Thursday, September 27, 2007

In-Law-a-thon Interlude - Eat-a-thon

We've been in Chicago for three days. I've been working. Friends Steve and Lady Di from CA are here - he for business with me. Wife and Di had day running around town. If it's Chicago it must mean the over consumption of food and drink.

We started on Monday night at Custom House where Steve and Di met up with us, MR and J the Armenian. It was the second time we've been there and it was very good again. Steve and I selected two Pinot Noirs, a French Pommard from Burgundy and one from Oregon. The difference in styles was so notable. The nod when to the Pommard.

On Tuesday, after Steve and my meeting, we went to the PG wine tasting networking event where Wife and Di met up with us. These events are going really well. It's too bad the owners of venue where we have them are so lacking in customer service. Unfortunately there venue is almost one of a kind and perfect for what we do. Afterwards, Lakeview, Ricardo, young friend T, and the Wife-Di-Steve group all went to dinner in Greektown at Pegasus. A much more laid back meal but Lakeview and Ricardo both thought it was better than the average in Greektown which they labeled as pedestrian. Steve had bought two more Pinot Noirs to bring with us for dinner again one French, a Nuits-Saint-Georges, and one from near where he lives in Salinas, CA. Once again a notable difference in style with the drier French one being the preferred.

Finally on Wed I was introducing Wife to Ricardo's wife J. We (Wife, I, and Lakeview) had cocktails at the Ricardo mansion then retired to Cafe Matou, a totally French place in Wickham Park. Food was fabulous, very French. The wine sommelier/GM was very pretentious to begin with but softened to my relaxing pitch and we ended up with two great wines from Languedoc. The whole thing was $291 with three appetizers, 5 main courses, two desserts, two coffees and two bottles of wine. Not bad. Put this up with Lula Cafe on the price value chart. I thought the food was every bit as good as Custom House, maybe better.

Finally a couple of short notes. Congrads to J the Armenian for passing his RE exam. And to Lakeview - no problems with the early exit, we totally support you.

On to Cleveland today for the resumption of the In-law-a-thon.

3 comments:

Lakeview Coffee Joe said...

Thanks de-I. M and I had a nice time chatting until 12:30....which made the banker meeting this morning a little long.

Congrats to J on his RE exam!!! Whoo-hoo!!

Unknown said...

We're so happy for J! Bravo!!

Sounds like Chicago is THE place for great dining!

Have fun in Cleveland!

You will now have to put together a booklet on great places to eat around the US!

THe Derf & Agent W

alexis said...

Hrmm, I'll try to find some good very French food when I'm in Paris next week... ;)

Hey, I don't have someone to take me out to nice restos and food the bill all the time here, I gotta compensate somehow!