Weekend Recap: Last "fun" Chicago weekend

It is quickly hitting me that I am moving away from Chicago, my home for four years, in just two weeks. As excited as I am, I know I will miss this city immensely. So, this weekend, I did some fun "Chicagoy" things.

Friday
M and I went to dinner at Vie in the western suburbs. It was probably the singlest best dining experience I've ever had: great service, great ambiance, and most importantly, some of the best food I've ever eaten.

M and I got a Zagat SmartBox Gift Card from his sisters for Christmas, that allowed us to pick from a list of 30 Zagat-rated restaurants in the Chicago-land area. Some restaurants allowed the diners to pick whatever they wanted off the menu, while others had specific stipulations. All of them guaranteed an appetizer/salad, entree, and dessert each for two diners. We went through the list one by one and narrowed it down to Vie and a few other places. After looking at the menus and reviews on Yelp, we knew Vie was the best fit for us. So we made a reservation and drove 30 miles out to the 'burbs.

If you don't know anything about Western Springs, I'll paint you a picture: cute, quaint village. Beautiful and expensive homes - they reminded me of the Country Club area of Edina. Adorable downtown area, which is where Vie was located. When we walked in, I immediately noticed we were by far the youngest people there - this probably had to do with the lofty price tag of their menu. We settled into a table in the back corner and were greeted by our server. I liked her immediately, as she told us about all the great things on the menu, in incredible detail. She was a total foodie, and I loved her for it. She also told us we could order any six things off the menu so we were not limited to just two of each section. It was awesome, and so incredibly filling, as we completely pigged out! Here's what we had:

cream of green garlic soup, san marzano braised slagel farm veal meatballs, grilled bread croutons (Michael - he loved it)

 

prairie fruits farm sheep’s milk ricotta gnudi, pickled and roasted beets, lemon olive oil, fried tuscan kale (Me - Michael is just finishing it up. Gnudi is similar to gnocchi, made with riccota cheese and flour. The fried kale was amazing) 



wood-grilled vie burger: dietzler farm beef and house made bacon, wisconsin cheddar, potato salad, wood-grilled asparagus, spicy mayonnaise (Split - we both agreed this "pushed us over the edge." Sorry about the poor lighting. I didn't turn my flash on right away)



wood-grilled dry-aged dietzler farm beef ribeye and smoked sausage, local potato purée, pickled ramp glazed carrots, mustard greens, red wine beef sauce (Me - and I ate the whole thing - minus the carrots, which M ate - even after 6 pieces of gnudi and half a burger)

 

pan-roasted walleye pike, braised beluga lentils, wilted local spinach, marinated werp farm beets, marcona almonds, preserved lemon vinaigrette (Michael - he said it was delicious, light and flaky)

warm gooey butter cake, pistachio streusel, granola, sour cherry sorbet, whipped white chocolate ganache (Split. This was SO good that we ate it before we could get a picture. Best dessert ever!!!)

 It was an amazing evening and we would have never gone there if it wasn't for Michael's sisters. Thank you Amy and Molly!!!

Saturday
We started with Yoga in the Park. I have been wanting to do this for years but have never gone. Of course, I waited until two weeks before I move to go. And of course, I fell in love with it.

Each week, there are free workouts in Millennium Park, a Chicago tourist attraction. It's usually 8am yoga, 9am pilates, and 10am changes each week (this week was Zumba). They bring in different instructors and live music. We went to the 8am yoga class and it was fantastic. I loved the instructor and her husband provided the live music (it sounded very Indian to me - it was awesome). With the birds chirping and the dull lull of traffic on Lake Shore Drive in the background and a five minute savasana, it was the absolute perfect way to start off my Saturday. Afterwards, Michael and I took some pictures to reenact our practice.

You can see the city and park in the background. We faced the opposite direction I am facing in the photo.

M reenacted Warrior I. Love that he has his shoes on :-)

And since we were in the Park, we took some pictures at the Bean.

The afternoon was spent doing "life" stuff: M wrote his final paper, I cleaned, and we went to the Container Store to get some stuff to help with our move.

That night, we went to Sausagefest in Wrigleyville and saw the 80s cover band Sixteen Candles. Saturday marked the beginning of "Festival Season" in Chicago, a favorite summertime activity of many locals, including this girl. We ate and drank (Diet Pepsi - yum!), sang and danced! A few of my friends were there so by the end of the concert, we made our way up to the front of the stage to join them for the fun. My throat still hurts from all the screaming, though my ears did finally stop ringing yesterday.

Michael had a Turducken brat. He said it was amazing. I had just a regular brat - also amazing.

Self-portrait. Thank you iPhone for making this so much easier than a camera.

Sixteen Candles.

Up near the stage.

Wearing their "sunglasses at night."

Danny, Melinda, and me. We went to grad school together in BG and now all live in Chicago.  

Danny is pretty much obsessed with SC. You could call him a groupie. They threw out the drummers' drumsticks and Michael (being the strappy, tall man he is) caught one of them and gave it to Danny. He was so excited!

Interesting side note: as were we walking from the train to the festival, my flipflop broke. Michael was the perfect MacGyver and fixed the problem using a paper clip and some duct tape. Thanks LOML!

Sunday
Sunday was a low key day. We went on a long walk (and I got sunburned for the third time this year - I REALLY need to get better with wearing sunscreen!) and then M headed to Evanston to finish his final college paper. I spent the day clearing my DVR, catching up with my GF Johanne on FaceTime, and reading.

It was one of my last "fun" Chicago weekends, as I will be spending the next weekend packing and the weekend after that at Michael's graduation events/more packing.

2 weeks from now, we'll be on the road!