Donut Obsession

I am a donut addict. Yeah, I said it.  I'm obsessed with donuts.  I don't need to eat them all the time but if I'm out walking around, it's hard to walk past a donut shop without getting one to-go at least.  My craze for the last few years has been bacon donuts.  Have you tried them?  They are amazing at most places.

Portland, Oregon

Yesterday I stopped by Blue Star and got the beauties below: Maple Bacon raised donut and a Lemon Poppyseed buttermilk. They were both delicious.  The sweet and salty of the Maple Bacon complimented each other perfectly. Blue Star is definitely worth another visit.

<----- After 6 donut-free months spent in Alaska, I got this heavenly Maple Bacon longjohn at Tonalli's Donuts & Cream in NE quarter. I will be hitting this place up again.

No first time visit to Portland is complete without a visit to iconic Voodoo Donuts. Again, a Bacon Maple Bar as well as an Old Dirty Bastard made their way into my belly. I loved the full strips of bacon but the frosting was too sweet. Recommendation: skip it except for the tourist factor---->

Joe's Donuts in little Sandy, Oregon has a version of Maple Bacon, too.  

Not enough bacon! The slices were too thin. Their other donuts are delicious though.

Chicago, Illinois

2 Sparrows was my first ever try of a bacon donut. This one was quickly followed by many more: Do-Rite Donuts, Dinkel's Donuts, my favorite Glazed and Infused and several others.  Glazed and Infused has THE best candied bacon on their donut.

11 Restaurants I Love in Chicago

Chicago is the foodiest (is that a word? I'm using it regardless) city I've ever visited.  A person could write endlessly about Chicago restaurants.  Since I tried to eat at a different one every time I went out, you will see periodic posts about the restaurants with a main page to tie them all together.  My list does not include every place I visited as I lost track eventually.  All of the restaurants below warranted multiple visits.

Below are my top 11 favorites (in no particular order):

1. Kuma's Corner

A very popular rocker burger bar with exceptional food - on my initial visit I tried the Mastodon burger and Build Your Own Mac n Cheese.  This restaurant has two locations in the Chicago area.  Both places have an interesting atmosphere with blaring rock music and tattooed and pierced servers and cooks.  Expect to wait unless you hit the restaurant at a rare moment.  It's that good.  A must visit type of place.

2. Lady Gregory's Irish Bar & Restaurant
Located in the delightful neighborhood of Andersonville, Lady Gregory's features a mile long list of whiskeys. Try their Ultimate Grilled Cheese with candied bacon and their Mac and Cheese with bacon.  Noticing a trend yet?  The first time I ate here, the summer menu featured a Guinness cheesecake that was so delectably rich, I couldn't eat it all in one sitting.  A rarity.

3. Smokin' Woody's

I probably ate at this restaurant the most during my time in the city.  It was a top favorite for ordering-in. The pulled pork sandwich and cornbread are to die for. The rest of their sides offerings are so-so.  After eating at multiple bbq restaurants, it is my top choice for pulled pork.  Eating at the restaurant is ok but extremely small, only 4/5 tables, cash only.  I recommend their delivery service.

4. Ann Sather
Best ever cinnamon rolls!  Even if you don't eat at the restaurant, go get their cinnamon rolls. (in writing this post, I discovered they publish their recipe online)  So delicious.  If you decide to stay for breakfast, try the French Toast Fantasy.  It is made with their signature cinnamon rolls and is recommended by Rachael Ray. Go hungry because it's huge.

5. Bat 17 (technically Evanston, IL)

I love bbq pulled pork.  I could do a post just on pulled pork restaurants.  Hmmm, that's a good idea.  You'll be seeing that in the future.  I happened upon Bat 17 while walking randomly around Evanston.  I went to go to the movies (best theater in the area) and spent the day exploring.  This plate of food is an appetizer portion of bbq pulled pork sliders.  An appetizer portion!  The photo is missing the fourth slider which was already in my belly.  Fantastic dish. Comes with my favorite, onion straws and extra bbq sauce.  Not the best service in the world but great food.  Try their desserts as well.  Homemade gigantic cookies and pies. If you are into the craft beer scene, they have over 50.

6. Homeslice Pizza

Forget the pizza (actually the pizza is amazing too).  Go to Homeslice for this appetizer.  Roasted garlic served with housemade Gorgonzola basil spread and crustinis.  Oh man, so delicious.  I've had to stop myself from digging the garlic cloves out and eating them whole.  Ok I have.  I did stop myself from licking the container the spread comes in.  That is an achievement.  This appetizer reheats well if you want to save some room for pizza.  I've tried The Knife & Forkner pizza.  It is so loaded with goodness you really should use a knife and fork to eat.  When you are done eating, walk off some of the carbs and go to Sweet Mandy B's just down the road.  Hopefully they will have some of their lemon cupcakes left.

7. Marmalade
Located in the North Center neighborhood, this cafe is very unassuming.  In fact, my friend and I discovered it by accident.  We were biking to another well known cafe and decided we were too hungry for the trip involved. We saw Marmalade and said what the heck we'll try it.  Marmalade quickly became our go-to brunch spot.  My favorite item is the multi grain hotcakes but if that is too basic for you, try any one of their numerous french toast or Eggs Benedict's choices.

8. The Bongo Room

The Bongo Room has several locations.  If you go on the weekend, expect a good long wait at any of their locations.  With the two choices pictured above, is it any wonder they don't have a wait every day. My favorite and must have is the White Chocolate and Caramel Pretzel Pancakes. If you like bananas, try the Chocolate Tower French Toast.

9. Yes Thai
Chicago has an abundance of Thai restaurants.  The closest one to my apartment was Yes Thai on Damen.  I already liked cashew chicken before eating at this restaurant but after eating here, I became addicted.  I could drink their homemade special sauce.  So good.  Hint: if you like a lot of sauce like me, order it "wet".  I have tried to duplicate this dish with no success.

10. Tango Sur
An Argentinian steakhouse located in the Southport corridor, this restaurant serves huge delicious portions. The dish I ordered with steak and sides was easily shareable.  Tango Sur is a big hit with all my restaurant friends as well especially if you want steak.

11. Sweet Baby Ray's Smokehouse

Very disappointed to learn upon writing this post that the Chicago restaurant has closed.  It was located in Wrigleyville and fairly busy during Cubs games.  Maybe it'll open back up for summer.  The platter of pulled pork easily feed two people.  And they offered like 25 different types of bbq sauce.  As a bbq sauce lover, I was in heaven.  The mac n cheese was another of my favorites

In case it isn't obvious already, pulled pork, burgers and mac n cheese are my favorite out-to-eat foods. Yum.

8 Things I love about Chicago

1. The Beach

The close proximity of the beach made me deliriously happy.  The two beaches I frequented (Montrose Beach and Wilson Beach) have great sand with surprisingly clean water or at least it looks that way.  I spent the first 5 months of living in Chicago not realizing how amazing the beach could be.  Then I moved to an apartment only a few blocks away from the beach and AHHHHHH, heaven happened.  I was hooked.  It became very easy to spend a few early hours at the beach then head to work.  Days like those were fantastic.

2. The flowers

Congratulations to the government agency in charge of the flowers.  This picture does not do them justice but Chicago does a great job of decorating the downtown and Michigan Avenue area as well as several other parts of the city.  There are seasonal flowers and current artwork.

3. Public Transportation

Chicago has fantastic public transportation.  You have the option of the L trains/subways or buses.  Taxis are plentiful too.  Never a reason to drive drunk in Chicago.  There are multiple ways to get home, trust me, I've used them.

4. Restaurants

You could easily eat out every day for a year or more and never eat at the same restaurant twice.  Chicago is foodie heaven.  The choices seem limitless.  Italian, American, gourmet, casual, Thai, pizza, burgers, fusion, you name it, Chicago probably has it.  I tried my first Thai food in Chicago as well as many other new foods. Look up, a partial list of the places I've tried  is in top menu.

5. Biking

Bicycling is a very popular way to get around town.  I bought a bike my first summer. Soooo came in handy.  I learned quickly to get over my fear of biking on the street.  Many major roads have bike lanes that look really small when you are in a car but are actually spacious (kinda) when on a bike.  I loved riding my bike around on a sunny day especially to the beach then a visit to my favorite gelato shop, Paciugo.

6. Brunch

No city I've visited does brunch quite like Chicago.  I never realized how big a deal brunch can be until I moved.  Of course, I fell in love with the tradition.  One of my favorite places serves tea in real tea cups with teapots.  Isn't that the coolest?  If you're in town, check out Tweet.

7. Variety

The variety of this town extends beyond the different cultures (which I loved!).  There is variety in just about everything.  You want a Korean grocery store? You will find it.  A different activity or sport you've never tried?  Chicago has it.  Want to learn pole dancing or go on a hike around a new neighborhood with a guide?  It's available.  A different festival to go to every week? Yup, you can do it.

8. Bacon

This town loves bacon and so do I.  They even have a festival dedicated to bacon called Baconfest.  Chefs like to put bacon into everything.  Personally, I'm fine with that concept.  I've tried every bacon donut I could find.  Fell in love with candied bacon and bacon flights at various brunch places.  I've tried a bacon bourbon manhattan, bacon ice cream, bacon on cupcakes, bacon stuffed burgers, bacon pizza, you name it.

Bakin' & Eggs

The Southern

2 Sparrows

Chicago Wine Bars

I love wine.  Can't deny it.  In the slightest way.  I love it.

I would rather have a glass of cheap wine than an expensive martini or craft beer any day. 

So the thought of going to a place that labels itself "a wine bar" makes me swoon.  Unfortunately, I have only made my way to two wine bars in Chicago: Bin 36 and Oenology.

First up: Bin 36
339 N. Dearborn Ave.

I've been here twice. Pictures are from my first experience. My friend Christy accompanied me both times. Our experiences are like night and day. First time, the service was horrible. The second time, it was fantastic. Both times the food and wine was excellent.   During our second visit, we mentioned to the gentleman who brought us our wine flights that our service was going so much better this time.  He continually checked on us and pried information out of us about prior visit.  Little did we know he was the owner.  I highly recommend a visit to Bin 36 if you are in the downtown Chicago area.

Next Up: Oenology

505 N. Michigan Ave.

This wine bar is tucked into a hotel building like Bin 36.  I spent a few hours here killing time and enjoying a great flight of Pinot Gris and a cheese plate.  I feel in love with Pinot Gris on my visit to Portland, Oregon.  While the bartender and I both agreed that my wine flight and cheese plate did not compliment each other, both were fantastic.  I picked them individually based on my taste buds at the moment.  The red wine I ordered as a follow up went perfectly with the Hardliner cheese flight.  Yum.  Try this place.

Burgers in Chicago

I have a thing for hamburgers, not traditional hamburgers which are plain with lettuce, tomato, and raw onion.  I love ones with STUFF on them.  If you know me, it is typically the same type of stuff over and over but I like to compare burgers.  Burgers are something I get mad cravings for every couple of weeks.  I wish I was more consistent with my food picture taking so I had pictures of each restaurants' burger for comparison.

The standard stuff I like on my burgers - cheese, bacon, fried or caramelized onions, bbq sauce.  I do venture off my standard path occasionally but I'm fairly predictable.


DMK Burger Bar

DMK Burger Bar was recommended to me by several people as The Place to go for burgers.  Well....that would not be my opinion.  I had the Aged Cheddar burger with caramelized onions.  The flavor didn't pop for me.  The burger was small and the bun...not my favorite.  However, the Amish Blue and Smoked Bacon fries and Chili Rubbed Onion Strings were amazing as well as the Not-So-Daiquiri Daiquiri.  I would definitely go back just for the daiquiri.  It is very rare to find a bar that can make a regular lime daiquiri or even know what I am referring to.  It was delightful.

Kuma's Corner
A terrible picture. My phone, at the time, took awful pictures.

Kuma's Corner is by far my favorite Chicago place to get a burger.  They also offer fantastic mac n cheese with a variety of add-ins. Yum yum. I've tried the Mastodon and Kaijo burgers.  I love the pretzel buns.  The burgers are huge and flavorful.  The atmosphere is heavy metal (not my first choice) but I love the heavily tattooed and pierced staff.  Kind of an anything-goes type of place. Kuma's is very popular and usually involves a long wait but it's well worth it.

Poag Mahone's

OMG! Try the Bacon, Beer and Shot burger at Poag Mahone's.  Wonderful. Good bun, great flavor, nice size.  Perfect.  I went during traditional happy hour.  The bar sported an afterwork white-collar crowd. 

Another of my favorites is the Hillbilly Paradise burger at The Squared Circle with cheddar, pulled pork, and bourbon bbq sauce.  This restaurant does an unique twist to burgers.  They stuff them.  My burger was stuffed with cheddar and topped with cheddar.  Hell yes!  Check out their menu with the different combination.  Ahhhh, now I'm hungry. 

Chicago offers so many places to get burgers that this will not be my last post on burgers. 

Have any recommendations for me?

Sweet Mandy B's - Chicago

Many of my adventures to date revolve around food.  (I should rename this blog a foodie blog versus travel blog but can't they be mixed?  YES) My trip to Chicago in October was no exception.  On a rainy Tuesday, I walked through the beautiful neighborhood of Lincoln Park in quest for cupcakes.  My Chicago friend Christy said Sweet Mandy B's is the best.  The shop is a little bit of a walk from the Brown Line stop but well worth it.  Just look at the above picture to confirm my words. 

I picked up the Lemon and Chocolate with Peanut Butter frosting cupcakes and a Peanut Butter with Chocolate frosting cookie to try.  All were yummy.  These cupcakes were our lunchtime treat.  Our suggestion: try the chocolate cupcake first, then the lemon.  Why?  Because the lemon cupcake is THE BEST!  It has amazing tartness mixed perfectly with sweetness.  Lemon Bliss is what it should be called.

I could have easily walked out of Sweet Mandy B's with one of everything in their shop cases.  Not only do their treats taste delicious, they look spectacular.  The store is every dessert lovers' dream.  It reminds me of cotton candy fluff.  I'd like to work as their official taster.  Think they need that position filled?

website: http://sweetmandybs.com/
Twitter: @SweetMandyBs

The Farmhouse - Chicago

Discovering the many neighborhoods of Chicago is becoming one of my favorite pastimes.  During a recent jaunt to ChiTown, I happened upon The Farmhouse.  In a frantic search for an afternoon glass of wine, the manager welcomed me in and soothed my nerves.  He escorted me to the bar and offered me a selection of wines including two draught wines. (oh, did I mention that he's pretty cute too)  Wines on draught?  I was confused. Yes, The Farmhouse carries two draught wines - a red and white.  I found both delightful but went with a bottle pour.  In addition to the large wine selections, the beer offerings are even greater.  Don't stop at just the drinks though, the menu items are yummy too.  Try the delicious Mac and Cheese Fritters or the Wisconsin Cheeseball with Caraway Crackers. 

The owner is just as friendly as he explained the farm-to-table concept to us.  His enthusiasm is catchy.  Each server and bartender we encountered was upbeat and talkative.  It would be easy to make this place a regular stop on your way home which I did for my 2 nights in Chicago.  If you ever find yourself in Chicago, go try The Farmhouse.  Conveniently located right off the Brown Line at the Chicago Ave. stop, it is sure to please your palate.

Website:  http://farmhousechicago.com/
Twitter: @farmhousechi


Sorry for picture quality.  My phone does not take great pictures.