I woke up one morning, craving enchiladas. I can’t explain how these things happen to me, except that they do sometimes. While still horizontally ensconced in Frette, I did a bit of thumbing around on the old iPhone until Flo popped up. Good reviews, good enchiladas, and easily accessible by Divvy Bike, my newest infatuation.

I showed up to Flo by myself and took a seat at the bar. I wasn’t the only one, alone at the bar, placing my order. That gave me instant confidence in this “New Mexico” restaurant. Normally, in this part of town, I don’t run into that many solo diners. Especially this early in the morning. But I was one of at least three.

The enchiladas arrived. They were simple and perfect. And at $9, also a pretty good value. By the time I left, the line for Flo was out the door. Hipsters, families, and tables for one.

The Verdict: I can only speak for Sunday brunch — which I’ve done here now three Sundays in a row —  but you should go. Get the enchiladas.

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For someone who was gone for a while, this is casual American bar food, but grown-up. Venison chili, DUCK TACOS, pulled boar sandwiches, rabbit and dumplings, and DID I MENTION THE DUCK TACOS? And the oyster menu? And how on Tuesdays, they do $2 half pints?? The beer menu is pretty awesome as well.

Now if only they had free wifi. That would be awesome. But a minor quibble, that.

Here’s another example of how awesome they are:

They’re open for lunch now, during the week (except Mondays) but word doesn’t seem to have gotten out yet because it’s Friday as I sit here and write this and it’s pretty quiet. But that’s a welcome change from the craziness of Big Star.

My lead photo? That’s my lunch today. An Ahi tuna sandwich with crispy tobasco shallots, sprouts, WASABI GINGER MAYO, and rosemary fries. (!!!) Pretty great, for a casual Friday lunch. Excellent, actually.

Life is good.

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But then go inside and see this! Lacey tablecloths. Fairy lights. Van Gogh posters.

And then there behind the bar, there’s homemade who knows what, post cards, and little knickknacks. It didn’t take much for me to fall in love. It was like being in Grandma’s house. Maybe Grandpa’s basement. Love.

Also love: the homemade mystery juice. I asked if it was apple? No. Pear? No. Plum? No. They honestly wouldn’t tell me, but they did say they make it themselves. (Yelp suggests it’s prune juice, which might be why they didn’t want to tell me.  But a prune is a plum so I don’t know.)

And the cabbage soup? At just $3.50 a BOWL, with four slices of bread, it’s a tremendously hearty delicious value. (My medium soup at Au Bon Pain always seems to come in at $4.43, and it’s a smaller portion, it’s not as good, and it doesn’t come with four slices of bread.) New favorite routine? Come home from work and head to Podhlanka for a bowl of soup and the nightly news.

And then for the heck of it during my first visit, because I was having such a good time, I ordered up a plate of latkes. Four arrived — two too many for me — so I practiced a random act of kindness and gave two of them to the guy next to me. But after I gave them away, I became tremendously sad because these were, honestly, so so good and I kinda wanted the extras back, but we have a politically incorrect phrase for that in my language. Perfectly cooked and crispy and fresh oil, not old oil. Their only fault was they could have used a pinch of salt, but that was easily remedied.

The Verdict: I love Podhalanka. Love it. Love it. Love it.

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I like Frontier. I like the menu. I like the service. I hate the volume of the music at times, and the ladies room is designed for people with no knees. But otherwise, I’m glad to have it around. Especially early on a Saturday when my cupboards are, once again, bare.

Happy weekend, everyone.

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Sometimes you go to a place in your neighborhood — a place that’s not far — and you think “Gah!!! Why didn’t I come here sooner?? What is wrong with me?? There must be something wrong…something!!”

Because I went to Lovely. A Bakeshop. And I loved it. It is everything I’ve been wanting these days. Quiet. Peaceful. Nice chairs.

This could all be so terribly chintzy. But yet it works. So very very well.

I had some cake for breakfast, despite being of the “I only have oatmeal or farina for breakfast” sort. My cousin, who was visiting, was cranky. Lovely and its outdoor patio calmed him down. I saw “lavender”on the menu and had to do it. Peach and lavender, I believe. Lovely. Like the shop. And the music. And the free wifi. All very very you-know-what, really.

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Not to fear though because Blue Star was EMPTY. I made the mistake of mentioning that we would have a 6-week old with us and we were relegated to the children’s section. You know…where they only other people in the bloody restaurant happened to be sitting. (With their young boy.) Sigh. Blue Star were just waiting for the crowds to arrive, I suppose.

Lucky for us, the Yelp menu was a supremely good value. $20 for FOUR COURSES. A salad, some fried cheese, some steak, and well for me, some limoncello for dessert. It was such an insanely good value that I FELT GUILTY.

The steak was surprisingly flavorful and pretty perfectly cooked to medium rare, and who doesn’t love salsa verde. I took half of this home and had it for breakfast the next day.

We stuck to the house white and only paid something like $30 a person by the end of the evening when it came to tax and tip. I felt so guilty about how cheap Blue Star was with our 50% off that I’m mentally promised them I’ll return. And next time, I’ll actually check out the wine list.

Blue Star Wine Bar is next to a gas station and the expressway. It doesn’t get a lot of foot traffic, but rumor has it they get busy after 9 pm. If you’re  in the neighborhood, you should stop by.

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Frontier
1072 N. Milwaukee
Chicago

Date of Last Visit: Tuesday, July 5, 2011

The Victims: Jeff, Jeff, Erica, and special international guests Nordic Nibbler & Mrs. Nordic Nibbler

I miss having a “local.” In London, I could always depend on The Peasant on St John Street or The Well, also on St John Street (and conveniently located next to Clerkenwell’s newest Waitrose. How I miss that Waitrose). My international guests always loved The Peasant and The Well, the former for its atmosphere, the latter for its food. (IMHO, the food at both was good, not great. But take an American tourist’s preconceived notions of British food, and both of these places do amazingly well.)

Anyhow, as the one-year anniversary of my repatriation approaches, I promise to refer to London less and less in blog posts that are not about London, lest I become one of “those people.” (If I’m not already so.) So let me focus on Frontier and Chicago.

I like Frontier. It’s hard not to given its proximity to my abode. I like their Tuesday night specials even more.

$2 OYSTERS. (See above.)

$2 TACOS. We watched as two guys got what had to have been a dozen tacos on the Tuesday we visited. We probably did good work on about six in total. For $2, these were pretty high quality tacos and much better (in my opinion) than La Pasadita’s on Ashland.

Better still, Frontier has fulfilled one of my US-demands…

$2 HALF PINTS. Half pints have been nearly impossible to find in Chicago. Even Owen & Engine doesn’t have them. But Frontier does!

Ah, and I neglected to take any photos of the outdoor patio, but it’s pretty awesome. This alone is reason to go.

(Frontier also offers $2 deviled eggs on Tuesday, but they’re not my sort of thing.)

The Verdict: I like it here. I’ll be back.

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Skyline during Crazy Storm Day

Under the Tracks at North & Halsted

New Noble Square Art

Somewhere on Chicago Avenue

Along Ashland. A Variation.

At Ashland & Chicago

Love These Signs

Ropa para Caballeros

He Still Loves Her (Above)

Low-voltage

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My local Lush is at 1412 W Chicago, but they have other locations in Roscoe Village and University Village. They also have cool chandeliers made out of wine glasses.

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Butcher & Larder
1026 N Milwaukee Ave
Chicago

Date of Last Visit: 22 January 2011

The Victim: Me

The Damage: $10

The Background: Boy am I in trouble. Big trouble. Because seriously, I live WAAAYYY too close to Butcher & Larder. Way too close. Way too too close. So close that I might actually consider joining Row Fit, the somewhat odd rowing gym that I have to pass on the way to Butcher & Larder, as a counterbalance to something that is surely set to become a very very very bad habit. Very bad.

This picture really does not do justice to the deliciousness of my sandwich of roast beef with radish aioli and beer onions. (Yes, yes.  Yet another $10 sandwich in Chicago. Although this time, the $10 included a Sprecher root beer and that bag of Jay’s chips.) The roast beef was perfect and I don’t think I can describe it any better than that. And I don’t know what they put in that alioli and those beer onions, but it was magic. Magic. Dying to know how much garlic was in that alioli, or if they spiced it up with something else.

The sandwich was so huge and dense that I had to ask for some tin foil so I could take the rest home. I had these visions of having the other half of the sandwich for dinner.

I got home. Unwrapped the rest of the sandwich. Stared at it for a few minutes. Debated it. And then polished it off. The best laid plans…

Lovely tin ceiling

The Verdict: Go. Now.  There’s free parking and lots of it. And the tin ceiling is awesome. Now if only they served wine. And cheese. They could become my new Fernandez & Wells.  That being said, Butcher & Larder is a different animal. They are a butcher, not a coffee shop aspiring to be a restaurant. Fernandez & Wells is not a butcher; it’s a coffee shop/wine bar that serves kick ass sandwiches.

So I do think I will die and go to heaven if Butcher & Larder lays on a chorizo and manchego sandwich and if they let me BYOB from Lush or Noble Grape down the road. They might not want to order those stools anytime soon though because once they’re installed, I might not ever leave. (I’m considering a new series for my blog: Today’s Butcher & Larder Sandwich, where I document my lunch every weekend.)

V is for Vegan. Sad sad vegan.

The Constructive Bit: The crust on the bread made it a little hard to eat. A bit too chewy. And while I love the tin ceiling, there’s a little bit of warmth missing from the space. Fernandez & Wells in London is just as simple and streamlined and slightly retro inside, but somehow manages to convey a warmth of sorts. Maybe chalkboards are the answer? (There are an amazing number of photos of all three F&W’s on Flickr if you want to see what I’m talking about. The stools in this photo at my fave F&W will be perfect for Butcher & Larder, I think.) Critiquing the decor is pretty silly though, when we’re talking about a roast beef sandwich THIS good.

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