Chicago-to-Louisville: Food Reccomendations

[riser4]

1060 West Addison St.

[BmillsSkier]

1060 West Addison St.

Nice place.

[Core Shot]

Helmand is still around. Afghanistan food. From before our 20 year failed war. Lots of mint and lamb and spices you’ve never had.

Also Ethiopian food is legit in chiraq.

[teleee]

Chicago is my all time favorite food town. Mr Beefs and Pequods are solid Chicago staples. You HAVE to go to Chinatown, i dont think you can go wrong in pretty much any of the spots. I know its trendy and most likely over rated for what they are but the Girl and Goat and Au Cheval are worth the price of admission in my humble opinion. Edited to add I am big fan of Revolution Brewery
If you have time make sure to hit up Wagner’s Pharmacy for breakfast in Louisville, the Churchill Downs history in there is so very cool.
Plus you never know who is going to be in there eating (we sat at the table next to the cheater Bob Baffert last time I was in there. I second getting out and sampling bourbon every chance you get.



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[halliday]

If you stop in Indianapolis hit up the Ale Emporium on Allisonville Rd for a plate of Hermanaki wings.

[Core Shot]

If you fly into ohare and rent a car you have to go

https://www.hamburgerheavenelmhurst.com/

Their website doesn’t say it. But legend is that it’s the original Big Mac.
75 years and going strong.

Onion rings and a Richardson’s root beer for the win.

[skinipenem]

Manny's deli

Cheeseburger, Cheeseburger, Cheeseburger (you can figure out out from there. ) although they're night be multiple locations now.

Half shell on diversey

I haven't been to any of these in over 25 years, but I suspect they haven't changed one bit.

Dimsum in Chinatown. I have no idea of the name or the place we used to go or if it still exists. It was the best dimsum I have ever eaten in my life perhaps tied with a certain restaurant in San Francisco



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[Woolly the Mammoth]

Agree with BMills' recommendations for Louisville. Posting to say that Keeneland in Lexington is open in October and if you can make that happen you will not regret it. Stop at Wallace Station on your way for lunch, its a cool country store that's been featured on Diner's, Drive-Ins and Dives. https://www.wallacestation.com/

[Core Shot]

Cheeseburger cheeseburger is the snl billygoat tavern under the wrigley building. Awful nasty food. Even at 3am. Hard pass.

But mannys deli. I can close my eyes and still taste matzo soup with kreplach. And latkes. And corned beef and pastrami on rye. Mmmmmmm

[BmillsSkier]

Agree with BMills' recommendations for Louisville. Posting to say that Keeneland in Lexington is open in October and if you can make that happen you will not regret it. Stop at Wallace Station on your way for lunch, its a cool country store that's been featured on Diner's, Drive-Ins and Dives. https://www.wallacestation.com/

Hell yeah, Keeneland Fall Meet and a bomb-ass sandwich from Wallace Station and you’re living well.

Chef-owner’ Ouita’s other upscale restaurant in Lexington, Holly Hill Inn, is amazing too.

[lifelinksplit]

Fucking Bob Chinn's crabhouse. My dad had a few offices right next to a Bob Chinn's. I grew up drinking out of way too many of those plastic Mai Tai glasses. I take people who have never been to the og Billy goat there just to grab a greasy cheeseburger and maybe a Chicago handshake.

I haven't been through Indiana in prob 20 years and hope it's at least that long before I get back. Maybe get really high and grab a sack of 20 from white castle. If you're feeling frisky do it at 1am around Gary and enjoy the show.

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[S_jenks]

I am humbled and overwhelmed at the recommendations here- once again the knowledge of this place runs deep.

- Delis, Dim Sum, Dank sandwiches, and 'dawgs it is for Chicago
- A festival of bourbon sampling it shall be for Louisville.
- And for Indianapolis, I'm liking a good long pit stop downtown to sample some of the aforementioned places. It'll help break up the drive.

Any free time on this trip will be fully-leveraged towards food and drink. Also glad that I'll be traveling with my laid-back colleague who was with me in NOLA last year. He's been helping his kid out after a nasty bike injury dislocated his femur from his hip (only 19 years old!), so I imagine he'll be looking forward to the break from all that.

I see that teleee mentioned a brewery, which I am very much partial to. Any ideas on that front on how to kill a few pints?

Thank you all, and much love.

S

[neckdeep]

If you want to try something different in Louisville, that region of Kentucky is probably the only place in America where BBQ mutton is popular.

[Core Shot]

Heh. Bob chin plastic mai tai cups. Haven’t had any in the house for years. They were a great souvenir.

Speaking of Mai tai. And scorpion bowls. And suffering bastards.
It’s not just Chicago. But if you are downtown. It’s worth going to trader Vic’s.

Fuck. Was googling. And trader Vic got kicked out of the Palmer house in 2005. https://chibarproject.com/reviews/tradervics/

Oh well. It’s not the same.

Heaven on seven was up the street on the seventh floor of a rando building. Best Louisiana food I’ve had up north. Killer gumbo. Alligator and turtle etoufee. Last time I ate there they had moved across the river to the mag mile. Still good food.

[S_jenks]

If you want to try something different in Louisville, that region of Kentucky is probably the only place in America where BBQ mutton is popular.

Mutton you say?

[S_jenks]

The trip was had. The good news is that I got to knock off a lot of items on the list. The bad news that United airlines and my colleagues illness wrecked havoc on the original trip plans.

First half of the trip was Chicago. United straight-up canceled our flight into Denver for “technical issues” after it had already pulled up the gate. The ensuing chaos got us a late flight and basically shot the first night plans in the foot. So no afghan food

Next step was my colleague feeling sick on the first meeting of the first day, leading us to cancel a host of meetings, so no ability to take a client out to a higher end place

BUT- the cancelled meetings allowed me an opportunity. Fear of the unknown lands of urban Chicago were overcame by the rumblings of my stomach, and so I first hopped the line to Chinatown.



The spot was selected, and I sat down to one excellent lunch.



Absolutely stunning 3-meat noodle soup, with the crispy duck being of high acclaim.

Next was a local bakery, where wife cakes (made with winter melon), bean paste pastries, and coconut tarts were sampled.



I was feeling a little stuffed at that point, so I strolled around the area and took the sights in while my stomach did it’s job. After a short while, I decided on a walk up to Manny’s.

My god. The corned beef sandwich was divine, and watching then carve the meat was almost as good as seeing them pile it high on the bread. A potato pancake sealed the deal and I was one happy camper in the cafeteria.







Goddamn what a place.

(Continued in part 2)

[S_jenks]

Next up was a long walk through Chicago. Wanted to get a feel of the place, and who it’s people were. Strolled for several miles to digest the food eaten.





Pretty darn cool city. Lots of character and lots of boozy options to keep a person happy when sampling the local cuisine. This included a visit to the monks pub, which provided me with ample duval and other euro beers for rehydrate on. One was a Ukrainian golden ale that just slapped.



Then it was on to the beef!



A fully dipped Italian beef with the hot peppers was a highlight of the trip. The bread stayed firm despite the dunking, and almost made me more hungry upon eating since I wish I had 2 of them!

Afterwards a visit to grab a dawg was in order.



Stuffed to the gills, I waddled back to the Palmer house to pass out. And the light display from the sunset was a nice bookend to this part of the trip.

[S_jenks]

My fears of a trip cut short where assuaged when my colleague, fresh off a DayQuil/NiQuil bender, was feeling better. So our journey could continue!

Due to the whole rearrangement of our trip, no time was allotted for Indianapolis, which saddened me greatly. The recommendations you mags provided actually tempts me to come back, but for the most part- this state sucks.

Did stop at white castle for the first time ever tho-



How the F do people live out here???

[S_jenks]

Our drive across the bridge welcomed us to Louisville, a city that I am still trying to mentally process. But it can be quite a pretty city at night.



And my god was the food good once you ventured off the main path. Smoked wings, beef brisket, and hot chicken was all divine.







And other options like pizza and tacos were well received.





The pizza joint in particular was rad.

[S_jenks]

Lastly, the bourbon and drinks were stellar in Louisville. Solid range of options, and you were hard-pressed to be dissatisfied anywhere you went.











Thank you all so much for the recommendations! You mags once again show the vast collective wisdom this place has. Plenty of reasons to return to each place as well, which I very much hope to have the opportunity in the near future to do so.

You all rock.

[mcphee]

Hell yea, Chicago rules. I love walking and stopping at random food/drink spots in that city. next time go to Weiner’s Circle for a dog, the furious spoon for ramen, and Cuba 312 for obviously Cuban food….oh and Big Star for tacos

[S_jenks]

Oh, and extra shoutout to Manny’s, that place was so good we went back the next day.



Rueben sandwich with Matzo Ball & Kreplach soup…. Oh man.

[Core Shot]

Oh, and extra shoutout to Manny’s, that place was so good we went back the next day.



Rueben sandwich with Matzo Ball & Kreplach soup…. Oh man.

Hell yeah. Mannys is the best. NY comes close. But not really.
Glad you added the kreplach. My best man taught me that.

[lifelinksplit]

Nice work. I gotta plan a trip back to Chicago. Been too long.

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[skinipenem]

Manny's is awesome. I remember going there as a kid with my dad.

Heaven on seven is also awesome. The best soup in the loop. I forgot to mention it in earlier posts. Haven't been there since somewhere around 1985.

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