Chicago done did me good.
This New Year I was so excited to spend it in the Windy City with some of my closest friends. I envy the lifestyle my friend Bri lives; living in Wrigleyville, with access to tons of extraordinary restaurants, shops, and sites. Not to mention so many opportunities available in this crazy, hectic city. Every time I visit I am in complete awe.
I started the journey from Nebraska to Illinois with coffee and my best friends. Jamming to Taylor Swift, *NSYNC, and many many mixed CD's, we arrived in the city about seven hours later. Like I said, I was in complete awe.
We got to spend a lot of time shopping, mostly browsing since you know... we are broke college students. But I love window-shopping so that’s fine by me. We toured around Wicker Park, downtown, and downtown some more. For our group, Wicker Park was a crowd favorite. It's such a cute area, without so much of the hustle and bustle of the city. There are nice thrift shops, Mojo Spa (a salon with only handmade beauty products where many celebs have visited), Steve Madden (my favorite), and other unique restaurants and shops.
Another thing that we did a lot of, was eat. Of course we filled our bellies to the brim with Chicago deep-dish pizza from Lou Malnati’s (did you really go to Chicago if you didn’t eat Chicago deep-dish pizza? No. No you didn’t). Lou Malnati's also had the best cookie pizza I have ever eaten, topped with vanilla bean ice cream and whipped cream. They recommend the cookie pizza feeds two to three people. Portion wise that's probably accurate, but taste wise..no. I could eat two alone by myself. Crepes from La Creperie were also a fab idea and definitely hit the spot. My favorite food venture though, would hands down have to be Eataly.
If you visit Chicago and have not been there before, I highly recommend it. Two floors full of fancy wine, cheese, pasta, meat, cannoli’s, gelato, coffee, and even Nutella, you have so many options available you will definitely find something you like, Eataly is also a great place to get some grocery shopping done while you’re at it. We ate at La Pizza and La Pasta (Eataly is divided into sector restaurants with specific menus to each, other restaurants included chicken, seafood, beef, etc.). I decided to go with Pasta Al Nero. This was a seafood dish made with squid ink pasta. Yes, squid ink. The pasta was black. Feeling like taking a risk and wanting to try something new, I ordered this meal, and do not regret it whatsoever. It was absolutely delicious. You have to have the taste buds for seafood though to really enjoy this one, as it is filled with clams, shrimp, and calamari. We finished off our visit to Eataly with some shots. Shots of espresso. They had so many options at Lavazza such as espresso poured over homemade gelato and espresso topped with hazelnut mousse. All were delicious and satisfying and obviously a good wake up call.
My trip to Chicago was one to remember, but wouldn’t have been so pleasant without the people I spent it with. I couldn't keep count of how many times one of the owners of Mojo Spa told us how awesome our group was. He even told us he has never seen such a great circle of friends. We are all BFF's from high school that relocated for college. As hard as it is being apart, I love that when we are together, nothing has changed. Growing up feels weird. Time literally flies and we have all grown into amazing people who are driven, kind, and fun, which makes me extremely proud and excited for years to come. When Da Squad unites, Da Squad never disappoints.
This New Year I was so excited to spend it in the Windy City with some of my closest friends. I envy the lifestyle my friend Bri lives; living in Wrigleyville, with access to tons of extraordinary restaurants, shops, and sites. Not to mention so many opportunities available in this crazy, hectic city. Every time I visit I am in complete awe.
I started the journey from Nebraska to Illinois with coffee and my best friends. Jamming to Taylor Swift, *NSYNC, and many many mixed CD's, we arrived in the city about seven hours later. Like I said, I was in complete awe.
We got to spend a lot of time shopping, mostly browsing since you know... we are broke college students. But I love window-shopping so that’s fine by me. We toured around Wicker Park, downtown, and downtown some more. For our group, Wicker Park was a crowd favorite. It's such a cute area, without so much of the hustle and bustle of the city. There are nice thrift shops, Mojo Spa (a salon with only handmade beauty products where many celebs have visited), Steve Madden (my favorite), and other unique restaurants and shops.
Another thing that we did a lot of, was eat. Of course we filled our bellies to the brim with Chicago deep-dish pizza from Lou Malnati’s (did you really go to Chicago if you didn’t eat Chicago deep-dish pizza? No. No you didn’t). Lou Malnati's also had the best cookie pizza I have ever eaten, topped with vanilla bean ice cream and whipped cream. They recommend the cookie pizza feeds two to three people. Portion wise that's probably accurate, but taste wise..no. I could eat two alone by myself. Crepes from La Creperie were also a fab idea and definitely hit the spot. My favorite food venture though, would hands down have to be Eataly.
If you visit Chicago and have not been there before, I highly recommend it. Two floors full of fancy wine, cheese, pasta, meat, cannoli’s, gelato, coffee, and even Nutella, you have so many options available you will definitely find something you like, Eataly is also a great place to get some grocery shopping done while you’re at it. We ate at La Pizza and La Pasta (Eataly is divided into sector restaurants with specific menus to each, other restaurants included chicken, seafood, beef, etc.). I decided to go with Pasta Al Nero. This was a seafood dish made with squid ink pasta. Yes, squid ink. The pasta was black. Feeling like taking a risk and wanting to try something new, I ordered this meal, and do not regret it whatsoever. It was absolutely delicious. You have to have the taste buds for seafood though to really enjoy this one, as it is filled with clams, shrimp, and calamari. We finished off our visit to Eataly with some shots. Shots of espresso. They had so many options at Lavazza such as espresso poured over homemade gelato and espresso topped with hazelnut mousse. All were delicious and satisfying and obviously a good wake up call.
My trip to Chicago was one to remember, but wouldn’t have been so pleasant without the people I spent it with. I couldn't keep count of how many times one of the owners of Mojo Spa told us how awesome our group was. He even told us he has never seen such a great circle of friends. We are all BFF's from high school that relocated for college. As hard as it is being apart, I love that when we are together, nothing has changed. Growing up feels weird. Time literally flies and we have all grown into amazing people who are driven, kind, and fun, which makes me extremely proud and excited for years to come. When Da Squad unites, Da Squad never disappoints.