Our fun afternoon in Chicago. Off the beaten path!
 

Every once in a while, someone posts saying they've been in Chicago several times and are looking for less touristy things to do. So I thought I'd share the details of the very untouristy afternoon we (husband, 22 year old daughter and 18 year old son) spent in Chicago yesterday.

As we were driving in on the Ike (I 290) which was heavy with traffic around 1:00 on a Friday afternoon, I'm sure my husband was wishing we'd gone with our original plan to take the train into the Loop! We took the Damen exit and proceeded to our first stop, The Factory Store of Vienna Beef at 2501 N. Damen. http://www.viennabeef.com/cafemenu/ My son has been wanting to stop there since he first saw it, probably two or three years ago. His main reason for wanting to go was for t-shirts and possibly to buy hot dogs. But since we were planning to eat in the city anyway, when we learned that there's a cafe at The Factory Store, we decided to have lunch there. And it was a good decision. Definitely a very Chicago experience!

With it's very basic chairs and tables (with a huge stenciled Chicago style hot dog in the center), the atmosphere is nothing special. But every employee we encountered there was cheery and helpful. To the point that it made you feel good to be there. And the food was cheap! For the four of us (one of us had one Chicago style hot dog, one two, one had Italian beef w/peppers, the other a Polish sausage, we all had fries and refillable fountain drinks) the bill was $24.20. (Or was it $22.20? Cheap either way!) And, best of all, it was good! The fries were hand cut and fried in non-trans fat oil. Always a big plus where I'm concerned!

The kids each got a t-shirt. But, even though we'd brought a small cooler with a freezer pack, we decided to forgo bringing home meat this time. It was a warm day and we weren't sure how much longer we'd be out and about. So we decided that next time we'd bring a larger cooler and ice.

From there, we headed over to Broadway to hit the Threadless store http://www.threadless.com/retail. Our daughter has been ordering t-shirts from them online for several years and was very curious to check out their store. It was fun looking at all the quirky shirts. And we found a great onesie that takes care of a baby gift we'd been needing to buy! Of course, the kids each got shirts there too!

On our way from the car to Threadless, we'd passed Bobtail Ice Cream. http://bobtailicecream.com/ We'd seen it mentioned on TV sometime in the past few years (probably on 190 North or the Metromix program on CLTV). So, of course, we had to stop there on our way back to the car! And I'm so glad we did. The ice cream was great. My husband and I each had a single pistachio, me in a cup, he in a cake cone. Pistachio was always one of my HoJo favorites when I was growing up but I hadn't had any for years. This was missing the green color I remembered (probably a good thing!) but the flavor was wonderful! Our daughter had a single merlot/chocolate chip in a cake cone and our son had single white chocolate/macadamia nut in a cup. It was all very good! And the atmosphere was nice. Too small to give the feel of an old fashioned ice cream parlor. But much warmer than the national chains. Again the people working there were very nice and seemed to genuinely enjoy their jobs.

A few doors down we came upon a cheese shop, http://www.pastoralartisan.com/ and went in to take a look. It was a little pricey for this Trader Joe's shopper! But very nice. They had lots of interesting cheeses, wines, sauces, etc. Under other circumstances, I could have spent much more time there looking over all of the goodies. They were giving tastes of an excellent Italian three milk cheese called Robiola Rochetta. We bought the smallest piece they had cut. At $27.99 a pound, even that little bit (0.15) cost $4.20!

We'd gone into the city with the intention of having dinner while waiting out rush hour traffic. But it was late by the time we ate lunch. And, after the ice cream, we knew it would be a long time before any of us were ready for dinner. So, shortly after 5:00, we decided to brave the Ike again. All things considered, it really wasn't bad.

As much as we all love Millennium Park, Buckingham Fountain, etc., we've done it all many times before. We were all in the mood for something different. And I think our quirky little trip really filled the bill!

Glad you enjoyed some time in my neighborhood, CAPH52!

I just recommended Bobtail Ice Cream and Pastoral on the recent self-planned food tour post, as well as a couple of other places.

Thanks, exiledprincess! I've been kind of skimming that post but missed the recs for those two places. I'll have to go back and read it more carefully!

I'm going to have to check out threadless when I'm there, their site is very quirky!

It sure is, jewels! But their t-shirts are very unique. They're also reasonably priced and of good quality. My kids have some they've been wearing for several years that are still in very good shape.

If you get over that way, it's definitely worth checking out!

Hope you enjoy both your flight and your time in Chicago!