Chicago Moms Blog

Dining out with kids

With a name like Foodmomiac, it should not surprise any of you to learn that my husband and I love eating out at restaurants. Before we had kids, we ate out a LOT. This included weekend breakfast (often both days) and dinners out both Friday and Saturday. When I was a restaurant reviewer in Ann Arbor, we were out more than that, and at one point, I remember thinking that eating out was a chore. Ha ha ha. I should have tried throwing two active kids into the mix. Now THAT's a chore!!

As I've written about elsewhere, my husband and I manage to sneak in a date nearly every Saturday. Friday nights, though, are reserved for family, and it is often quite challenging! My kids are now 6.5 and almost 3, and they definitely don't behave well all of the time. However, the following tips have certainly helped us enjoy our family nights out a bit more:

Ma Village, Let Me Show You It

Recently, CityMama wrote an ode to her small city, waxing poetic about all of reasons she is so content and happy to be living there. Well, the weather in early April in Chicago doesn't come close to matching the weather she has in the Silicon Valley, but in an effort to get myself through these last chilly days, I thought I'd talk a little bit about all of the reasons that I DO love living where I do, which is the city neighborhood of Roscoe Village. Many of my fellow Chicago Mom Bloggers are in the suburbs, and there is certainly nothing wrong with that. Heck, I grew up in the suburbs! But, I love the city lifestyle, and being in Roscoe Village offers the best of all worlds. Here's why:

No designs on being Julia Child

Mommy guilt manifests itself in many ways. For me, one of the biggest is at dinner time.

Cooking has never been my cup of tea. It always seemed more of a chore than anything else. My mom often worked second shift, thus many a day she left work by the time we were getting out of school. My dad would be home soon after and by the time I was 12, cooking dinner was part of me pulling my weight. My younger sister throughly enjoyed seeing me struggle with cooking. Her perfect older sister couldn't make rice? Ha!

During the decade I spent child-free after leaving my parents home, I did some cooking, but rarely attempted to do more than easy pasta dishes occasionally adding chicken. When I got pregnant I thought that I'd be better. We'd eat balanced meals including more vegetables. I have to say that compared to our child-free days, I'm doing better. But not good enough.

You can't light 'em if you got 'em!

I have been looking forward to January 1, 2008 for a long time. How long? Since the smoking ban was announced a few years ago. Sure, Indiana is mocking us for passing it, but that's Indiana. I don't go out gambling very often anyway. BUT the times that I have gone, I've stuck with the non-smoking floor, which isn't as exciting as the smoking floor. So that blows a small hole in the theory that non-smoking floors are dead because you can't smoke. Um, no...why not put a craps table down there too?

But this isn't about gambling. This is about EATING OUT! I can NOT wait until one Wednesday night when we don't want to cook and think, "Oh, Duke of Perth would be perfect!" and we won't have to try to get in there early before the mob of smokers descend  on the place. 

Amen, Sister!

After reading Stephanie Fosnight's column in the Pioneer Press on restaurant-going with autistic kids, I sent her an email response.

I have two, count 'em, two such children. Eating out is one pleasure I would not forgo when we adopted the twins over ten years ago. I have found that other diners do not care to be involved in a social experiment and prefer that families with disabled children just stay home . . . for the next twenty years.

The onus is on us parents to make the trip successful.  I have been doing this for twelve years, so I have developed a few tricks:

-Go early, so that the restaurant is not too crowded and

Bringing Families Back to the Table

  Yay! 
  Originally uploaded by Foodmomiac

Last night, we gathered up the family (including our au pair Paty, the newest member), and headed to a big event at Crust: Eat Real. Crust is the first certified organic restaurant in the Midwest, and we had wanted to try it for a while. This event was the perfect opportunity.

The evening was a fundraiser for an organization called Purple Asparagus. Here is the mission of Purple Asparagus:

Who said the suburbs aren't fun?

The husband, child and I went to this brand new shopping district today called The Promenade Bolingbrook located in Bolingbrook off of I-355 (right near Ikea).  It is nothing short of AMAZING.  No longer will we be sitting inside on these hot, hot summer days.  The Promenade Bolingbrook is an outdoor shopping area that is laid out like a little town.  It has streets running through it and a TON of shops like Janie and Jack and J.Jill.  It has some restaurants new to the area like Gordon Biersch Brewery (who provided us with exceptional service) and Teds Montana Grill.  The best part of this place for summer, however, is the children's play area.  It has fountains spouting up from the ground and the surface is nice and cushy, so there is no fear of your child getting really hurt if they fall.  The area is somewhat enclosed and loaded with benches.  Finally!  Somewhere different for parents AND kids.  Then, if all of that wasn't enough, I come to find that there is an INCREDIBLE family area!  It's inside and air conditioned.  There are couches and tables and toys for the kids, very large changing stations and even PRIVATE NURSING AREAS!  That's right, your own little room with a swanky recliner and a door.  Seriously, did a woman design this place?  But honestly, I couldn't have been more excited to be here.    I'm slapping myself silly that I haven't visited The Promenade before today.  The center just recently opened at the end of April and hasn't even had their grand opening yet.

The Promenade also has a stage for concerts and special events planned each month.  I'll be taking Hailey this week to meet Eric Carle, author of The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Clifford, the big red dog, for story time.

Check out their website and have fun rolling your cursor over "Kara" on the main page.  You can make her eyes roll.  Yeah, the Chicago heat is definitely getting to me.

Choo-Choo! All aboard the newest Whole Foods

August 8th ushered in a new Whole Foods in Chicago's South Loop. It's just a few minutes from my office and many of us were eagerly counting down the days. When I walked in, I was floored! The angels sang and my recyclable tote bag was hungry for new items. I went back today to get photos and more details, but alas, corporate rules prohibit such fan girl antics. I am hoping that their regional media folks will grant me a personal tour. But here are my thoughts from memory!

I Scream! You Scream! We All Scream for Ice Cream!

OK.  Maybe "WE" don't all scream for ice cream...  but I'm convinced that instead of "mama" or "dada", the first words I ever uttered were "soft serve".  I think I can actually time line my life to date in ice cream scoops.

When I was a kid, nothing on earth could coax me away from the brisk shower of an open fire hydrant in the height of summer.  Nothing except the tinny jangle of bells from a paleta cart or the warped music box melody from an ice cream truck.  I was a mere puppy to their Pavlov.  My favorite paleta flavor was and is coconut.  For some reason, all the other kids, complained about the bits of coconut in the paleta, but that's exactly why I LOVED them.  I always wonder if they're still $.50.  I'll never forget begging - and i mean BEGGING - my mother for enough change to make a $1 to savor some ice cold, soft serve, chocolate-vanilla twist (nestled deep in a crisp wafer cone).  It never ceases to amaze and depress me that to introduce my own children to these two nomadic dessert novelties, I will actually have to leave the Beverly neighborhood's environs, since here they are both banned.  I sh*t thee not.

Whenever I missed the paleta or ice cream truck man (and yes, he was always a man and even as a child, I thought it was very sexist.  I would've made a GREAT ice cream vendor), I'd explain to my mother, with sophisticated drama and emotion, the devastation and horror of that traumatic fact.

Eventually, she'd give in and walk me to one of two places - the Walgreen's or the Baskin-Robbins.  Does anyone else (besides my mom) remember when some of the Walgreen's stores actually had soda fountains and diner food? I was always assured a scoop of french vanilla, a dollop of paper white whipped cream and a cherry on top of that.  The Baskin Robbins offered (and still offers) amongst it's 31 flavors - Bubble Gum ice cream, which was basically vanilla with teeny tiny, square, multi-colored chiclets in it (now, the ice cream is bubble gum flavored).  I really didn't like that ice cream at all, but I would always order it because for some reason that was the trendy ice cream that all the COOL 7 year old hipsters were devouring. 

As I got a little older, I got invited to birthday parties at Zephyr Cafe and Margie's Candies (which I heard opened a new location on Montrose).  At Zephyr's, the fate temping parents of the birthday celebrant would ALWAYS order the "War of the Worlds" - a dessert (?) consisting of 30 scoops of ice cream and basically the contents of every jar of dry or liquid topping they had in the building.  A similar dessert was also offered at Margie's called the Royal George - a 25 scooper. I can hear the parent's internal negotiation now, "Sugar High/Crash?  They'll sleep it off!  Cavities?  They're baby teeth anyway!  Viral Meningitis?  It'll boost their immune systems!"  Usually, my mother was around to steer me clear of those beasts and to "smaller" sundaes like my favorite turtle sundae at Margie's - which is still almost the size of my head.

When we moved to a nearby suburb for better high school options, I frequented the Sugar Bowl for old fashioned banana splits and vanilla cokes, Swensen's for birthday parties, and the original Ben and Jerry's on Armitage for special trips back in the city to visit friends. 

After graduating college, I hiked around Spain for a while and I'll never forget sharing my first scoop of Haagen-Dazs ice cream with a handsome Spanish goth boy in the Barcelona shop.  Shortly thereafter, I moved to San Francisco where I shared other kinds of scoops with other kinds of handsome boys at Double Rainbow (which opened a Chicago location shortly after we moved back!), Fenton's and Ghiradelli.

Today, the kids, the thin man and I "frequent" our local parlors (especially since my old school parlors - except for Margie's - are all gone) - Oberweis (I try to ignore his politics), Coldstone Creamery and Original Rainbow Cone (when there isn't a line around the block).  I hear a whole new line up of parlors have sprouted up on the north side to replace the old ones, like Australian, Sweet Occasions, Bobtail and Village Creamery (which has Filipino flavors like Buko, Jackfruit and Halo Halo!).  And happily, I have the rest of the summer to check them all out - again and again and again!  ;)

Chicago: A Virtual Tour

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Selfmademom has already provided our readers with many excellent suggestions about what to do in Chicago while visitng our wonderful city during BlogHer.  I am now prepared to supplement that information with a virtual tour of a weekend downtown!

My husband and I stayed in the Loop this weekend as a treat for ourselves because we haven't had a night  out of the house together since our almost-3-year-old was born as a public service to you all who are coming to Chicago for BlogHer this week!  My husband magically turned some air miles into a reservation for a suite at the lovely Renaissance Chicago Hotel [I knew there just had to be a silver lining to all that business travel he does] and my in-laws wanted to take the kids for the weekend, so we hopped onto Lake Shore Drive and in a mere 20 minutes became eager tourists in our own new city. 

And let me tell you, visitors to Chicago are in for a huge treat - my only problem with this city is that there is far too much to do.  How do we choose?  Here's what we came up with:

Day One

1. As soon as we checked into our hotel mid-day on Saturday, we talked to the concierge about getting tickets for a riverboat tour - there is no better way to be wowed by this city!  There are a couple of choices, but we were able to get last-minute tickets on Chicago Line Cruises Architecture and Historical Cruises.  We spent an hour and a half out on the water, and the views of the skyscrapers were heart-stopping.  I've always paid more attention to Lake Michigan, but now I get it: we are really lucky to have the Chicago River running through our city. Despite the fact that our particular docent appeared to have taken diction lessons from Marge Simpson, we enjoyed our tour immensely.  A tip: arrive early to get seats up on the deck!

2.  On the way over to the river cruise, we made a stop at HotTix for some half-priced tickets to a show that evening.  We were hoping to get in to see Wicked, but alas, it was sold out.  However, we were able to get tickets to a very good show at the Steppenwolf Theater, a venue I've been dying to get to since moving here.  There were tickets to many shows still available in the early afternoon, including some other excellent theaters.

And, for the record, it just so happens that HotTix is located directly across the street from Ann Taylor Loft - which is having an excellent sale so that we can buy new clothes before BlogHer they can clear out summer clothes - and Intelligentsia, the best coffee shop in Chicago! [And if you can get a good-looking guy to hold your coffee for you while you shop, all the better!]

3. After the riverboat cruise and a stroll along the River Walk, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for our night out. It's a quick cab ride ($8) over to Steppenwolf, which is in Lincoln Park.  We recommend dinner at Vinci, an excellent Italian restaurant, which is just down the block from Steppenwolf on Halstead.  The Vegetarian Plate was delicious!  We needed reservations, but made them that afternoon without a problem.  I would suggest taking advantage of the outdoor seating on a summer night.

4.  We took another cab back to the hotel, enduring the most harrowing ride of our lives.  We were both nauseated when we got out.  Not only did we not tip this driver, but we told the group that was eager to jump in upon our arrival to wait for another one.  Then we ran.

Day Two

1. We lounged around the hotel room for hours.  Sleeping in, room service, blogging reading the paper...total relaxation.  As my husband pointed out, just having 5 quiet minutes is relaxing when you have young children - so having a day and a half all to ourselves was divine.

2. Back to Intelligentsia by way of Border's for reading material.  I made that stop at Ann Taylor Loft that I'd been dying for since yesterday, and found some great bargains! 

3.  We walked over to Millennium Park, bought a picnic lunch in the Cafe there, and strolled over to the magnificent Pritzker Pavillion to eat on the lawn.  Live music, lots of families...there's always something great going on here, and don't forget to check out the Crown Fountain!  Here's the schedule of events.

4.  From Millennium Park, it's a short walk over to the Art Institute of Chicago - and wow, is it worth seeing.  This is a world-class museum, and we loved both the classic Impressionist art and the incredible modern art, especially the photography.  There's an especially impressive exhibit by Jeff Wall going on right now.  The outdoor cafe at the museum is excellent and I've heard that the indoor cafe is also a treat.

In the late afternoon, we got back in the car and headed home to relieve my wonderful in-laws.  It's remarkable how, in these child-raising years, a day and a half away can be all that's needed to feel refreshed and like a sane adult again.  (Equally amazing is that it's possible to do so much in such a short time when you're in Chicago without your kids!)

I feel so lucky to live in this magnificent city, and truly hope that all you visitors enjoy it!