She's Going on About the Burritos Again

Some things I really appreciate about Chicago:

1) Friendly construction workers. They wave, they smile, they wink. No, not at me, silly...at LYLE. I can't get over how friendly they are. "Hey, big guy, you're back!" one called out to him the other day. A potato chip truck driver stopped and gave him a couple bags of chips recently. (Too bad it was Jay's - yuck!) Today he and I watched a bulldozer for a while and the driver paid so much attention to him, it was really cute. I'm sure it makes their day a little more interesting to have an audience. Kind of like Mike Mulligan.

2) Cheap parking meters. I wonder if this will ever seem normal to me. A quarter? For an HOUR? In a hip neighborhood? Huh?! After shelling out 6 quarters for an hour all over San Francisco, this is amazing to me. Oh, and there's 2-hour metered parking, not a measly ONE hour.

3) The grid. I know, how boring is it that our streets are laid out on a grid? Well, admittedly very boring, except that you know what? I can actually find my way around. Last night (Oma, don't read this) I left a restaurant at 10 PM at the height of that huge storm. I drove a friend home and then made my way home, getting turned back from major arteries due to flash flooding. It took me 45 minutes to do a drive that is normally 5 minutes because so many roads were closed. If I'd been in Boston or San Francisco, I'd have been completely lost within minutes, but thanks to the big old grid, I knew where I was at all times.

Some things that are missing in Chicago:

Let me just say up front, I think most of these are going to be food-related.

1) Independent coffee houses. I have never in my life bought so much Starbucks. In particular, I miss The Beanery on Irving St. and cannot wait to bring a few pounds of coffee home with me in November. However, I would take almost any independent coffee place. There's a great bar on every corner but just try to find a good coffee place that's not a big chain and you're at a loss here. Matt and I walked for blocks in Lincoln Park and came up empty-handed.

(And I think this is, in general, something that's hard to get used to here - all the big box chain stores. We were used to shopping at a lot more of the smaller, independent stores and just going to the big ones once in a while. There are some nice places in our neighborhood but in the mile between my house and work I pass Jewel/Osco, Office Depot, Costco, and quite a few others. Target, which does not have a store in San Francisco proper, seems to be everywhere. I know it has a lot to do with the fact that there is space here for all that, and I do appreciate that.)

2) Burritos. I know, I've mentioned this before, but it's a biggie. What's with the refried beans? We have tried to narrow our search for a great burrito by only going to a place that offers black beans, but even that doesn't help. Most of the time they're over-cooked. And lettuce? If I wanted salad, I'd order it. These aren't tacos, folks! Guacamole is hard to come by, too, and when they offer it, you have to pay a lot for it. We miss the steamers they use in San Francisco - these grilled numbers just aren't doing it for us. And, as Matt wants me to add, here they cut them in half but then don't give you foil for them so you have to use a knife and fork. Wussy.

3) The selection at the grocery store. I'm not talking about the Jewel. I'm talking about Whole Foods and Trader Joe's, two stores I know we are very lucky to have. (I just talked to a client in Urbana who recently drove two hours to go to our Whole Foods store.) But it's very weird - the selection of some foods, particularly breads, seems really poor. Just try to find a really good wheat bread. This is one that I wasn't allowing to get to me until Matt brought it up this week, but he's right; it's weird.

4) The quality of food at most restaurants. In our experience, Chicago restaurants have gone overboard on quantity (the quantity of choices on the menu as well as quantity of the food that is served) and let a lot go on quality.

I think this is normal, that many restaurants in a city would be sort of average and a few would be really excellent. We now understand how spoiled we were in San Francisco, where just about any neighborhood place at 9th/Irving beat the pants off of most everything we've had here so far. After an expensive and not-so-great meal recently, Matt and I started to tick off the names of places we used to take for granted because they were just the places we'd walk to for a quick dinner out (e.g., Park Chow, Hotei, Marnee Thai, PJ's Oyster House, Canvas Cafe - the list goes on!). Not only are we looking for a good burrito, but we are in the market for good Thai and Indian. When I think about my trip to San Francisco next month, at least half of my thoughts are on where I want to eat while I'm there! I did have an excellent dinner last night at a great new Italian place called Il Covo on Damen, right near my office, so things are looking up. And of course there are thousands more places for us to try.


But you know, what's funny is that I feel like I'm being disloyal to Chicago when I say these things. I can't believe I already feel loyal to this new city, but Chicago has been ridiculously good to us. I shake my head in disbelief every day when I look at our life here and think about how easy it was to put together a very happy existence. So, in truth, it's all, relatively speaking, quite minor.