Juno

Some women like rich men, some are groupies, some are jersey chasers. I, however, consider myself a foodie groupie. I expected nothing less from Juno than perfection and not only did they deliver perfection, but BK Park took the time to chat with us and I had to contain myself from acting overly nerdy and excited. He gave us his business card to set up an Omakase reservation and I just told myself that we're the first he offered that to =) Back when he was at Arami he fed us one of the most delicious Omakase's ever and I was so excited to see his vision in his new restaurant, Juno. I swear that man could make dirt taste delicious. Anyway. Don't expect an Arami clone in this one. I do think that Juno is far more unique than Arami in it's food AND drink offerings. This was literally the first time I have eaten Chawanmushi, a traditional egg custard dish, outside my mothers house and I was pleased with the cold version of the dish. And the fish served was as fresh and as good as it gets. Our server/bartender served us some interesting tasting drinks and come to find out (after a few gratis shots) that his skills come from his Cicerone background.

Emailing BK as I speak.......

Chawanmushi (Japanese egg custard) as traditional as it can get

XOXO, IN LOVE WITH CHICAGO

Grant-ed!

Alinea.

Year after year Alinea continues to earn the world's top restaurant industry honors. Restaurant wizard Grant Achatz has breezed his way to the top of tons of lists including being the only restaurant in Chicago with 3 Michelin Stars, #7 on last years' San Pellegrino top 50 Restaurants in the World and even Bon Appetit named it one of the 20 most important restaurants in America. And James Beard awards. Lots of those. Best Chef: Great Lakes, Outstanding Chef, his cookbook won for Cooking from a Professional Point of View and Outstanding Service awards. I mean really the list going on and on. And onnnnnn.

As for our experience, I wanted to do something special for Sean for his 30th birthday in January (#superlatepost) so I started planning a few months in advance as a meal like this requires. January tickets, yep I said tickets, went for sale the first week of November, so I anxiously set a reminder in my phone, logged onto their ticketing website and purchased two tickets for the first week of January. Cost of the ticket includes the service charge, so if you decide to not add the wine tasting or a glass of wine during dinner, then you are all in at the time you book your tickets. Alinea also has a facebook page where they sell last minute tickets, so that's also an option if booking in advance is not a possibility for some folks. And if throwing down a ton of cash, last minute is your style, then lucky you!

I think I will let the photos speak for themselves here, but to sum it up Alinea, the experience, is the adult version of Disney World. The restaurant is undetectable from the street and as you walk in to the door of a house, that pretty much looks like a regular brownstone residence, you would have no idea what you were getting into. Because we went right after the holidays the hallway was piled up with multiple Christmas trees. I was confused as I stepped over them thinking I literally walked into an apartment that was occupied by lazy 20 somethings. Silly me. As soon as we walked in we were greeted with hot chocolate, while exposed to the kitchen, which was wide open for us to gawk at. We walked upstairs to our seats when all the fun began. The presentation for each dish was so unique and even breath taking at times using ice, fire, foam, straws, balloons. Good ol' Molecular gastronomy.

If you look at the menu below you'll see LAMB...........????????..........!!!!!!!!!!! Mind you we were given the menus after the meal, so we had no idea what to expect. So this special dish was lamb served with 86 different ingredients. I mean my mind was blown. BLOWN.

It was a simply amazing experience that I hope every food lover can enjoy some day. So come visit Chicago!

 

XOXO, IN LOVE WITH CHICAGO

Summer In the City

Summer in the City is my favorite Regina Spektor song, so it's only appropriate to talk about my favorite time in my city Chicago. Summer has been filled with bike riding and exploring the city (Sean bought me a bike for my birthday and called it the "gift of the city" ha!), outdoor dining for birthdays, Farmer's Markets and suburban baby showers. Biking around the city is probably my new favorite activity as we've been able to cover tens of miles of the city and randomly stop and enjoy the scenery. I am a ham for the camera and luckily Sean loves to take photos with his fancy camera, so we can document along the way.

T minus 2 weeks until we leave for Italy and I plan to squeeze every ounce of fun of the city until then!