Lola Bistro

Headed to Cleveland, Ohio for business and did my usual R&D of food exploring. It was my chance to visit and try Michael Symon's Lola Bistro in downtown Cleveland. It was only a 15 min walk from my hotel located on 4th street, which was a cute closed off street of casual/fine dining and bars. I was in pork heaven. If you don't know, Symon is very well-known for his skills with pork and Lola's definitely displayed that. Seated myself at the bar, which had uplighting through the table top and the bar drink menu was on an iPad, pretty cool. I started with the Pork Belly appetizer of "buffalo pig ear", shaved celery, blue cheese, apple; main course of the Smoked Hampshire Pork Chopchiles, cheesy polenta, bbq onions. I thought my meal was done, but the very gracious and kind bartender gave me dessert on the house bc I waited longer than normal for my main course. Ended on a sweet note of the 6 a.m. Special a brioche french toast, maple-bacon ice cream and caramelized apple. This meal was probably one of the best I've ever had. My taste buds were satisfied and I enjoyed every bite of the food. That pork chop was cooked perfectly, the juices and the smoke were lovely. I'm so glad I came here and fortunate that my clients are based in Cleveland, which means...future visits and *ahem* an expensed dinner..haha.

Pulp Kitchen

The girls and I had Sunday brunch at Pulp Kitchen in Oak Brook, plus I had a Groupon to use. We waited for about 25 min, but it gave us a chance to review the menu and pin down what we each wanted. The decor was eclectic chic as orange and white the main colors. Orange patent love seats were used as benches, whimsy chandeliers hung from the ceiling and an orange juice bar to the side of the restaurant with a drink menu that incorporated oranges. Finally got seated and situated and our server was very energetic. She knew the menu very well and told us that with each entree you can get a side of toast or pancakes and if we got sides of pancakes, we could get it any way we wanted or pick any of the pancakes on the menu. This is dangerous bc I heart pancakes and no other breakfast place I've been to does this. I got excited. I went with the Dali's omelette with chorizo sausage, jalapeno peppers, onions and queso with a side of banana macadamia pancakes. Therese had the fried truffle egg toast brioche with fontina cheese and asparagus with a side of strawberry mocha French toast. Ang had the dutch apple french toast with cinnamon butter. Sheryl had the Incredible skillet with green peppers, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, bacon, sausage and ham with a side of key lime pancakes. Portions were big and the pancakes were delicious!

Chicago q

Had a taste for some meat. Good meat. Why not some bbq? For some finger lickin good bbq in a casual setting with a bit of formality, I headed to Chicago q in the Gold Coast area. Who would have thought the Gold Coast area had some good eats, besides the high energy nightlife(which I used to dabble in)? Made a same day reso with my friend on a Friday and had an early dinner. Head chef, Lee Ann Whippen, is renowned for her bbq and has been featured in many competitions and The Food Network. The entire experience was awesome! The service and food was on point. I've never had such simple food taste so good. They brought out complimentary house made sliced pickles and bbq chips. I like pickles on burgers and other foods, but these were addicting! They were sweet and buttery and not your typical pickle sour taste. Started off with House Bacon Cheddar Hush Puppies with a chipotle sauce. For the main course, I had the combination entree of half slab ribs and open faced pulled pork sandwich with a huge side of poblano cheddar corn bread and shared a side of brulee mac and cheese. My friend had the combination entree of half slab ribs and brisket with a side of cole slaw. Along with our food, they brought out 4 different house made types of bbq sauce for our ribs, pulled pork and brisket: Original Mild, Spicy, Eastern North Carolina Vinegar and South Carolina Mustard Sauce. Each of these sauces were sooo good, it was hard to pick a favorite, but the original mild was a leading contender. Ended dinner with a simple key lime whipped pie. They also were serving the bacon baklava, which they served at Baconfest where I had it the month before. Who wants to go to Chicago q?!

Epic

Happy Birthday Ang! ...and the festivities continue from Baconfest. Started the evening with dinner at Epic in River North with close friends and family. It was pretty good food and a bit pricey, but alas it was a special occassion. Let's say, I was over pork for that day and probably the next couple weeks, so I ordered the Chilean Sea Bass. We started off with stuffed calamari and pork belly as apps. Others chose the sea bass, braised short rib, lamb, salmon and pork chops. I also ordered a side of mac and cheese. Dessert was a sorbet trio of chocolate, kiwi and pineapple. It was a nice dinner overall, but not sure if I would come back here anytime soon due to the price. Just one last tidbit, celebrities are known to come here and my dad saw former Chicago Bulls Tony Kukoc at the valet stand after dinner hahaha! Then we headed next door to NV Penthouse for dancing!

Baconfest Chicago 2012

Yes, you read it right. BACONFEST. My first time attending this wonderful event along with some alums Ang and D and another newbie Mark. This kicked off Ang's 30th birthday celebration as one of Ang's fav is bacon. We attended the lunch portion with about 60 vendors at the UIC Forum. We only had about 3 hrs to stuff as much pork in our bellies, but man...was it worth it! At the end, we were all sitting on the ground waiting for the raffles to be called, but most of all resting bc we still had dinner and dancing later in the evening. One of my favs and I think the group's too is May St. Cafe's bacon flan with double chocolate flan with cherry-smoked bacon, rum-cured cherries with berries. These were small bites that you could literally just pop one or more in your mouth. We had about 5 each, ha! One of the unique ones was bacon cheesecake. Here's the run down of what we had, which follow the order of the pics as well: 1. Big Jones: bacon fat biscuit with crispy bacon, pea gravy and piccallili 2. La Madia: Bruschette of bacon lardon, spinach, balsmic and ricotta salata 3. Paddy Longs: Bacon grenades - mini bacon bombs beer-battered and deep fried 4. Chicago q - Smoked Bacon Baklava ---this was amazing!! 5. Peninsula Hotel: crispy pork belly, schupf nudel, sauerkraut - looks like lechon kawali! 6. Chalkboard: bacon and eggs 7. Union Sushi + BBQ: panko bacon with baby arugula salad served with a bacon redution and house tonkatsu sauce 8. Lillie's Q: "Bacon on Bourbon Street" - bacon custard filled bacon beignet with a Cafe Du Monde coffee and chicory bacon syrup 9. Piece: Bacon pizza 10. Zed451: bacon pancake pops in a bourbon glaze 11. Pure Kitchen: arabica coffee-cured bacon, black olive puree, scotch and coffee crunch, peppermint 12. May St. Cafe: the bacon flan! 13. The Drum & Monkey serving Bakon Vodka 14. Templeton Rye serving The Rusty Doorhinge...this was so refreshing!