A Taste of Bucktown/Wicker Park

This weekend was supposed to be a trip to Boston and NYC but that, long story short, was cancelled. And although I know we missed a celebratory wedding, I'm really glad I've had Labor Day weekend so sleep, rest, and EAT. My bucket list for this year near Chi-town includes checking off as many eateries as I can... nice restaurants, hols in the walls, dessert places, etc. So last night, Taylor, Linzy, and I began THE tour. After our siccessful evening, we've contemplated starting our own food tour in different neighborhoods. After reading this post, let me know if you're interested in the Bucktown/Wicker Park tour. It's our one and only...so far.

 We began at Melt around 4:45 for appetizers. Melt is a gourmet grilled cheese shop off of Churchill and Damen in Bucktown. Many sandwiches caught our eye on the school themed menu, and we finally settled on the San Antonio which contained roasted chicken (except they were out of chicken...whaa??), chipotle mayo (it MADE the sandwich), and some veggies on Olive oil and sea salt ciabatta. The ciabatta was crispy and flavorful and the chipotle mayo seeped out the sides of the sandwich so that it was a treat licking your fingers after the first big bite. We had a green-filled Warsaw salad on the side which was a good appetizer compliment. The whole restaurant was school themed and Taylor and I were right at home....

 We decided to take advantage of digestion time to walk off some food and shop at Wicker Parks thrift stores. But on our way to Buffalo Exchange we passed Covo, a new Greek stop that I had been wanting to try. Turns out, the grand opening is this coming Tuesday but they were having a FREE (that's right, we were skeptical too!) meal for an hour that evening. We walked by at just the right time and ordered a meal each! Greek salad, lamb gyro, and chicken gyro--an unexpected dinner to precede Antique Taco down the street!

 Gosh, what do we want??

 After trying to pass some more time with window shopping we headed to Antique Taco (top of Peter's list!). YUM, YUM, YUM. Vintage food shop. Old windows, doors, and mason jars were the decor. Fawn would've loved this place. Wooden signs directed you to grab utensils and sloth napkins and during a break in the Isaac deluge, we sat outside to enjoy chips and spicy guac ,chicken tacos, and AMAZING fish tacos. Peter said he thought they were better than the infamous Big Star down the street. I'd argue that Big Star's were crispier and a bit more flavorful but the whole atmosphere of Antique was much better!

 Fish tacos...

                                                                      Chicken Tacos....

                                                                                                                                                                   GONE.

We actually weren't full (Come one, we were swimmers... are we ever really full??) and the best was yet to come...Hot Chocolate for dessert. Despite the non-chocolatier in the group (I won't say whom...) we all ordered something we were desperately looking forward to and the 30 minute wait was WELL worth it.

Fresh French press coffee. Linzy taught me how to use the french press. Coffee is a new found interest and I am still very naive. But with half cream and a little sugar, I was set!

 Salty caramel, vanilla, and some other non chocolate ice crema for Taylor (whoopss...)

Peter's brioche doughnuts with fudge and caramel corn.

                                                                                              Linzy and my spectacular skillet souffle. Moist, rich chocolate with a scoop of salty caramel ice cream and homemade pretzel crisps. Again, GONE.

If that evening wasn't enough (could it ever be??), Elise and i went to another new favorite tonight, Coast Sushi in Bucktown. We did BYOB with a chilled bottle of white wine and were set for some mad sushi eating... 












White Dragon roll, the favorite.

 Rainbow roll.

Spicy Crunchy Tuna. And a few others. The only thing about sushi is it takes alot to get full, so we ate...alot. =) And we still had room to try a dessert place, of course. So, we checked out the Chef's Feed App to find that Scooter's Frozen Custard off of Belmont is a highly sought after dairy lover's spot. So off we went.

 Vanilla Swiss Almond was the flavor of the day. So, with cup in hand we sat our in the warm Chicago air, laughed, and ate... finishing our delectable evening. 

Darn light! But it says, SCOOTERS. 

Our foodie weekend was such a hit, SUCH a good idea. We decided our next food tour neighborhood would be Old Town or Clark Street near Lincoln Park. Suggestions for eateries are welcome... but Peter's on the research part. Obviously, he turns up A list courses!