Chicago Donuts

Chicago Food
Part 3

I haven't been to a donut shop in years, seriously, but while in Chicago, I took the kids out one morning for a stop at the local Dunkin' Donuts.

We ordered some coffees and a few donuts and we all enjoyed the sweet sugar bomb treats for breakfast. Gotta love a fresh made glazed donut

Breakfast of Champions

Chicago Pizza

Chicago Food
Part 2

The very first thing my son asked for after being in boot camp for two months, was Chicago Deep Dish Pizza.

I did some research on Chicago pizza a few weeks before going there, and this placed named Gino's kept coming up (coincidentally, it was also recommended by a couple of friends). So for dinner we had to check it out and drove to nearby Libertyville and went to Gino's East.

The restaurant was nice, it had a good neighborhood/friendly ambiance, and it was packed. We were seated in a booth and after reading the menu, we ordered; Fettuccine Alfredo, House Salad and a Deep Dish Pizza with pepperoni, olive, mushrooms and sausage (the kid's favorite toppings).

The salad was really good and huge and full of fresh green lettuce, tomatoes, onions, olives and more , it was the kind of salad you sincerely enjoy. It also came with a really good house Italian dressing. Cassie liked her fettuccine and ate as much as she could until she was full.. and still had a lot left over, their servings were very good.

The pizza was your typical deep dish style, it had a decent crust and the toppings were good, but I have to admit, the version we have available locally here in Folsom at Chicago Fire Pizza... actually tastes better then the "original" we tried out there. Coincidentally that's the last restaurant my son went to before shipping off to boot camp, the tale of two pizza's has come full circle now.

Chicago Italian Beef and Dogs

Chicago Food

Earlier this month, we flew to Chicago for our son's graduation from Navy boot camp. It was a very nice ceremony and he got some time off so we headed into Chicago to check it out. There were a lot of great sites to see and we got my Uncle JD, who lives there, to show us around. We went to Millennium Park, The John Hancock Tower, Lake Shore Drive, The Aquarium and more.


But my favorite part was going to one of my uncle's favorite old lunch joints in the Italian district in Chicago where he took us to a place called Al's #1 Italian Beef.


The place was small, no tables, no seats, just walk in the door to the counter to order your food and take it home or eat at a shelf by the windows where there was room to set your food down and eat while standing.

The kitchen was right behind the counter and included a charcoal pit for roasting sausages. The menu was small and simple and to the point, everything on it looked good (see photo above). It was very interesting to see and read the walls covered with memorabilia all the way from Jimmy Durante, to Anthony Bourdain and there were lots of signed dollar bills pinned to the walls. There was a lot of interesting old history in this place.

We had the Vienna Hot Dogs done up Chicago style with the works, an Italian beef sandwich and I had to try the packaged tamales...gastronomical nightmares but oh so good going down.