Loving Summer in Chicago: Upcoming Fun, Food and Fitness Events

Posted on June 17, 2014 by CHIORGANICGIRLS

Ok so our weather still isn’t too summery but the events in Chicago are in full swing! We wanted to share all the summer goodness with ya’ll instead of keeping it for ourselves. Here’s just a few fun, free events to keep you fit and entertained this summer.

Bikini Blast Time

Looking to get your muscles tight for your new polka dot bikini (or speedo)? Join the Old Town Purre Barre team for a grand opening party on Thursday, June 19th from 6-8 p.m. Pure Barre gives clients a chance to sculpt and lengthen their muscles by alternating tiny shake inducing muscle movements with stretching sequences. Believe us, you will tighten your problem areas and wonder why such little movements can be so sweat provoking. The grand opening party will feature drinks, light snacks, raffles as well as retail and class specials so this would be a perfect opportunity to snag a deal and step to the barre. See the Purre Barre website for class information and more details.

Pure Barre Old Town

1350 N. Wells Street, Suite 4

Chicago, IL 60610

oldtown@purebarre.com

312.642.2922

Free Parking in the Self Park lot behind Cobbler Square is available.

Getting in Touch with Nature

Are you a city kid with country dreams? The North Face, the well known outdoor clothing brand, and our beloved Chicago Park District are doing outreach to help us urbanites learn to camp in under our unforgettable Chicago skyline. Events may feature camping basics, fishing skills and nature hikes, or even spooky campfire tales lead by Chicago Park District staff. Visit the website to register and more information. Registration is mandatory to attend.

There are several spots to learn and set your gear down throughout the summer:

July 26-27: Northerly Island
August 9-10: Garfield Park Conservatory
August 16-17: Calumet Park
September 13-14: Gompers Park
September 20-21: CCFP Bullfrog Lake
September 27-28: Northerly Island
October 11: Family Adventure Day

Activity Guides from North Face are also available to give you the low down on other fun park events.

http://exploreyourparks.com/pdf/Chicago_EYP_Download.pdf

Relax and Recharge in the Burbs

Grab some mini massages, snacks, and behind the scenes tours (OH MY!) of the brand new Massage Envy Spa Mount Prospect, at their Grand Opening event on Tuesday, June 17 from 5-6:30 p.m. Email massageenvy@heronpr.com to RSVP to the event. (Text modified from Heron PR)

Movies and More under the Stars

Chicago Park District continues to bring free Movies in the Parks until early fall and that includes our beloved Millennium Park every Tuesday evenings and one bonus movie on Sunday, June 29th. Click here to search the nearest park in Chicago. This year Chicago Park District will also showcase the first Chicago on Screen which will feature locally-produced independent, documentary and short films around Chicago.

Wanna snuggle with a Lion during your show? Ok that might be dangerous, but you can get up close and personal with the animals of Lincoln Park zoo and then catch a flick afterwards with Zoovies! General admission is free but you can upgrade to VIP package for snacks, drinks and surprises.

Photo Credit: MLK Photographs

Summer Bites

Chicago’s most romantic restaurant Geja’s Café will celebrate its 49^thAnniversary Sunday, June 29 through Friday, July 4. Guests will receive 49% off all food bills and can take part in Geja’s 5^th annual recipe contest and 4^th annual poetry challenge during the 6-day anniversary celebration. Guests are encouraged to compose original poetry about their experiences at Geja’s over the years. Aspiring fondue foodies are invited to submit an original dipping sauce to accompany Geja’s signature meats and seafood entrée. The winners from each contest will win a dinner for 6 with selected premium wines. For more information or to make a reservation, visit www.gejascafe.com. (Text provided by Heron PR)

Come out of Chi-bernation for these Winter Food Finds

Posted on February 11, 2014 by CHIORGANICGIRLS

Oh winter…devilishly evil Chicago winter. You haven’t been able to keep us down…especially with all these events and restaurant openings popping up. What about you, dear readers? Have you wound your scarf around you and strapped those snow boots on to take the chill out of winter? Here are some spots that may make you wanna brave the great white Midwest.

Remember that ol’ Lasalle Power company dance club you used to troll to pick up your future v-day date? Well now it’s been converted into a brand new Gino’s East. Chicago’s legendary pizza spot just got classy at its River North location. Three floors of expansive rustic cozy hangout space will eliminate your wait with your out of town guests as you get your “mangia” on with artichoke pizza, pickle-y sliders and fat stuffed cheese sticks with spinach. The restaurant proclaims to be including a brewery opening in several months as well…just in time for Spring!!

Our next pick is a neighbor to the north, Pizzeria Serio, a hidden addition to the food scene on Belmont avenue in Lakeview. WGN’s Chicago Best honored Pizzeria Serio as one of Chicago’s fave pizza. Check out the video here. We hopped over snow mounds to meet with the Chicago Food Bloggers and Pizzeria Serio was gracious enough to host our group. We sampled several tasty starters like a Spinach Salad (baby spinach leaves, red onion, mandarin oranges, goat cheese and walnuts in homemade citrus dressing) and the more traditional Caprese. For veggie lovers and goat cheese lovers (eww says one of us..the goat cheese hater) try the spinach specialty pizza (EVOO, sea salt, black pepper, fresh garlic, tomatoes, spinach, ricotta and goat cheese sans sauce). For the more purist pizza crowd, try the wood burned crusty Eat Your Veggies (onions, green peppers, mushrooms and black olives) and get your 5 a day veg serving…a good excuse to eat mas pizza if we do say so…and we do.

In a whole other country (this is what it feels like to Chicago residents) is Farmhouse in Evanston. This tavern makes their own burgers, condiments and soda from scratch with ingredients plucked straight from Midwestern farms. Even their beverage selection is pulled only from Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan. The majority of interior pieces are reclaimed woods and salvaged materials. At the kick off to North Shore Restaurant month, going on now, we gobbled down hot beer battered Wisconsin cheese curds with crispy warm centers and fresh Tavern-cut peppery potato chips with homemade ranch-like dipping sauce. On demand for our next visit is the Old World Grains Burger with Forest Mushroom and Poblano Pepper. For those of you who don’t venture that far out of our city, there’s also a sister location in River North with a slightly different menu and a two floor space. Don’t all these pics of yummy food make you wanna trek through your alley to the El?

Chicago Thin Crust? A Pizza Must!

Posted on January 3, 2014 by CHIORGANICGIRLS

Blaze Pizza

Oh Twitter, how we love thee. Recently, the Chicago Food Scene held a Twitter poetry competition for free Blaze pizzas. We dug deep back to our middle school Haiku writing days and typed a clever pizza ditty….and won!! Once our coupons came, we gleefully braved the snow to try the “new to Chicago” casual pizza chain, Blaze Pizza, situated in Boystown right near the El stop. We weren’t really sure what to expect when we entered but the staff hollered out a welcome and invited us to come closer.

As we shyly peeked around, they detailed the Blaze pizza process for us. The fine art of pizza creation is set up in an assembly line format. Patrons can pick their own pie toppings and sauce or choose a signature ‘za and watch while it is made. Pizzas are 11 inches of thin crust glory and take only 3 minutes to cook. We were intrigued by the gigantic oven and learned that 12 pizza could fit inside which brings to mind sitcom hijinx of craaazy pizza cooking. The oven man assured me that he avoided that magnitude of pizza multitasking. The oven does, however, cook pizzas at a blazing (get it?!!!?) hot 800 degrees.

There were a ton of signature veggie pizza options available to us as well as gluten free and vegan substitutions. We decided on the Red Vine, with fresh mozzarella, cherry tomatoes, basil and chunky red sauce, and the Green Stripe, with pesto sauce, arugula, and garlic minus the chicken.

Blaze Pizza – “Red Vine” with fresh mozzarella, cherry tomatoes, basil and chunky red sauce

Blaze Pizza – “Green Stripe” with pesto sauce, arugula, and garlic minus the chicken

Pizza Highlights: Blaze Pizza is a real departure from Chicago style pizza and a real good one at that. The crust was light, crispy and a titch garlicky. Our wallets were happy because their pizzas only cost 8 bucks and we each walked out with leftover slices. We also tried the S’mores pie, a chewy marshmallow with melted chocolate in between 2 British biscuits. It had appropriately crumbly texture but we decided it could have used a quick pop in the oven.

Status: Liked, retweeted and plused, we loved Blaze Pizza and will be back to make our own creation. Thanks to Blaze Pizza and Chicago Food Scene for choosing us as the creative poetresses that we are and giving us pizzas instead of an award.

Ay Chica WoW WoW, we heart sexy tacos!

Posted on November 26, 2013 by CHIORGANICGIRLS

Our constant gratitude attitude must be working this holiday season. We got a karmic invite recently from Rockit PR goddess, Kara Callera, to chow-wow down at Billy Dec’s most recent restaurant installment, ¡AY CHIWOWA! (throwing out a couple more thanks, universe!).

Highlight Reel: AY CHIWOWA is at the tip of River North on Orleans and Chicago (worth noting as there is secret free parking in the area if you are willing to stretch those Chicago winter legs for a block or two). Perfect spot for: After work drinks and apps with coworkers (lots of specials for those of us on a “paying back college loans” budget), partying on the weekend with your lady friends (VIP service and private room space in the back of the spot) or an upbeat date with someone who likes it loud. AY CHIWOWA is also known for their immense selection of tequilas and creative cocktails, such as the spicy Acai Jalapeno Margarita, so call an Uber or a pink mustached Lyft in honor of Movember if you wanna get down.

As cold as it was outside the night of our visit, we received a warm welcome from staff and like a T.I. rap song, we were invited to have whatever we liiiiiked. The music was bumping with throw back jams like “Snoop Doggy Dog” and an ugly sweater train of patrons danced past us as we settled ourselves at our cozy table. As Jill, our bubbly and attentive server, brought out a bevy of items, the dudes next to us probably thought we were trying to add some extra padding for the long winter.

Here’s the good, the amazing and the meh OK of AY CHIWOWA battling it out for best thing in our bellies.

Starters:

Fresh chunky mango guacamole and roasted salsa paired with hot salted tortilla chips

VS.

Queso fundido (aka big old bowl of melty mexicheese) with sauteed peppers, onions and garlic

¡AY CHIWOWA!

Winner? Tie. If we were on a deserted island and only had one food to live on, we would be praying some avocados would be drop from the sky. The queso fundido, however, was a surprise plus with its flavorful veggie additions.

Veggie Entrees Throwdown:

Veggie Quesadilla

VS.

Veggie Tacos

¡AY CHIWOWA!

Winner: Somehow queso fundido jumped in the cage match and beat up both veggie quesadilla and veggie tacos. All three featured the similar sauteed peppers and onions leaving the veggie variety a little lacking. Maybe throw some black bean tacos on the menu to entice the veg/vegan crowd?

Meaty Martial Arts Taco Match:

Slow cooked brisket-like Barbacoa

VS.

Adobe Veracruz style Chicken

VS.

Pork Belly with pickled radish

¡AY CHIWOWA!

Winner: Barbacoa!!! The short rib meat was so juicy and tasty that no toppings were actually needed. The bright watercress salad on top of the taco zeroed in on the melt in your mouth texture of the taco. The chicken came in second with a solid Adobo spice and pleasing texture.

Our coup d’etat and game changers, though, were two sugar dusted churros, with a perfect balance of soft fluffy insides and crunchy outsides, accompanied by an addictive hot cajeta sauce. When we think of churros, usually its those stale carnival ones, not very thrilling to cupcake connoisseurs, but “someone” enjoyed them so much a bite of churro “mysteriously” ended up in her mouth…and then the stare down began.

¡AY CHIWOWA! Thanks again for hosting us!!

Looking for more of what’s hot in Chicago? Follow Billy Dec’s blog http://www.achicagothing.com and twitter https://twitter.com/billydec

Tis’ the Season for a Restaurant Preview: Seasons 52 River North

Posted on October 18, 2013 by CHIORGANICGIRLS

You know how sometimes divine providence throws you a foodie bone? A light shone down on us last Monday when we received a mysterious email invite to a restaurant preview for Seasons 52. We immediately got the googlin’ fever and checked out the scope of the restaurant. River North, eh? Must be semi-fancy. Then came the menu snooping and the what to wear conversations.

As two small town bloggers in a big town, we didn’t quite know what to expect from our first media reception. The first thing we noticed was that we had accidentally matched our outfits. Ok, bright side, we are a more united front in our navy and white striped twinsie clothes.

John State is Seasons 52 Executive Chef Partner

The second thing we noticed was the atmosphere. Seasons 52, just a ferris wheel away from Navy Pier, sets out to be a casual wine and piano bar with seasonal rotating entree elements. There was definitely mood lighting when we arrived and the pianist was crooning a little Dawson’s Creek like ditty as we walked to the reception area. The restaurant layout features open spaces, a circular bar area, Frank Lloyd Wright inspired design and *highlight* a chef’s table where you can spy on and get served by the executive chef of the restaurant…oh the pressure for those line cooks as you scrutinize their every chop!

What we ate: We started off with two flatbreads. The crust was noticeably buttery and crisp (but not microwave pizza rock solid) which was a nice balance. The ripe plum tomato and mozzarella flatbread with basil was not unique but satisfying. The Sonoma goat cheese flatbread was more intriguing with luscious chunks of roasted garlic, a trio of mushrooms (black trumpet, portobello and oyster), spinach and scallions. Kate HATES goat cheese, yet it was mild enough that she actually didn’t spit the flatbread into her napkin and admittedly, enjoyed it.

Sonoma Goat Cheese Trio Mushroms (top right) and Ripe Plum Tomato (bottom right)

Spicy Chipotle Shrimp (left) and Piedmontese Beef & Black Bean Chili (bottom right)

Next, came an only made for us goat cheese stuffed ravioli with chive aioli and shaved root veggies on top. The staff was kind enough to treat us due to the rest of the samples being meaty (short ribby and chipotle pineapple shrimpy to be exact). Marty, the most knowledgeable server in the history of mankind aka the Aristotle of waiter-ing, explained that two key attractive features of this new joint.

Seasons 52 – Sonoma Goat Cheese Ravioli (harvest vegetables, black mushrooms, roasted onion jus)

1) They have a gazillion menus to serve your (and our) picky friends. That means your vegan, vegetarian, T-Rexian, salt-free, and gluten hating peeps can all eat dinner in one spot. REMARKABLE!

2) Certain menu items and pieces of entrees change with the seasons to produce peak flavor. For example, mushrooms, root vegetables, goat cheese, pumpkin seeds, and other fall goodies appear in fall only. As a contrast, items like berries, melons and cucumbers would find their way back to you in summer.

Seasons 52 menu includes gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan, lactose-free, sodium-friendly and garlic-free

Finally, the epic portion of our evening was about 8 baby parfait desserts to choose from. We split them to avoid the old “pants splitting at a restaurant” dilemma. One surprise favorite was a creamy key lime parfait and of course, good ol’ pumpkin was right in season. Seasons 52 also offers a fresh fruit parfait for your more health conscious self. We met famed Ask.com health blogger, Nina Cherie, at the reception and she modeled appropriate dessert choosing. *Sigh* P.S. She’s awesome!

Seasons 52 – Mini Indulgence includes Chocolate Peanut Butter Mousse, Key Lime Pie, Mocha Macchiato, Pecan Pie with Vanilla Mousse, Pumpkin Pie with Ginger Snap Crust, Belgian Chocolate Rocky Road, Raspberry Chocolate Chip Cannoli and Market Fresh Fruit

Any “eh ok” things?: Seasons 52 is in River North. Parking, meh, might wanna take the red line el train..oh wait! VENTRA (fist shaking).

What we LOVED the most: The service! All the staff were not just aware of their craft but were interesting, friendly people. We had a long conversation with the super attentive and yoga loving server, Kelly as she toured us around the restaurant, refilled our drinks non stop and encouraged us to take free dessert home. Need we say more?

Seasons 52 opened October 17th for all. Go get your own review on and tell us what you think!

Chi Organic Girls

Tag Archives: wheretoeatinchicago

Loving Summer in Chicago: Upcoming Fun, Food and Fitness Events

Bikini Blast Time

Getting in Touch with Nature

Relax and Recharge in the Burbs

Movies and More under the Stars

Summer Bites

Come out of Chi-bernation for these Winter Food Finds

Chicago Thin Crust? A Pizza Must!