'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.

The Dirty Thirty Edition - Sunday Funday

Amazing that after an incredible day on Friday and the big party on Saturday, we still had so much to look forward to on Sunday (my actual birthday). In spite of being at English until the early hours of Sunday, I felt incredible, yet again. The birthday gods must have been looking down on me this weekend.

We got ready and headed over to Wishbone in the West Loop for some brunch. Wendy and I hadn't been to Wishbone since we had hit up the Lakeview location for her birthday when I was living in the city as a visiting student and mere fiance. It was March and it had snowed then. On this day, we were dealing with incredible weather; 70 degrees and sunny. What better way to start it all off with some "Southern Reconstruction" cooking, which is the style billed by the folks at Wishbone.

After a short wait, we were seated and started looking at this incredible menu. I believe we all managed to order different items which included: shrimp and grits, crawfish/crab cakes, chicken andouille hash, beef brisket hash, blackened catfish, all served in a brunchy sort of way with eggs and breakfast potatoes. Mandy's and Dad's choices took the prize with shrimp and grits and chicken andouille hash, respectively. The grits literally melted in your mouth with the shrimp creating an amazing contrast in texture, all of which made this dish unbeatable. Dad's andouille chicken hash was to die for. By the time the check arrived we were pleasantly full. Great way to start the day!


After Bruno headed down to meet us, the whole crew hopped in cabs to head down to U.S. Cellular field for the day game against the Royals. (Sidenote: I had decided that I wanted to do this with the family literally the day before. What does Wendy do? Finds 8 incredible tickets for the whole crew!).

It was an amazing day at the ballpark. The wind was blowing hard in the windy city that day, but our seats had us shielded from both the wind and the sun, making our spot on the first base side of home plate the place to be on this gorgeous day. The Sox pulled it out 4-2, as an extra bonus.





After the game we hopped on the Red Line heading north. This would be the end of the line for Mandy, as she had a Sunday evening flight to catch back home to her baby girls and Patsy. Luckily, Bruno was headed back to Bucktown so we had him see Mandy through the Jackson stop to hop on the Blue Line towards O'Hare. We wish you could stay, Sister!





The parents, Clark, Wendy, and I decided to hop off the train downtown and do some sightseeing. We headed east past the downtown public library (an amazing building I had never really noticed before) towards Grant Park. We wandered around until we ended up at Buckingham Fountain. We decided to pit stop here for a bit and enjoyed some awesome Bobtail Ice Cream. We then headed toward the lake and south down the lake front path towards the aquarium to enjoy what I believe is the best view in the city!

This isn't the view from the aquarium, but it's pretty good too.

From there we all hopped in cabs to go home and take a breather before our big dinner at Girl and the Goat!

The Dirty Thirty Edition - The Bash

Three decades of dirtiness culminate in one crazy night...

Wendy had been cooking up my 30th birthday bash for several weeks, so I had a feeling it was gonna be pretty great. We had all the pieces: an amazing wife/master negotiator, all five of the Ken Cluleys, a few dozen crazy friends (old and new), and an awesome neighborhood bar. It was sure to be an epic evening. But more on that in a second....

Earlier in the day I had walked out into my living room to find a big basket of coozies with my mustachioed mug on them. Wendy and Erin had been collaborating on this for several weeks and the finished product was quite handsome, if I may say so myself. As many of you know, a good ol' Texas party isn't complete without coozies to commemorate the occasion.

Standing next to the coozies was a big white board with a picture collage marking several different milestones in my thirty years: my first bath, me riding my Dukes of Hazzard tricycle(Confederate Flag included), my large collection of participation trophies (circa 9 years old), me in my Cowboy gear, and a couple of obligatory 'stache pics, among many other gems. Wendy had left a big white margin for everyone to sign. Essentially, my wife has already knocked this party out of the park, and we haven't even gotten started.


Bruno arrived a short time later with an additional "touch" for which Wendy had arranged. She had placed the coozie design on a t-shirt for me to wear out to the party. Unbelievable. It's also definitely worth reminding everyone that earlier in the day (with no knowledge of this t-shirt) I had bought a different t-shirt with Magnum PI's face on it. The coincidence is just too much.

We headed over to Citizen Bar at about 4:30. Citizen is a great spot that is less than two blocks away from our place. It's pretty unassuming from the outside, since it is essentially one big cube with a rooftop and a deck along the side, but this place is pretty awesome and good times always seem to be had here. We had chosen it for it's proximity and because it is one of the best places to be on a beautiful Chicago evening. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't exactly cooperating so we had to set up shop inside. In hindsight, this may have worked out better since Citizen can be quite the cluster on a nice day. Instead we pretty much got to take the place over.

The parents Mandy and Clark arrived from the hotel a short time after we got there. Wendy had arranged for our favorite waitress, Jamie, to take care of us, and we all had drinks in our hand in a matter of minutes. Let the party begin!

We were graced early on with the presence of Eliya and Erika, both nurse friends of mine from the hospital who blended in seamlessly with the family. Chris Houston showed up a short time after that with a nice clean polo shirt, the perfect canvas for spilled beer. Chris Therasse, one of my best buds and "Texas Forever" partner in crime (he's from Indy) was also one of the early birds. Luckily, he showed up wearing his party pants.

MillerCoors also came out to play. John and Melissa Wilhelm joined us all the way from Ukranian Village on the day before their triathlon. Ryan Hemsing and Jamie Mueller also strolled in from River West, and would prove be fixtures on this evening of sobriety. Rob and Karen Tune made it in all the way from the 'Burbs, leaving their newborn for one of the first times in the name of The Cluley Dirty Thirty. Priorities are intact at this point.

My work friends would continue to trickle in. Tim and Fran Caprio, our wonderful friends who we saw get married almost a year ago, made an appearance (and receive the award for the most creative signage of my poster). Danielle Sterrenberg, one of my favorite co-residents, and her boyfriend Shelby were in attendance. Kristen Scully, a fellow RiverNortherner (or RiNo), can always be counted upon to party it up (she brought her friend Nikki along. Jami and Jud, also RiNos, were also among the early minglers.

The rest of the nursing contingency showed up in a big way. Kristin Busing, Sarah Frazer, and Thara Gagni came representing the MICU with new friends Nicole Santi (a fellow Leo) and Mike Uren. Kris de la Vega, wielding her party camera and dancing shoes, came representing the medicine floor/13E (my home base). Sheri(baby) Rylko and Katherine Hunt, both of whom I also know through 13E made a late-night appearance with their frat-tastic crew. Kelly McCardell and her husband Tim rounded out the 13W representation, along with Erika.

NMH Pharmacy's presence was felt through Yvonne Tsao...always great to see her.

How bout those Nelsons? Courtney and her brother Jeffro rallied (and I mean RALLIED) to come party even after they had spent the entire day drinking at the horse track. Alex Wehrley, aka Alvin, rounded out their crew.

As always, Dan Sarles (our friend from Wendy's b-school days and fellow Chicagoan) was out and in full Dan-mode with his friend Prashant. My buddy Jason Biehl and his twin sister were awesome enough to stop by after taking Grandpa to the ER. Again, solid priorities.

Relatively early on in the evening, an exceptionally large black guy weaved his way through our group and sat down at one of our tables by himself. He took a quick glance at the 'reserved' sign and, being visibly underwhelmed by it, returned to texting. Now I'm not a mean drinker, but one can get a little territorial on one's 30th birthday. I turned to Clark and said, "Who in the (heck) does this guy think he is?" Clark responded, "He's Antoine Walker, that's who he thinks he is." (You may know Antoine Walker from his days playing with the Celtics or, if you're a Texan, the season he spent with the Mavs in 2004. He's not quite what he used to be, currently playing in the D-league and declaring bankruptcy just last year.) Before long, his posse had moved in to take over one of our tables, which was fine by me at this point since we weren't using it and I knew it would make for a good story. Come to find out that Antoine and I share a birthday. Once we discovered this, he immediately ordered us a round of Patron shots. I'm not sure how he paid for them (hot check maybe?) but that didn't stop me from indulging. This all made for some pretty hilarious conversation throughout the evening. After all, what would a 30th birthday be without a D-list celebrity?

Other highlights from the evening included but were not limited to:

- Me, with the help of booze and birthday, thinking I'm Timberlake on the dance floor .
- Our crew taking over the whole outdoor deck at Citizen once the rain stopped .
- An awesome birthday cake!

- Aerial shots of the whole crew from the roof of the bar. (see above)
- Random Midori booth being set up in the middle of our party and me some how drinking like six of these disgusting samples. A couple of which I shared with my dear Mother.

- Heading over to English for late night with all of the troopers .
- Our Citizen waitress being so enamoured with our party that she followed us to the next bar.

What an evening this was! Wendy did an incredible job, as always, of planning and making every detail so special. My parents and my two big sisters came all the way to Chicago to help me celebrate as only an awesome family could. My old buddy Clark made for a big birthday surprise, and now it's hard to imagine having had my 30th without him. All of my awesome Chicago friends came out strong to make this the best 30th birthday ever. Thank you all for making me feel like the coolest 30 yr old around. Love to everyone!

Hard to believe this weekend was far from over...

FEEL FREE TO POST YOUR FAVORITE MEMORY OF THE EVENING IN THE COMMENTS!

The Dirty Thirty Edition - Saturday Pre-Party

Saturday morning was tenuous, but only briefly. A couple of ibuprofen and a Prilosec did the trick; and Moroccan food/The Violet Hour (see previous blog post) narrowly escaped becoming bad decisions. Honestly, by the time Sister (Erin) had the coffee brewing, I felt like a million bucks. As if a little medicine and a caffeine bolus weren't enough of a high, my parents and Mandy showed up late morning with a BIG Texas surprise. At around 11AM, none other than Clark Brodie Turner walked through my front door yelling some East Texas gibberish at me that I only barely understood. I was COMPLETELY surprised.


A little background. Clark is one of my best friends from Texas, and I do not throw that around loosely. The guy is solid gold. We met the first day of freshman orientation at UT while standing in line for dorm registration. We ended up being roommates for the week (and later our sophomore year) and the rest is history. Wendy, my fam, and Clark had kept the secret of him coming to Chicago for two months, which is unbelievable (especially if you know that my family and secrets are bitter enemies). I could not have been happier or more excited to see the Big Guy.

After catching up a little with Clark and a round of mimosas, we headed up to Franks 'n' Dawgs in Lincoln Park for lunch. This is a specialty hot dog place that I've mentioned on facebook as an amazing lunch spot. The majority of people in Chicago think that Hot Doug's is the only game in town when it comes to eclectic dogs, but this place is serving them up in a big way! (And you don't have to stand in line with your thumb up your ass for two hours) Our selections included a Chinese 5-spice duck sausage dog, a Thai dog with wild boar sausage, a Polish dog (potato cakes included), a brat with portobellas and smoked gouda, and, of course The Chicago Dog. Oh, and how bout three orders of Triple Truffle (oil, butter, & salt) Fries to wash down those dogs. Done. What a meal.

Dessert Dog - Sweet Home Chicago (On the house)

From there we hopped in a cab to show the family Wrigley Field (since that's what tourists do) and to get Mandy a Cubs shirt. I was only mildly okay with this, but I suppose I get the fact that unless you're making a rap video Cubs apparel is probably cooler looking than the Sox black-and-white. We also stopped by Strange Cargo, which is an awesome specialty t-shirt and vintage clothing store in Wrigleyville. Erin got a Chicago flag shirt, I went with a Magnum PI shirt, and Clark got a Bayside High shirt--all solid choices. Apparently, Clark's fiance, Krystyl, is an avid watcher of the Golden Girls, so Clark had one of these shirts made for her. Awesomeness.

After braving a little downpour we all hopped in cabs to head back to the hotel and condo, respectively. This was a huge fail on Wendy and my part, as we were actually just a block away from the Addison Red Line station which would have taken both parties directly back to our destinations. Instead, we were negotiating terrible traffic (Rain + Bears Game + Northalsted Market Days = Badness) and it took us forever to get back to the house. I pretty much hate cab drivers at baseline. Add to that the fact that I'm projecting all over this cab driver due to being disgusted with myself for not taking the train, and you can imagine my disposition in the back seat. We ultimately got over that and, after a quick pit stop at Jewel to pick up the cake and a nice "Birthday Boy" balloon, we made it back to the condo with plenty of time before the big par-tay.....

The Dirty Thirty Edition - Friday 8.12.11

What an amazing weekend I just had celebrating my 30th birthday while simultaneously being reminded of several things: my wife is amazing and is an incredible party-planner, I've got an awesome family that travels well, I've got amazing friends that love me, and Chicago kicks ass. Details below...

The festivities began Friday around 1pm when my family texted to tell me they had just landed and were just a cab ride away from getting the party started (I would later find out through a series of tidbits and context clues that one of my VA patients had been their cab driver...this an awesome story that you should ask me about). What would end up being a weekend of gluttony started off appropriately at Rick Bayless' XOCO restaurant, which is just a few blocks away from our condo and even closer to the Merchandise Mart, where the fam was staying. We scarfed down some amazing tortas while getting caught up and talking about the exciting weekend to come.

We then headed over to Michigan Avenue so that I could walk them by the hospital and show them a few sites (which included Marilyn, the Tribune and Wrigley Buildings, Millenium Park/Cloud Gate/Pritzker Pavilion the Art Institute and more).



After an L ride and a quick breather at the hotel, we all headed up to Wrigleyville to one of our favorite restaurants, Andalous, for some yummy Moroccan food. As always, the food did not disappoint. Highlights included a tasty vegetarian platter (spinach, carrots, peppers, etc), several styles of stewed lamb chops, chicken and cream sauce, all with flavor explosions that i could only make you appreciate by putting a plate of it out in front of you. It's also worth noting that my mom was beside herself about how good the food had been both at dinner and lunch earlier in the day. This was a huge plus because as a wise person once said, "If Momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy."

After putting the parents to bed on Friday night, Mandy, Erin, Wendy, and I opted to keep the evening going by having a drink at The Violet Hour in Wicker Park. This is a speak-easy (owned by the same people that own Big Star) that gets crazy good reviews for their drinks. Now my palate is about as complex as 1+1, but these drinks were absolutely amazing. My drink, the Romeo and Juliet, was a gin drink with mint, cucumber and rose water all of which made up a very distinct aspect of the drink but that melded together to party it up in my mouth. The girls were super excited about their drink selections as well and we enjoyed a great hour or so of conversation in the dimly lit, classy-as-hell ambience of the speak-easy.

Not wanting the night to end, we headed across the street to Big Star to find Bruno and his friend Elodi for a night cap cap. I wish this place weren't so damn cool (they know it over there), but it really is. We worked our way into a nice spot at the bar, enjoyed some Tecates (in cans), and listened to Bruno lay out his plan to be adopted into the family.

After wrapping up at Big Star and dropping Mandy off at the hotel, we found ourselves back at the homestead deliberating over how perfect the day was. Little did we know this was just the beginning of my best weekend ever in Chicago....

CT's Ba Ba B-day at Ba Ba Reeba

Us with CT and Sienna (Sean and Tracey's baby)

One of our wonderful Chicago friends, Christen Terry, had a birthday today. It's a little ironic that last year we (not me) were running a 1/2 marathon to celebrate her day of birth. This year we were stuffing our faces with tapas.

For those of you who are from Chicago, I don't need to tell you how great Cafe Ba Ba Reeba is. For you non-Chicagoans, this a badass tapas joint in Lincoln Park that serves up small plates in a big way. I hit up this place long before I moved to Chicago, and have been here several times since moving here. Wendy and I even spent NYE 2010 here when we were living up in the LP. Amazing place. Highly recommend it.

We gathered around a huge table with some awesome people, most of whom work with an advertising agency (with Christen) called Integer. For those of you who are fans of Office Space, I consistently refer to Integer as Intertrode (which if you remember was Initech's rival company that Michael Bolton and Samir went to work for after getting laid off) for my own personal amusement. At any rate, a great crew. I should definitely hang out with Wendy's peeps more often.

After ordering up a couple of pitchers of sangria, everyone started looking around at each other with hungry eyes (think Kobayashi, not Patrick Swayze). John Wilhelm, a CoorsMiller man (I think he'd like that) and a tried and true foodie, was entrusted with the daunting task of ordering for this big crew. This is the type of thing that you couldn't pay me to do (especially since I'll eat anything so why not dump the ordering on someone else). Wilhelm spent what seemed like a pretty short amount of time talking with the waitress. Several minutes passed by and a couple of puny plates got dropped off and I thought for sure Wilhelm had blown it. No sooner had this thought entered my brain than an onslaught of the best (and the most) Spanish food you can imagine hit our table. Spicy potatoes with aioli, lamb skewers, garlic shrimp, smoked salmon, andalucian meatballs, bacon-wrapped dates, goat-cheese marinara, bistec with bleu cheese, and I don't even think that covers it. It got to the point where people were getting so full they'd pretend not to see the server drop off another round of tapas because they didn't want the plate to get passed to them. What they didn't realize is that Wilhelm and I had also pre-ordered a giant plate of paella as the "main course". Once the paella came out steaming (with loads of shrimp and scallops), I think everyone forgot they were full because it got completely devoured. Everything was unbelievable.

We capped off the evening with some candle-blowing and some BYO strawberry shortcake, which was lovely.

After saying our goodbyes, Wendy and I realized we only had 4 minutes to make it 1/2 a mile on foot to catch our train. After a dead sprint and a little throw-up in my mouth we caught that ol' southbound Brown Line train to our little abode in River North.

Not bad for a Monday night... HAPPY BIRTHDAY CT!!!