Tuesday Report

Breakfast was at a small diner near the Board of Trade. No bigg deal, wish I had known about Ceres at the time 🙂

Lunch was once again preplanned, but was able to find a slightly better place in the Tower than the day before and had what they called a Cuban Sandwich. All things considered, worlds better than the day before, but neither authentic (unpressed french bread, no plaintain accompaniement, etc etc) nor notably good.

After my group won the end of session quiz (winning long sleeved Chicago shirts for our efforts and brownie points for our manager) we had a short cocktail meet and greet, and I got to try (and I know this isn’t a Chicago thing) Guiness for the first time. I’m not much of a drinker, but the bartender was happy to give me a small 2-3 oz sample. Just by its color, I was expecting a very bitter/harsh beer, made worse by the fact that it was served more or less at room temperature. I was pleasantly suprised at the smooth taste and the fact that it seemed ‘right’ to drink it unchilled.

My coworker Scott and I then headed over to the Berghoff, getting there about 8, a half hour before they closed. I was really, really impressed….prices were in the 10-20 dollar range yet they had a maitre d and a lot of wide open space. Scott started out with one of Berghoff’s whiskeys, produced in-house, and pronounced it wonderful. I was equally impressed with ordinary looking sliced bread that was put on our table before we ordered — very tasty and full bodied. Both Scott’s combo sausage plate and my roast pork were wonderful and very filling. If I went back, I’d order one of the schnitzels or another german specialty. ONe suprise for me here: much of the menu was specifically NOT german….there were a number of italian dishes which jibed a bit with the italian scenescapes that were painted on the walls of the large open dining room.