Living on Cloud Nine: what to eat in Chicago

Not gonna lie, I wanted a trip to Greece or a glorious tropical vacation for my 50th birthday! But this is an odd time and neither Mr. Nine nor I had had our second vaccines and we were playing it by the book. I truly thought nothing special trip wise was going to happen for my birthday, but we were blessed with a beautiful above 70° weather weekend in Indiana so very last-minute Mr. Nine and I decided to go to Chicago and just be as careful as we could, and it all ended up being just fine.

Truly, we were more impressed with the way Chicago was handling the pandemic than our own county! Temperatures were taken everywhere and with nice weather, we were able to be outside most of the time. What was super odd is it was the least busy we’d ever seen Chicago despite being the holiday weekend and warm sunshiny skies! People are still just fearful, and I get it as several restaurants and hotels that we loved were still closed, some permanently so.

But the Nine’s always make the most of it and we had a glorious time! Mr. Nine has been working so hard so it was exactly what he needed as well! It may have just been a quick overnight, but we packed it in, and it meant the world to us!

I thought it be fun to share a few snaps as everywhere we ate was new to us and we meandered to the Fulton Market/West Loop area where we had never been before and loved it so much that we’re going to stay in that area instead of downtown next time!

Cool murals down there too.

We were lucky that our hotel was ready before noon, so we settled in and went out to explore a bit and get a snack. We ended up on the Gold Coast at LUXBAR and I was able to get Brunch which made this girl very happy! The Eggs Benedict and cocktails were delightful and of course I had to get a bathroom selfie, LOL!

After a quick stop in Eataly to get my favorite olive oil on the planet, it was back for a nap and then getting ready for dinner. As you saw in last Wednesday's post, Mr. Nine took some great Chicago photos in my white dinner jumpsuit and we had a lovely meal at Siena Tavern, where we had never been before. Afterwards, I wanted to take Mr. Nine up the road to the Gilt Bar! I have been once before with some friends and it has an old-school, 1920s vibe where they played great music and I love me a dimly lit bar! It was so fun to get our photos in the photo booth downstairs! Yumminess from top left

Yumminess from top left: Giant Meatball, Expresso Martini, An Italian Chicken dish the chef made on "Top Chef" and a lemon bar coated in meringue and lit on fire...YUMMO!!

You get two photo stops and you can hang one on the wall, so fun!!

After a restful night, we woke up to Easter morning and I was so thrilled to go have brunch at The Hampton Social. We had noticed this establishment the last couple times we were there, and I’d heard from people that it was wonderful. And it truly was. The vibe is so beachy and well I guess you could say, totally like I picture the Hamptons.

Afterwards, we changed and checked out and had the hotel hold our bags and we popped back down to Eataly for some salted caramel gelato and cappuccinos. Saw a great Jazz Sax Player and some were dancing on the streets! We were hoping to do a little shopping but since it was Easter, all the stores are closed.

Then, what Mr. Nine and I like to do is just start walking and hope that we discover new places which we do every time that we are in Chicago. We logged about 20,000 steps that day and ended up down in the Fulton Market/W. Loop area where we have been wanting to go. Next time, I think we’re going to stay in a hotel down there called The Hoxton. It was so charming is so delightful. We knew we had to have a drink out in the sunshine, so we stopped at a little restaurant called PB&J which stands for Pizza, Beer and Jukebox!!!!

We don’t really have any good pictures of us together either besides a couple selfie‘s because Mr. Nine is not really one to want to cask people to take her pictures but especially not now during Covid. Most of our servers had gloves on and you know some people just don’t want to touch your phone but that was Ok.

While we wish they could, maybe, LOL, men can’t read our minds so in giving Mr. Nine a little push, we ended up having 36 glorious hours of fabulous weather in our favorite city to celebrate and I’m so thankful!

Look a "9" just for us......