Joey and I had a full day of walking around different neighborhoods of Chicago. We started off in Grant Park, and immediately saw really cool artwork EVERYWHERE. So this day quickly became a street art hunt for us.
Chasing all the street art made us hungry, and how could we come to Chicago and NOT try deep dish pizza?! Yes, we know..SOO touristy..but we couldn’t resist. While we were planning for this trip, we made sure to look into the must-dos of all our stops, and Lou Malnati’s was on our list! We stopped in for a quick lunch, and we did NOT regret our decision. When you come here, you HAVE to do the Lou’s signature deep dish, which comes with lean Chicago sausage, extra cheese, fresh tomatos, and a butter crust that was to die for!!
We got the small, which came with 4 slices, and that was more than enough for an early lunch. After lunch, we walked towards Millennium Park, because we obviously needed a picture by the Cloud Gate aka “the bean”. It brought me back to my Myspace days, when taking mirror pics was the biggest fad..turns out we still had selfie skills!
We took the blue line to California, where we got off to go to Revolution Brewery, which is in a cool neighborhood called Logan Square. We had a lot of time to kill before our dinner reservations and it was WAY TOO HOT to keep walking around outside, so a few local beers were just what we needed to cool of and relax. A few turned into 10…but don’t worry they were all $2 sample sizes!! They had great beers, and amazing finger food. We chose to go with the bacon fat popcorn, topped with bits of bacon and shredded Parmesan.
After tasting most of the beers on tap, we decided that it was time to head out. We walked towards Wicker Park to look at some cool shops before dinner. Throughout our walk, we saw more street art!
We did a little thrift store shopping, which is always fun, but can sometimes be overwhelming because I never know where to start! Joey lucked out more than I did, and when we looked at the time, it was already time to start heading to dinner! Thanks to some Netflix & Chill nights and binge watching Anthony Bourdain’s Layover show before we began our trip, we found out about The Girl & the Goat. Apparently reservations fill up quick at this place, so we booked ours a few weeks ago, and lucked out! This restaurant is well-known for their signature dish, pig face, and as a Filipino…I can’t say no to that!
All their dishes on the menu are shareable, and the restaurant is “family-style” so we got 6 different things for a party of 4, and it was just right. They brought the dishes out from light to heavy, and every dish that came out was just as unique and delicious as the last…maybe even more!
After dinner, we headed back to our friend’s neighborhood, Pilsen, where there was an entire block of art galleries that were open to the public for free (Every second Friday of the month) The galleries had complimentary drinks and live music, it was great!
We had to go to bed early, because we have a HUGE drive ahead of us in the morning. We’ll be driving to Badlands National Park, which is a straight shot west on I-90. Keep you posted on tomorrow’s adventure!