Chicago Musings

I’m on my way back on the plane from my trip to Atlanta and Chicago. I arrived just after the great flood that left the basements of both Lakeview and Motherrocker flooded. I got to experience a night of poor Miss Dukes (and poor Miss Dukes parents) fighting an illness and high temperature. But there were lots of good things too.

We have added a new associate in Chicago, Ricardo, a friend of long standing with Lakeview. This culminates almost 6 months of discussions and both Ricardo and I are very enthusiastic (though cautiously so as befits grizzled veterans). Lakeview is less so since this might lead to more actual work.

Speaking of Lakeview both our long-term clients in Chicago continue to seem quite pleased and we are working on financing placements for both.

On the eating front, we have been having a series of great breakfasts with another potential resource we have been meeting each time I visit. Since he, Mr. F, is a devout foodie, he always has interesting places to pick out. This time it was a place Ina's on West Randolph. I had an interesting dish that was called scrapple on the menu but was really a polenta baked with corn and black beans. It was served with a choice of meat and a couple of eggs. I chose Mexican Chorizo that was cooked very well (well done almost crispy rather than greasy/oily). The combination of eggy goodness with crispy/spicy pork product, and baked corny polenta was great.

Plate of Delicious Polenta, Spicy Pork Chorizo, and Eggy Goodness with Fresh Squeezed Grapefruit Juice Chaser

In the early afternoon, we had another networking event at Just Grapes. Both AinA and Motherrocker have taken part in these in the past. With Ricardo (and his wife – Thanks J!) throwing their weight behind the event, we had the best turnout ever and we even got too leads – one particularly intriguing concerning a well known company in Albuquerque of all places.

Lakeview Coffee with Just Grapes And Ricardo Legs

I finished that night having dinner at the Motherrocker household. Miss Dukes seemed to be getting better. MR made some baked chicken thighs to a lovely skin crispy doneness flavored subtly with rosemary that was accompanied by a nice sauté of snow peas and onions. I brought found a great buy on a 1999 1st Cru Gevry Chambertain for under $40 which MR and I just about finished. Just Grapes has started to carry beer so I was able to pick up a Belgian Ale that J the Armenian had not had before. The wine was such a good buy, I picked up another bottle to leave at MR’s for my next visit. However, with Wife making a visit to the MR household in a few more weeks somehow I have a feeling I’ll not be seeing any of the contents.