Catherine Hits Chicago

Last weekend I went to Chicago to see Hamilton, but it was really much much more than that.

When I go to Chicago it is always an amazing time because Jeff and Jeffrey live there and they are really the most amazing hosts.  They have all the coolest adventures planned.  I am sure for them, it is just regular life, but for me it is full of amazing adventures that I always enjoy.  It makes me want to step up my adventure game in South East Michigan so that I can show others a good time when they are in town.  I often feel bad for other people who are going to Chicago if they don’t know Jeff and Jeffrey because I know they are not going to have the peak experience.

The biggest adventure for me was the trip to a trendy neighborhood.  Trendy neighborhoods strike that amazing balance of being upscale enough to not be dangerous, but cheap enough to have cool unique places to visit.  It makes it so much more fun to explore.  I can’t give you tips to try to have your own adventure there because I don’t know the name of this neighborhood.  I will have to ask Jeff and Jeffrey.  A Trendy neighborhood always makes me a little nervous because I am worried about not being cool enough.  Sure, I am super cool, but am I TRENDY cool?  Or scarier still, am I hipster cool?  I would love to be hipster cool but I am just too cheap and lazy.  Unicycles and Monacles take a lot of practice.  Typewriter ribbon and Polaroid film can get pricey.

We had dinner at a hipster pizza place.  I was not worried about this at first.  I know pizza.  FALSE!  This place revealed how much of a country mouse I was, and it was hilarious.  The first sign that I was out of my element was the drink situation.  The super cool waiter informed me that they had no cranberry juice.  I had to quickly navigate the confusing menu and order house brewed rootbeer instead.  This is barely a complaint, because that rootbeer was delicious!  I wasn’t the only one confused by the drinks.  Jeff got a drink with bobas in it.  Bobas are fascinating little creatures, but they taste disgusting.  YES!  I tasted the bobas.  Jeff has talked me into trying so many things.  Most of them have been wonderful.  Bobas are not wonderful, but then again, he didn’t like them either.

The confusing menu also stated that they politely declined any special orders or substitutions.  WHAT?  You can’t tell a picky eater that they must eat one of the specialty pizzas.  I read each description with such care trying to find one that would work.  I ended up ordering a carnivore Detroit style pizza.  There was some stuff in the description I didn’t understand, but I was thinking it was the closest I was going to get.  Turns out it was also DELICIOUS!  Also, it is hilarious that we went to a New York style pizza place in Chicago and ordered Detroit style pizza.  I think that makes us very urban.  Jeff and Jeffrey ordered vegan sausage on their pizza.  This blew my mind!  Who would do such a thing?  Jeffrey got me to try one of them.  Turns out it tasted just like regular sausage.  Who would think that I would ever try vegan anything?

Just when I thought I had the hipster pizza place figured out, I decided to go to the bathroom before we left.  I am an adult and I was sure that using the bathroom could not be at all confusing.  FALSE!  There was a hallway that said restrooms and then there were 4 unmarked doors in the hallway.  I could get past the fact that the restaurant is so woke that all the bathrooms were gender neutral, but I was very confused about the fact that there were 4 and they didn’t at least say “bathroom”.  What if one of the doors lead to the kitchen, or an office?  I just stood there like an idiot for a while before a guy came out of one of the doors and I could tell that it was a stand-alone bathroom.  

We had many more adventures after that.  None of them were as educational as the pizza place, but they were all delightful!

Did you already know how hipster pizza places work because you went there before they were cool?  What is your favorite trendy neighborhood so that I can take people there when they come to visit?  Do you brew your own rootbeer?  There was a club we didn't go to called the slippery slope, and there were no slides in it.  LAME!  Which style of pizza do you prefer: Chicago, New York, Detroit, St. Louis, or Quad City?