Mexication

Wendy and I took our first "vacation" vacation in a good while when we went to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for six nights last week. Home base for us was an all-inclusive resort (Riu Palace Pacifico) in Riviera Nayarit, which is twenty minutes from PV. The goals for the trip were simple: spend ample time in the sun by the pool or on the beach, eat our weight in food, and day-drink every day, all of which were accomplished. As a bonus, we also learned how to surf, watched whales go crazy in the wild, and read a few good books along the way.

The view from our 7th floor room. We didn't actually catch the sunsets from here, as we were pointed just far enough north of west, but still an awesome view. And far enough away from the pool to not be annoyed by the group of 70 year old women catcalling their waiter.

Awesome sunsets.

One of the highlights of the week was a daytrip to Sayulita, a small surf town around the northern point of Banderas Bay on the Pacific Coast, where we hoped to surf for the first time. With the help of our instructor, Alan (pronounced ah-LAWN), Wendy and I were riding waves like pros. We also found time for a few Coronas and some fresh ceviche at a beach front bar.

Us with our surf instructor, Alan

Surfing giant waves

On the beach in Sayulita

Our other big excursion for the week was whale watching in Banderas Bay. I was a little skeptical about this one when we signed up, but this ended up being one of the coolest experiences I've ever had. The tour started off a little slow, but by the end we had about fifteen humpback whale-sightings, and even saw one come fully out of the water, Pacific Life style. I also caught this video of one waving at us. Pretty amazing.

I told the Captain I would double her tip if she cued up the Free Willy song on our way back into port. She was either insulted or had no idea what I was talking about.

On the sailboat, looking for whales

Meanwhile, back at the resort we were catching plenty of rays and chain-drinking pina coladas. The food at the resort was good enough, but definitely not blog-worthy. Our food highlight was the senorita at the omelet station who we talked into making us breakfast tacos every day. Yum.

This resort was pretty hilarious. It seemed as if everyone there was a fifty-something from the Midwest or Canada (let's just say there was no shortage of jorts or mandals). There was an "entertainment" crew that was apparently there to ensure we were having a good time, but succeeded only in emulating a really bad mexican variety show. Don't get me wrong, this resort was absolutely gorgeous and spotlessly clean. The service was impeccable. It was located on probably the best part of the beach. And we actually did meet some "kids" our age. The ease of an all-inclusive resort is why we chose it, and we were not disappointed. But I think we discovered this may not be our scene for vacations in the near future. Smiley face.

From our balcony

In the courtyard

At our favorite bar

Pure (and I mean PURE) Michigan

The whole crew, aka Team Everything Matters

There exists a land on the other side of the Lake from Chicago that is as pure as the driven, lake-effect snow; the only state with an opposeable thumb; the home of Madonna and Bob Seger and Tom Brady and Jessie Spanno and Tom Selleck; the place where the Cluley family name as we know it had its humble beginnings; the place where Tim Allen narrates all activities of daily living. That place is Michigan.

We recently had the pleasure of visiting the The Great Lakes State with our gracious host, Jason Biehl, and a dozen friends, most of whom are Northwesterners. For the past 2 years, Jason has been trying to arrange a trip to his family's cottage in Northern Michigan. Because of the distance from Chicago (about 370 miles) and the fact that we all have terrible schedules, it took several attempts to make this thing happen, but it finally came together Super Bowl Weekend. The timing was perfect as I was finishing up two weeks of nights in the ICU and was itching for a little R&R.

Jason's family's place is a little slice of lumberjack heaven. Tucked back into the hilly, snowy woods off of Little Traverse Bay, it's as cozy as you can get. It was complete with an awesome fire place (with plenty of firewood), bearskin blankets, a ping pong table, a didgeridoo, and enough sleeping room for a dozen city slickers. There were also several flat screen tvs for good measure.

Seriously does it get any better?

Our host and his didgeridoo

View from the kitchen. Also, several scenes from Kiss the Girls were shot here.

Rather than give you the minute by minute breakdown of how often I was throwing logs on the fire, what type of blanket I chose to curl up with on the couch, how many pieces of bacon I ate at breakfast, or my general Ins and Outs for the weekend, I'll just give you the highlights in no particular order:



- The Hot Tub! (aka the Ha-tub). To a boy from Texas, there's not much better than walking half naked out into freezing temps and getting into a steamy hottub. Then add nine other people, booze, and murky water and you have yourself a party.

The Ha-tub at 25% capacity

- An intense game of Cranium with no shortage of trash-talking (Wendy and I were on separate teams), an abundance of fist pumping, Scott burping in Katy's face, and all hell breaking loose every time we had a Club Cranium. After all that, I don't even think we finished the game.

Cranium team "trash talk"

- A great new drinking game (introduced by Brad) called Baseball - best described as half beer pong, half...baseball - complete with strikeouts, home runs, and stolen bases. This was a battle of the sexes with the dudes triumphing after nine heartstopping innings.

The Boys

The Girls

- Yvonne's 30th birthday! We had our very own Giants fan with us on the trip. She's also a fan of the Ravens, 49ers, and Bears. I think she may have Patriots and Packers connections as well. At any rate, her team won the Super Bowl! And the ladies made her a lovely cake that would make Eli proud.

The Birthday Girl

- An entertaining Super Bowl made even more interesting by the numerous prop bets we were making. The Patriots inability to make a big play, while entertaining, took a back seat to the coin toss, Kelly Clarkson's singing endurance, and Madonna's panty hose. We also threw in some squares to make it even more interesting. Speaking of making things interesting, we may have offended a certain townie pizza delivery girl. Bless her heart.

- Jello syringes. That's right I said SYRINGES. Thanks to Nurse Nelson we were well equipped with semisolid, alcoholic beverages shooting out of 60cc syringes. Creative rituals ensued.

"I'll see your red, and raise you two yellows."

Just a great picture

- An impromptu tribute to Whitney Houston (pre-mortem) at a random gas station on the way home, highlighted by I Will Always Love You blaring with the windows down and Bruno serenading an unsuspecting septagenarian.

Could not have asked for a better weekend for my first ever trip to Pure Michigan.

A thing of beauty

Bulls vs. Bucks 1/22/12

After the Bulls went on their great run last season, it was decided that we needed to make it to at least one game this season. With a break in the old schedule and a wife that hones in on sports tickets like a heat-seeking missile, we were ready to go for Bucks/Bulls on a Friday night! Accompanying us would be Bruno and our friend, Brynne Roberts.

During the Bulls playoff run last year, we became big fans of D-Rose, Deng, Joakim, Coach Thibs, etc. But the Bulls personality we loved the most was actually the color announcer for the local Comcast Sports broadcast, Stacey King. King played with the Bulls from '89-'94 and is one of the great "homer" announcers in sports. He's made popular quotes such as, "Gimme some o' that HOT SAUCE!" and "Did you get your invitation to the block party?!" Here is a soundboard of his greatest hits.

In preparation for the big game, Wendy and I made a run to our favorite t-shirt shop in the city, Strange Cargo. They had some awesome tees that we had not yet seen, most of them a tribute to Derrick Rose, who has become a god around here. Wendy decided on the 80s style "Chicago" tee. I went with the Derrick Rose tee (inspired by Stacey King) "Too Big, Too Strong, Too Fast, Too Good." For Bruno, we picked up the "I'm Here for the Deng Bang" shirt; quite clever and fitting for the Brunsky.

You may remember that this wouldn't be my first Bulls Game. I've been twice before, one of those times going with Wendy's friend and co-worker Sam. We were in the MillerCoors Box for that game and ran into B.J. Armstrong, a point guard and integral part of the Bulls Dynasty of the 90s.

Me and BJ

We started off at the MillerCoors pub, trying out a few different brews and visiting with some of the MC people. There's really not a better way to start an evening than drinking free beer at a beautiful bar overlooking downtown Chicago.

From there, we cabbed it down to the United Center, aka The Mad House on Madison Avenue. Highlights from the game included: lots of stadium food, an abundance of cheesy timeout spectacles, making it on to the jumbotron, making friends with the group of 10-year old kids sitting behind us, and of course a solid Bulls win.

Afterwards, we made our way around to the MJ statue, which is somewhat of a shrine on the East side of the United Center, to snap some pics.

From there we walked over to Billy Goat Tavern for a late night burger and beer before heading home.

What a great Chicago night!

NoMI : Brunch of Champions

NoMI - 800 North Michigan

If you know me (no pun intended), you know that a.) I get very excited about great food b.) I get extremely excited about large amounts of great food and c.) I'm all about hyperbole. That said, the Sunday brunch buffet at NoMI was one of the BEST dining experiences I've EVER had!

NoMI is one of those places in Chicago that I've heard of on several occasions, but had never really looked into until a few weeks ago. Wendy and I (Wendy > I) recently participated in a "cleanse" that limited us to only super healthy eating options, only one solid meal per day, no booze, no dairy, minimal carbs, etc. (more details at cleanprogram.com). We wanted to do something special to celebrate the end of what was projected to be a 21 day cleanse (I lasted 8). We looked into a few different spots, but NoMI kept coming up on yelp and other websites as an amazing place that we had not yet tried. Furthermore, we wanted to have an awesome Sunday brunch, and we found out that this is where NoMI really excels!

NoMI is located on North Michigan (hence the name) Avenue on the 7th floor of of the Park Hyatt, a posh hotel just west of Chicago's historic Water Tower. A former Michelin Star-winner, NoMI combines upscale Japanese sushi with fine French cuisine. The layout is incredibly spacious (and bathed in natural light), as they don't attempt to cram in a bunch of tables. The kitchen is open to the restaurant and vice a versa so the chefs can be seen happily performing their craft and constantly putting out amazing food for us to eat. We were lucky enough to be seated (in our cozy leather seats) by the window with a beautiful view of the Chicago Water Tower and Upper Michigan.

View from our table - Water Tower and North Michigan Ave

Now let's talk food. With our Sunday Brunch fee of $60/person(don't worry, it was worth it), all the food bars (buffet) are included as well as a choice of any of the ten brunch entrees on the menu (you could technically order all ten if you wanted to be an a-hole). The food bars are separated into a sushi/seafood bar, a hot bar, cheese/charcuterie bar, salad bar, and dessert bar. Let's break them down one by one...

Seafood Bar

Probably my favorite, and I definitely ate 60 bucks worth at this bar alone. The bar started off with our beautiful plates and chop sticks (the nice ones) followed by an awesome spread of fresh maki rolls (salmon/tuna) and sashimi (salmon/tuna/yellow tail). I'm not a sushi snob, per se, but I could immediately taste that the fish they were working with was as fresh as I've ever had. Then there was the beautifully displayed jumbo shrimp (and I mean jumbo), snow crab claws, and stone crab claws. The shrimp could barely be eaten in one bite (definitely not a bad thing). The crab was meaty and delicious, no condiments required. Raw oysters and asian-style clams rounded it out. I could have eaten a hundred of these oysters, just sucking them off the shell. The briny water and the delicate oyster meat took me to another place. I've never been to Maine, but probably there. Like I said, I could have spent all my time with the seafood and been very happy. But there's more...

Hot bar


This was where the more traditional brunch foods were to be found as well as some things there were a little more new to us. Fluffy scrambled eggs (mixed with cheese and peppers), crispy bacon, turkey sausage were the staples on the breakfast-y end of the bar. On the lunch-y end, we found a bread "pudding" with mushrooms and caramelized onions, potatoes au grautin, phylo wrap with mushrooms and goat cheese, crispy brussel sprouts with dried cherries, sweet potatoes. All delicious.

Cheese/Charcuterie & Salad Bars


Let's be honest, I'm not gonna be spending a ton of time at these spots when it's all-you-can-eat, but there were some noteworthy items here. The cheese bar was an impressive display of various cheeses (more than I could even come close to identifying) along with some spreads to create a sweet contrast to the cheese including peach preserves and crystalized honey. The salad bar had, well, salad, but also had some awesome open faced roast beef sandwiches (with arugula and dill cole slaw on a toasted baguette).

Cheesin' it up

As we were experiencing this rush of amazing food, our "main courses" arrived. We ended up ordering three. 1.) Arrabiata baked egg. This was a poached egg set upon a piece of garlic toast smothered in marinara and fresh grated parmesan with a duo of veal meat balls adorning the plate, a cool union of egg and red sauce that I've never experienced before. 2.) Eggs Blackstone. This was a benedict- style dish with thick cut bacon, arugula and stone-ground mustard hollandaise. Probably our least favorite entree, but still very good. 3.) NoMI Reuben. Not your typical reuben. Pear saurkraut was the secret ingredient in this amazing sandwich.

Eggs Blackstone

Dessert Bar

Just when we began to wonder if there was anyway NoMI could top what we had already experienced, we stumbled upon the dessert bar. Blown away. This may have been the most impressive looking food bar at NoMI. It was no slouch in the taste/texture department either. Various items that could be found here were chocolate caramel parfait with salted toffee, orange vanilla bean parfait, housemade candied chocolates, stollen (bread cake) with raspberry filling, chocolate bon bons, fudge, multi-layered chocolate cake, iced cookies, and much much more. What a great way to end a wonderful brunch.

Our experience at NoMI was second to none as far as brunches go. The amazing (and plentiful) food was easily equaled by the ambience and the view. Can we afford to go there every Sunday? Of course not. But this is a true example of getting what you pay for. Awesomeness.

Wendy and Romo

What a year!

What better to bring back the blog than a 2011 Year In Review? This was a special year, as it was quite possibly our last full calendar year in the great city of Chicago, that is until our mid-life crisis when we pull our school-age children away from all their friends in Texas and move them to the Windy City. "It's okay kids, Kevin McCallister lives there." At any rate, I'm gonna do my best to review one of the best years I can ever remember having.


The year started off right, with NYE 2011 at the home of our good friends, Tim and Fran Caprio. We had a great time, in spite of the fact that I had to cover at the VA the next day and fell victim to the iPhone alarm glitch. People don't believe me, but it's real. http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/01/apple-iphone-alarms-broken-until-january-3rd/. January was kinda slow for me since I was on service at the hospital, but the silence was broken at a great Super Bowl Party at Casa de Nelson (our friends Courtney and Jeff) when Christina Aguilera brought home the national anthem with a 15 second "braaaaaave", and I lost 20 bucks to Bruno taking the 8 second 'under'...good times. Snowpocalypse took over Chicago on Februrary 2, dumping in excess of 20 inches of snow in 24 hrs. I was enjoying a rare day off that day watching quite literally a shit storm, while Wendy was off galavanting around Dallas for Super Bowl.



March brought a couple of big birthdays (at least). Our good friend Courtney turned 30, and celebrated by taking us all around town on a trolley, definitely a Chicago bucket list item. I enjoyed a healthy amount of "summer beer", a few pulls from a honey badger-sized vodka bottle, and lasted all of an hour and 45 minutes on the ol' trolley. It was a strong showing. Wendy had her 29th birthday which she spent with some of her girlfriends getting dolled up at Benefit Cosmetics. We did also get to celebrate, just the two of us, over a super nice dinner at Joe's Seafood & Crab, one of the many new Chicago restaurants we got to try this year.


The first part of the year was also taken over by interview season for GI fellowships. I ended up interviewing at eight programs, six of which were in Texas and Chicago. I also interviewed in Portland at Oregon Health and Science University, during which Wendy and I made a long weekend experiencing, without a doubt, one of the best cities in the lower 48. I also had the pleasure of making my second trip ever to NYC for an interview at NYU. I stayed with our wonderrful friend Ali and got to hang with the other third of Wendy's old roommate trio, Amber, during a couple of great nights in the Big Apple. Interview season culminated with me matching at UT Southwestern (HOME!) where I'll be spending the next three years of my training. Yes, folks, the journey continues.


April brought another month on service, riding out the winter, whereas May brought less work and more fun times. Bob Seger hit Chicago the second week in May. A group of our friends decided to rent a limo to take out to the concert and work on our night moves. We held strong the whole night, like a rock, and then turned the page for a night cap at our buddy Jason's place before rolling away to the house. Later on in May, I took a trip back to Texas for Mark Bullitt's bachelor party. Bullitt is one of my great high school friends, with whom I played football and baseball. The whole crew (minus my cousin Timmy) was in town for it, and we had an awesome weekend at the lake talking about old times, pitching horse shoes, and enjoying the warm Texas sun (and wind).


Summertime in Chicago was its typical self, just awesome. I blogged quite a bit about the events of the summer, so see prior posts. Highlights included a host of street festivals (Burger fest, Sausage fest, Summer fest, May fest, Taste of River North, Wells Street Art Festival, Food Trucks at Mars Gallery, among others), Movies in the Park (Ferris Bueller's Day Off at the Chicago History Museum), The Chicago Challenge (a scavenger hunt around the city), Dave Matthews Band Caravan, Jazzin' at the Shedd Aquarium, lots of grilling on our new outdoor grill. And who could forget the Ken Cluley family storming Chicago for my dirty 30 in August. What a weekend!


Wendy spent much of the summer in training for the Chicago Marathon which she rocked on October 9. Wendy's parents, Ludy and Chet, and her Uncle Charlie Ortega made the trip up to Chicago and Wendy's good friend Christen Terry provided signage (and drinkage) and we all cheered Wendy on as she accomplished this amazing feat in a stunning time of 4 hours and 4 minutes, not bad at all for a first timer. After the marathon, Wendy and I both made a little investment in our personal fitness, joining David Barton Gym, an awesome but slightly over-the-top gym in our neighborhood. In spite of me not having a faux-hawk and a tribal tattoo, I've enjoyed getting into a little better shape during the latter part of this year. SPEAKING OF TATTOOS, Wendy made her love of Chicago official when she got her first ever tattoo, a rendition of the Chicago flag, permanently placed on her left flank. Ask her to show you next time you see her.


We attended several weddings this year. Cindi (Wendy's Cousin) and Adam tied the knot in El Paso/Las Cruces in June. I was unfortunately unable to attend secondary to questionable career choices but Wendy reported back that it was an amazing party. Jami and Jud Kinnucan got hitched in September. This is one of the more unique weddings I've been to considering that the ceremony and reception were both held at Carnivale, an enormous restaurant here in Chicago that they rented out exclusively for the event. Quite a party! Jenny Derita (a work friend of Wendy) and her fiance Jeff got married at the Harold Washington Library on Halloween, also unique and fun.

We had some fun nights out on the town- too many to remember- that are worth mentioning. Wendy and I had our first Korean Karaoke experience as we celebrated Rene Ramos' birthday in Koreatown. An epic evening at the Map Room was had with the Northwestern/MICU crew in late October. Some Emergency and Internal Medicine people joined forces to take down Wicker Park - Salud Lounge and later Cans- on a crisp November evening. You can never have enough happy hours at Timmy O'Toole's during Northwestern Medicine interview season. A tradition was started to follow up Timmy's happy hour with dance party at the Kerryman with DJ Ruki. Jason Biehl had us all over for a good old-fashioned housewarming at his new home in Lincoln Park followed by beers and Jukebox-takeover at Flounder's, his neighborhood watering hole, and late-late pizza at Pequod's. Wendy and I were able to catch a few Texas Football games at both Brownstone (with Rosh in town) and Stanley's (with Cassie, Dan Sarles, and Erika Grim). When Mandy and Erin were in town for my birthday, we hit up The Violet Hour for the first time. I've never been happier to pay $12 for a drink. Thanks to Bruno, I lost my pants (think Risky Business) and got pelted with Cap'n Crunch Berries at TBOX (Twelve Bars of Xmas) 2011, a huge pub crawl in Wrigleyville. We had a fun night celebrating Christen Terry's birthday at Cafe BabaReeba and reunited with McClurg crew for Frances Caprio's birthday at Quartino. We were also lucky enough to be entertained dinner party-style at the homes of Jeff and Jovina Young, Chris and Ashley Therasse, and Amy Packard and her boyfriend Jon.


While we did have some wonderful times in Chicago, we did do a little bit of traveling, but it was all domestic this year. Wendy and I traveled to Portland for a long weekend when I had my fellowship interview there. Highlights included The Pearl (awesome neighborhood where we stayed), amazing food truck dining, really nice homeless people, and a scenic drive along the Columbia River checking out some breathtaking scenery and several waterfalls including Multnomah Falls. In July, we made a weekend trip back to Texas for a lake weekend at my parent's. We also roadtripped back to Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin for a lake weekend at the Nelson's place. We took the opportunity of being in Texas for Thanksgiving to head out to the Texas Hill Country for relaxation and wine-tasting. We had an amazing experience at The Lakehouse Inn Bed and Breakfast, ate some amazing food, and tasted some outstanding Texas Wine. Wendy, as usual, showed me up in the travel department going to Super Bowl in Dallas, Miami for Cindi's Bachelorette, Vegas for Amber's Birthday, Vegas again for Rock'n'Roll half marathon and Rodeo, NYC for Ali's marathon, LA for a Coors Light commercial shoot.


Being Chicagoans, you can always count on a good number of visitors, and we had some awesome ones this year (knowing me I forgot someone, but here goes a few shoutouts):
Joe and Kristen Williams
Cassie Mulanax (x2)
Clark and Tommy Turner (x2)
Jon Wheless (x2)
Wes Wheless
Roshan Gummatira
David Hanss and Sara Mulkey
Sara Litton
Ken, Mary Ann, Mandy, and Erin Cluley
Chet and Ludy Wheless
Charlie Ortega
Dickie Lawson (x2)
Tim Taliaferro
Will Bulsiewicz
Clarisse Bucag
Stephen Santellana
Tim Cluley
Jerry Gutierrez
Chris and Jenna Sobey
Jeremy Jones
Steven Tyler

Though my recall doesn't even come close to doing 2011 proper justice, it's not hard to see that this was a great year. We feel blessed to have wonderful family and countless, amazing friends that get us going every day. May 2012 bring many more adventures and may we all squeeze a whole year of fun into the next six months in Chicago.

Cheers everyone!

'O'd to the 'L' and The Flautista

After sleeping in this morning, I decided I felt like taking a train ride. Now I've made no secret of how much I love riding the 'L'. Maybe it's because I'm from a place where efficient public transportation doesn't exist, but it never ceases to fascinate me that I can pay $2.25 and go anywhere I want in the city. In the spirit of this(and a rare day off from the MICU), I decided to take a little 'L' field trip. As many times as I've ridden the Red Line, I've never been to it's northernmost stop, Howard, which is in Rogers Park. And I had to have something to do once I got there, so I searched Yelp! for some good Rogers Park lunch spots and came across a mexican restaurant with 4 1/2 stars. Done and done. I packed some headphones, a little reading material, and my camera, and I was out the door.

The Chicago 'L' is definitely one of the Top 5 coolest things about this city, along with the Lake Front (see Relishing the Lake Front from June), the Art Institute, Wrigley Field, etc. The 'L' is one of the things that distinguishes this city as among the best in the world. It is a fixture in the beautiful Chicago landscape. It's been featured (and even serves as the setting) in a multitude of TV shows and films, including ER, While You Were Sleeping, Risky Business, Ocean's Eleven, and my favorite, The Fugitive. The "L" is Chicago.

Dr. Richard Kimble (The Fugitive) boarding the Brown Line

A little bit of history and a few factoids about the "L" (with the help of Wikipedia):
- The nickname 'L', comes from "ELevated" rail"; purists spell it 'L' not 'El'.
- It had its beginnings in 1892 when a steam powered locomotive carried passengers from the southwest side into downtown along Congress Ave. (upon tracks still used by the Green Line)
- Consists of 224 miles of rails
- Originally consisting of several private operations, it was taken over by the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) in 1947
- Different lines were named after colors (Red, Orange, Pink, Green, Brown, Purple, Yellow) in 1993
- The Red Line is the city's busiest line, averaging 238,000 riders per weekday, connecting North and South Side Chicago to the Loop, and is the rail the connects Chicago's two MLB ballparks, Wrigley and U.S. Cellular field

One of the great things about our River North condo is that we are literally a stone's throw from the Brown Line-Chicago Ave stop. This connects us to the Loop (this is how Wendy commutes to work every day), cool Northwest neighborhoods like West Lakeview, Southport, and Roscoe Village, and serves as an easy connection to the Red Line and the Northern Neighborhoods like Lincoln Park, Andersonville, and Rogers Park, the latter being my destination today.




My best Dr. Richard Kimble beard impression at our home 'L' stop

Brown Line approaching Chicago

After a quick photo op I hopped on the Brown Line train headed north. To connect to the Red from the Brown Line going north, there are a couple of options, but I figured it was only fitting to switch at our former home stop, Fullerton (Lincoln Park/DePaul).

From here, I rode the Red Line all the way to it's northern terminus, Howard, before getting off to find my lunch destination.

It was about a 10 minute walk to Restaurante Cuetzala Gro, the spot I found on Yelp! that's getting rave reviews.

I walked in to find that not a single person was speaking english and the only background sound was the telenovela playing at a robust volume on the big screen TV. I knew I was in the right place.

The waitress tended to me immediately, bringing water and chips/salsa. I also ordered some fresh guacamole and a big glass of horchata, both barometers of a good mexican restaurant and both were awesome here. The guac had an amazing consistency, with big chunks of avocado and the perfect amount of spice. The horchata was super sweet, but refreshing and the perfect contrast to the spicy morsels to follow.

As I usually do at new places, I asked the waitress what her favorite menu item was. She touted the flautas as the best thing coming out of the kitchen. I'm not typically a flauta guy but she was putting on the hard sell. I caved. I wouldn't be sorry.

"Crispy tortillas stuffed with stewed chicken and topped with green chile sauce, sour cream, and mexican cheese crumbles."

Senorita was not kidding around. The flautas were amazing. The description above says as much as you can say without actually taking a bit of these crispy flavor explosions. The navy beans were a nice, mild touch, and something I've never seen at a mexican restaurant before.

With a full belly and a little bit of acid reflux, I hiked it back to the Howard station to head back south. I thought about riding the Red Line all the way down to Sox Park to catch the last half of the day game, but when I saw that the Twins scored 6 in the top of the 1st I thought better of it.

All in all, a great little excursion. Gonna miss that ol' 'L' train.

The Dirty Thirty Edition - Girl and the Goat

A guest blog entry from my lovely sister, Erin Cluley

After a fun filled weekend of great food, crazy cocktails, surprise appearances, mustache culture, beer, rain (we Texans loved it), non-100-degree-temps, friends, family, a Sox win...we still had plans for my baby brother’s official 30th birthday dinner on our final night in Chicago.

Reservations were made by John and Wendy months ago for the acclaimed Girl & the Goat restaurant in the West Loop in the Randolph Restaurant Corridor. I had no idea what would be in store. Although, knowing John and Wendy, I was confident that it was going to be interesting. Interesting doesn’t even begin to describe this culinary experience….

In attendance: Dad, Mom, John, Wendy, myself and Clark Turner (John’s friend from college who made a surprise appearance for the Dirty Thirty weekend).

We arrived and as we waited for our table we noted that the atmosphere was great. Spacious but cozy -- and lively but not too loud. We got seated at a great table by the windows at the front of the restaurant. Our resident music critic, Clark Turner, also observed throughout the night that music selections were top notch.

As we sat and perused the menu we came to realize it would be a shared plate experience. Big Papi was a bit skeptical that what was written on the menu was code for something else. “You mean to tell me -- they serve pan fried duck tongues??” But before long, Marty (the soft-spoken, granola-esque young woman who was our server) was at our table, giving us the scoop and guiding us. She knew the menu inside and out and had an easy personality. This is a big deal and we knew we had a winner.

One of our first questions was - can you tell us about the name - Girl & the Goat? Marty informs us that all chef’s like to name things after themselves (wink, wink). Stephanie Izard (you might have seen her on TopChef), is the executive chef. Her last name comes from the name of a mountain goat that lives in the Pyranees Mountains. So there we have “Goat”. Izard then asked a friend to give her words that described her. One of the words was “Drunken”. So the name became “Drunken Goat”. Soon thereafter (but not before press releases went out), they realized that there is a cheese company of the same name. So it was a no-go. Izard (who may or may not have been drunk at the time) walked by a painting in her own home and was inspired. Seen in the restaurant, it is a fantastical painting (a la Tim Burton) of a goat and a girl walking through a field painted in bright vivid colors.

And so the name came - Girl & the Goat.




Our next question - are there really duck tongues served here? Marty informed Papi that, yes, they indeed serve duck tongues and they were about an inch and a half long each (we asked -- she did not just offer up that info). Her advice - order 14 dishes for 6 people. Make notes on one of the menus. First Wendy ordered a nice bottle of Tempranillo that ended up going great with our dishes (two times). Wendy also led the charge of plate selections. It was fun…no one was shy about what sounded good so we all began rattling off what we would like.

Let’s get 1 of the beef tongue! One of this! One of that! In no time, we had a delicious list of 12 selections with two orders of bread.

In no time, the taste extravaganza would begin…our wine came out along with the bread. The bread is made fresh in house. And as a family that loves and adores sauces and condiments, we were happy. Accompanying the sourdough and faccacia like bread was a fresh herb oil (Dad’s favorite), a tomato aioli (Mom’s favorite), a chive yogurt sauce (my favorite) and a sweet onion butter. Warm and yummy -- the perfect start.

First up was the kohlrabi salad with fennel, blueberries, almonds and a ginger dressing. Next squash blossom rangoon. Mom had recently made her own version of squash blossoms. As she was describing them to us, the dish came out…it was great timing! She was excited to see they looked much like hers did!

Each dish was loaded with so many different ingredients that you would never imagine paired together. Sometimes (such as in the chickpea fritters) the relish or salad that was served with the main ingredient was actually the main event. It was fun to try and guess the ingredients in each one. I kept a menu on hand to read back the description as we were eating. Clark and Mom were pro at guessing the ingredients in each dish.



Our mouth watering selections continued to come out….esgargot ravioli with bacon and tamarind-miso sauce, seared tuna with lamb sausage and blueberries, goat chorizo flatbread, roasted cauliflower with pickled peppers, pine nuts and mint, seared scallops with smoked goat, spiced canteloupe and coconut-cucumber salad, braised beef tongue with masa, beef vinaigrette and salsa verde, chickpea fritters with eggplant tomatillo caponata and mozzarella, grilled pork ribs with tomatillo-mushroom slaw and scallion vinaigrette and last but certainly least - the richest dish of them all - oven roasted pig face with a sunny side egg, tamarind, cilantro and potato stix.



The pork ribs were the crowd-pleasing highlight. Even though after EVERY dish, Clark would say, “That one was my favorite”, I think the grilled pork ribs were TRULY his favorite. They were delicious down to the bone. Perfectly grilled on a delightfully textured bed of slaw with mushrooms and a zingy scallion sauce on top. My mouth is watering…



It was sad to see the last dish come out….but we were all feeling comfortably full. BUT it didn’t take long to declare - we can’t NOT order dessert!

Peaches with blue cheese gelato, honey and almonds. The gelato was overlooked at first and then we read that it was blue cheese flavored. John, Clark and I had another go at it and said - WOW. It really was blue cheese flavored!!

We also ordered pork fat dougnuts with honey yogurt and carmelized figs. Crazy weird but delicious.



Marty overheard John mention that his lovely wife is a fan of chocolate. On the house (and with a birthday candle in it) - Marty brought us the bittersweet chocolate with shiitake gelato and toffee crème fraiche.

We sang an off-key happy birthday to brother. He made a wish and blew out the candle. What a perfect end to a perfect weekend in Chi-town.



Thanks Mom and Dad for treating us to this awesome vacay. And thanks to John and Wendy for being the ultimate hosts. Love, love, love.