Re-creation of Bucktown/Wicker Park Food Tour

We ent on a Near North Food tour with Natalie's parents a few months ago. Natalie's parents tried the Bucktown/Wicker Park food tour back in September and recommended it. Since we were available on a Monday to do this re-creation (and the tour doesn't run on Mondays because one restaurants is closed on Mondays), we decided to re-create the tour ourselves. This way we could save some money and order the food we specifically wanted from the restaurants. The restaurants are all fairly close to the intersection of North Ave, Milwaukee Ave and Damen Ave in Chicago.

George's Hot Dogs

We of course had a Chicago Style hot dog.   It didn't quite have all of the traditional components (i.e. no sport peppers) and actually the french fries were the best part of the experience.  We still prefer Hot Doug's for a Chicago Style Hot Dog or for a totally difference experience with encased meats go to Franks 'n Dawgs.

Hot Chocolate

We didn't actually have the food there on this re-creation day because we have been there 3 times in the past (and because they are not open on Mondays). We highly recommend this restaurant. The dinner food is good but the desserts and hot chocolate are great. This isn't your average hot chocolate - it is super decadent and rich.  So make sure to save room for the desserts/hot chocolate even if you only order an appetizer as a savory dish.  Reservations are recommended as it is a small space.

Goddess & Grocer

We ordered 2 sandwiches - the Portofino Panini and the Caesar the Day wrap (southwest Caesar). The sandwiches were excellent.  They were outstanding because the ingredients were really fresh.  If we hadn't already planned on going to other restaurants that day we would have spent more time and money trying other things on the menu.  In addition to prepared foods to eat immediately (sandwiches, salads, pastries), it is also a high end grocery store.

One of the down sides is that there is not a lot of seating room - there is only one long table that seats 10 people inside.  However, it looks like most people take out their food so this may not always be an issue.  It looks like a busy lunch spot and the locals love to frequent it.  If we lived closer, we would probably visit all the time.  Keep in mind that it takes a little while to get your food, so don't go if you are in a rush.

Piece

Piece is a brewery and pizzeria. The pizza is unique for this area because it is not deep dish or thin crust.  It is considered New Haven style pizza.  We ordered a small pizza with Italian sausage and green peppers.   It tasted good but upon removing slices of pizza many of the toppings seemed to slide off the crust.

The atmosphere was probably the most interesting thing about this place - it is a large space with exposed beams and skylights.  It looks like it would be fun place to hang out for a sporting event with plenty of TV's all around.

Sultan's Market

We didn't actually eat there this time because we had already sampled their falafel sandwich from parent's tour back in September.  It seemed to be standard Middle Eastern fare. We have had enough middle eastern cuisine from living near Dearborn, Michigan that it isn't as unique to us anymore.

iCream

iCream has introduced a super innovative way to make custom ice cream.  We ordered our own unique flavor combinations of cinnamon/white chocolate ice cream with Nutella mixed in and coconut/raspberry ice cream with bananas mixed in.  We arrived right as iCream opened so we didn't have to wait long to get our ice cream. But because the process is fairly labor intensive it looks like on a busy day you would have to wait a while. But we think it is definitely worth the wait. The fun part of the experience is how they instantly create ice cream from jimmy-rigged kitchen aid stand mixers and liquid nitrogen. It is a tasty science experiment.

We enjoyed tasting our unique ice cream.  In fact Nick's choice of cinnamon and white chocolate with Nutella epitomizes Nick's favorite flavors.