and all-day Saturday. After about 2 hrs, we all woke up and headed back out for Round 3. We went back to N Clark St and hit up Goose Island. It was basically like the Great Lakes Brewing Co. Nice place with some solid drinks.

Next we hit up The Curse. We were walking by and the bouncer basically handed us promo cards for a couple free drinks. Went in there... had our free drinks... hung out... etc. I wouldn't say it was the nicest place, but they played your typical club songs (e.g., Teach Me How to Dougie, Party In the USA, etc.) which made it fun.

After The Curse, we made it to a house party. After the House Party... we went to the Weiner Circle. TOTALLY not what I was expecting. Everyone told us we needed to ask for a "Chocolate Shake." OGM was it good

Total h.s. / college dive hangout. Absolutely horrendous food, but definitely worth the $20 "shake." If you're looking for hilarity, that's the place to go for sho'.



On Sunday, we went and scored some AMAZING breakfast at Ann Suther's. MUST GET TEH CINNAMON ROLLS. THEY ARE TO DIE FOR!



After that, we went to Millenium Park and checked out "The Bean." Pretty cool. It was about what I had thought/expected it to be.

After that, it was time to go.

All in all, I'd say it was a fun / successful trip. Not sure I could / would ever want to live in Chicago, but I definitely enjoyed my visit. It reminded me a lot of NYC, just on a much smaller scale (and not as many foreigners).



Oh... and I forgot to mention that after Millenium Park, we stopped at a Garrett's Popcorn shop and picked up some Chicago Mix. Very good.