One Fine Lady

My Aunt S lives near Milwaukee, so she came down to Chicago to have dinner with me on Monday evening. I have not seen her for about three years so we had quite a bit of catching up to do. We started out at the House of Blues Hotel bar. If you can picture Arabian Nights meets Victorian brocade with the random Egyptian statue thrown in, you will get a sense of the feel of the bar. It was dark, cool, and we sat at the marble topped bar. I had cosmos with just the right amount of pink. Aunt S had vodka martinis, Grey Goose, dry, with two olives.

After three rounds, we left the bar and headed north on State St. in search of dinner. We had no particular destination, though we came to the conclusion that sushi would suit us both. By some beautiful mystery of the cosmos, we stumbled upon Jin’s Chinese and Sushi House. We ordered five different rolls and hot sake. If you are in Chicago and want some reasonable sushi, I would highly recommend Jin’s. The tuna literally melted on my tongue. Those little spheres of perfection are going to be in my memory for quite awhile.

After dinner, we wanted a few more drinks to top off our night. We walked towards Michigan Ave. and headed south. It is mostly stores in that area and we were becoming despondent of finding a good bar when Aunt S remembered a famous little place in Chicago. Underneath Wabash, the Tribune Tower, and the old Chicago Sun Times building there is a little bar in the bowels of the city called Billy Goat Tavern. I am positive that it has been there forever and Chicago was built around it. We had a great barkeep who kept us in perfectly mixed drinks.

At about 1 am, it was time to call it a night. We weaved home happy. We talked about everything and I could not have enjoyed the company more.

–Jane, loved Chicago