Food Coma

We did a food tour in Iceland and kind of knew what we were getting ourselves into so we didn't bother with breakfast!

After a lazy morning, we wandered south of the river and grabbed a coffee on the way; it was a 20 minute walk to Pizano's Pizza & Pasta where we were meeting the tour guide, Elisabeth. I booked the "Famous Tastes of Chicago Food Tour" which started with deep dish pizza at Pizano's, one of the famous pizza restaurants in Chicago. Pizano's is owned by Rudy Malnati Jr., one of the sons of Rudy Malnati Sr., the founder of the deep dish pizza! Pizano's has a very different crust (olive oil with seasoning and crispy) compared to Giordano's (Fluffy and more doughy) and the mozzarella and tomato is made onsite; although there are only a few chefs, each one has to sign an agreement that they will never disclose the recipes! We had a sausage pizza which was incredible! Pizza for breakfast is the way forward!

After 2 slices of pizza, we were both already quite full but we headed around the corner to our next stop, "Goddess and the Baker," for a fudge brownie. It was delicious and served as dessert to the pizza. The brownie lasted about 1 minute so we sauntered along to Palmer House, now a Hilton hotel. This is a stunning hotel and is actually where the brownie was created. Basically, the owner, Bertha Palmer, wanted a portable dessert that ladies could have in boxed lunches at the fair (the worlds fair of 1893). You can still get the original brownie here but its $20 so we just opted for an equally good alternative at Goddess's!

It was time for a bit of a walk to get to the next stop, but this was totally welcomed. There was also another person on the tour, she was actually on assignment from TripAdvisor to take photographs of various tours...so we might be famous one day!

Our next stop was Al's Beef, famous for the original Italian beef sandwich. The sandwich was formed out of necessity during the Great Depression when meat was scarce. The family started by selling the sandwich out of their local neighbourhood food stand until they opened a restaurant in Chicago's "Little Italy." There were no chairs in the restaurant, only a high counter to lean on. Because of this, the Italian Stance was born. The sandwich can be served "regular", "wet", "dipped" or "dry;" these are the levels of juiciness, so you can imagine if you had a wet sandwich, you might drop it all over your shoes, hence the Italian stance. I had the sandwich with sweet pickle but Iain tried it with hot pickle; both were delicious but we were bursting now!

Thankfully, the next stop was a bit of a walk so we figured we might be able to make room for the next “delight”, popcorn! On the way, we walked past the Art museum which is actually at the start of Route 66 (the original route starts in Chicago and ends in Los Angeles). We then ventured into Millennium Park, a public park which features a variety of public art and, of course, Cloud Gate; I'm sure you probably know it better as "the bean." After walking through the park, we went into the Chicago Cultural Center. This was originally the city's central library and was going to be closed down; the Chicago public were incensed as it is home to a beautiful Tiffany Dome. I'm not sure our pictures do it justice however!

There are a number of tunnels, known as the Pedway, which run under the city; this means in winter, shoppers do not need to venture out into the cold. Here, is where we visited Chicago Kernel Gourmet Popcorn, apparently one of the city's best kept secrets. We each got a bag of what can only be described as Wotsit-flavoured (or Cheetos for the North Americans) popcorn mixed with caramel bits; very bizarre but quite more-ish! The pedway here was also where they filmed Batman, the Dark Knight.

We were starting to struggle, but thankfully the next stop was just around the corner past Daley Plaza which is known for "The Picasso." This is apparently an untitled monumental sculpture by Pablo Picasso but has been nicknamed by the locals as “The Chicago Picasso.” After a few minutes walk, we arrived at Fannie May, a candy store set up in the 1920's. We tried a few of their classics; "Pixies", born in 1946 and made with caramel, pecans and chocolate, "Trinidads," born in 1972 and made with a dark truffle centre with white chocolate and toasted coconut and finally, a Buttercream, introduced in 1920 when the store opened. 

I know what you are thinking, you can't possibly eat anything else? We were stuffed, but there was one final stop, The Berghoff Restaurant. This restaurant can be traced back to 1870 when German Herman Berghoff emigrated to America. He started a brewery in Indiana and when the Worlds Fair came to Chicago in 1893, he set up a stand to sell his beers. He was only able to sell to people entering and exiting the fair as he was unaware he needed a permit to sell at the fair itself; this was,  however, the making of his business! He found a permanent place to set up and would sell his beers along with a side sandwich, which was free. During Prohibition, he began brewing "near beer" while he expanded his food service but he always adhered to the prohibition laws. After Prohibition ended, and as Herman had never wavered during prohibition, he was awarded Chicago's first ever liquor license; which, given the yearly license renewals, is still the case to this day. The Berghoff is still 100% family owned and operated and is considered a prime example of the American Dream.

Thankfully, however, this was our last stop as there was no way we could eat anything else.

The sun was starting to come out when we left the restaurant so we wandered back to the river to board an architecture cruise. It was an hour cruise, where we learned about all the buildings along the river banks. It was almost the first bit of sun we had seen so we were delighted, albeit, so full from the food tour that we thought we might be sick.  

After the cruise, we decided to take it easy and go to the City Winery and enjoy the sun. It is located on the riverwalk and is a great spot for people-watching. They even moored my yacht right beside us; if only!

After the sun started to fade, we went to Howl at the Moon, a duelling piano bar that was extremely loud, but good fun. We had a bucket of beer before deciding we should find a sports bar to watch the NBA finals. Across the road was a cracking place called Mother Hubbards Sports Pub which had about 20 televisions and was pulling in a mixed crowd for the game. We watched the Toronto Raptors play the Golden State Warriors whilst enjoying a few pitchers of beer, and of course, the great American past-time of eating chicken wings! 

It was pretty late, and we were slightly tipsy by the time we sauntered back to our hotel room! Roll on Friday and more of the same...