Andersonville

For our second adventure, Megan and I hopped on the northbound #22 bus and headed up to Andersonville. After our first expedition into the bar-less wonder that is Albany Park, it was comforting to be back in a neighborhood that celebrates beer as much as our native Lakeview.


Andersonville is a small, vibrant neighborhood on Chicago's north side. Born an affluent Chicago suburb in the 1880's, Andersonville's original Swedish immigrant population has melded together with Hispanic, Middle Eastern, Gay, and Lesbian cultures. This diverse mix of people is well-represented by a line of hip, eclectic storefronts along Clark St, stretching from Winnemac to Bryn Mawr. In recent years the shops, restaurants and bars here have seen a remarkable renaissance, transforming Andersonville from a gritty north side residential area into a bustling shopping, dining and nightlife destination.

Megan and I arrived in the heart of Andersonville around 4:30 on a Saturday afternoon. The blizzard that was due to hammer the Chicago area was already coating the streets and sidewalks in a sheet of white. We wandered our way north on Clark, stopping in a few shops before settling in at Simon's Tavern for a drink. Simon's is a friendly neighborhood pub that proudly flies the Swedish flag next to its neon sign. Even though it was before 5 on a Saturday, the place had a good crowd. There were only a few scattered seats available at the long bar running the length of the tavern, so Megan and I plopped down at a small table near the back. As we stood at the bar studying the beer list, an older man sitting nearby reminded us, "don't forget, it's glögg season!" Sold. "2 glöggs please." Glögg is the Scandanavian version of mulled wine--basically, red wine seasoned with cinnamon and raisins and served warm. It was the perfect warm-up drink for a snowy night. After the glögg, we took advantage of Simon's modest, but well-chosen selection of beers on tap and ordered a round of Rogue Hazelnut Brown.



We headed back out into the blizzard and up the street a few hundred yards to Charlie's Ale House. I'll admit, we weren't sure about Charlie's at first. In our neighborhood adventures we try to stick to the must-see attractions and the smaller unique shops, avoiding the chains. In this case, the weather made up our minds for us. It was too cold and windy to walk any further. Once we saw the beer list we were glad we stopped. Charlie's has 25 beers on tap and another 50 or so in bottles. Unable to choose from the massive list, I went with the Bottle Beer of the Month: a Left Hand Brewing Co. Deep Cover Brown Ale, while Megan chose a Unibroue La Fin du Monde. Our waiter, a recent transplant to Andersonville, chatted with us about beer and the neighborhood, gave us free bread, and offered us samples of one of the craft beers on tap. Not bad service for only ordering two drinks.

We had noticed what we thought was a Lebanese restaurant on our way up to Charlie's and decided to double back and have dinner there. The Icosium Cafe turned out to be an Algerian restaurant...run by Russians...that only serves crepes... They made a mean crepe though. I had a Crepe Marrakech, and Megan's had the Cheka Chouka. Both were crammed full of fresh spinach, veggies, Algerian sausage, and cheese, and were surprisingly filling. Since it was only 7:00 and we already had a few drinks in us, we decided to head up to a hookah lounge to relax before meeting up with friends for a few more beers.

At the very north end of Andersonville we found Basement Hookah Lounge. The "basement" lounge turned out to be at street level and seemed to be run by teenagers. When Megan and I entered there were 7 or 8 high school age kids sitting on couches around a flat panel tv watching an episode of Charmed. Upon noticing us, one of them jumped off the couch, seemingly surprised to have customers, and fetched us some menus. We decided to spend the extra $2 for the StarBuzz tobacco and ordered the apple flavor ($12) along with a Hawaiian Punch ($1). As we sat there puffing on the hookah on comfy couches in the corner of the lounge, the Charmed episode gave way to late-90's hip hop music videos (was this for our benefit? like us putting on a Run DMC album for people 10 years older than us?) and more teenagers began to fill the remaining couches. We never did ask (solid journalism), but the name of the place started to make sense to me -- this was like hanging out in your friend's basement in high school. All of the kids seemed to know each other, and Megan and I both had the feeling that we were crashing a high school party. That said, it was a solid hookah bar. The tobacco was absolutely top notch, the decor was comfy, the tunes were good, and the non-alcoholic drinks were dirt cheap. The kids all seemed friendly too, and happy to have us join their party. I'd go back if I were in the neighborhood.

After an hour of hookah, we found our way through the cloud of smoke and back out into the blizzard. As we waited for the bus in the snow, a woman waiting at the stop noticed Megan's choice of footwear (pumps) leaving the tops of her bare feet exposed to the elements. "Ooooiiiiee, child! You gonna freeze!" Megan assured the woman that we wouldn't be outside for long, but she persisted as we boarded the bus. "If I was your momma, I would beat you! Is that your boyfriend? [looking at me as she steps onto the bus] Do you beat her? I would beat her!" The woman later assured us that "you should beat her" is just an expression, but I don't think anyone else on the #22 bus knew that either. After a quick, but interesting bus ride down the street, Megan and I hopped off the bus at the corner of Foster and Clark for our last stop of the night.

Megan had already been to the Hopleaf Bar several times and was a big fan. This was my first time there, and it didn't disappoint. Any guess why? Yeah, the beer. This place put Charlie's selection to shame. They specialize in Belgian beer, but I doubt I could think of a single beer from any country that they didn't have. Lucy and Andy met up with us in the small upstairs room since the downstairs was already packed at 9:00. The four of us spent the next two hours imbibing a wide variety of delicious brews like Brewery Riva Lucifer, Unibroue Maudite, Allagash White, and Lauginitas Imperial Red Ale. I was disappointed to see that the vintage jukebox upstairs with honkey-tonk songs from the 1940's was broken, but the atmosphere in the whole bar was lively.

Overall, Andersonville was a friendly, energetic, interesting place to spend an evening. All of the locals we met were friendly enough and seemed happy to show off their little stretch of Clark St. The food was good, the beers were plentiful, and the hookah was smooth. Can't ask for much more than that. Chalk up another successful weekend for the Chicago Challenge. Next stop: Altgeld Gardens! ....okay, so we skipped that one. We'll be heading to Archer Heights next, and then Armour Square just before the New Year.

Albany Park

I don't think I had actually ever heard of Albany Park before this little project. After some extensive research (read: Wikipedia) we discovered it's one of the most ethnically diverse neighborhoods in the country - with particular representation from Mexico, the Middle East and Korea. In fact, Albany Park happens to contain Chicago's own Koreatown, which I also, until this point, didn't know existed. So on Saturday Zack and I hopped onto the Brown Line and headed toward the end of the line - Kimball - determined to get an authentic taste of Korea.


Thanks to Google's street view, we had an idea of what we were getting into - and as we pulled into the Kimball station our expectations were met. There was a dingy little diner, the Huddle House; a big strip mall with shops like the Donut Doctor and Subway; several currency exchanges; and some taquerias. It didn't seem like much of a Koreatown - and until I saw the sign for Honorary Seoul Drive, I was wondering if we were mistaken.

As we walked around, however, we noticed the Korean shop signs and newspapers, along with a few actual Koreans (or so I assumed). Satisfied, we headed to the restaurant we'd picked out in advance, Kang Nam. We'd read they make the food in front of you on charcoal Korean BBQs - sounded interesting. Of course, the place was in a strip mall. Not a good sign, I thought. But once we found it, tucked away in the corner of the strip mall, I was pleasantly surprised at the ambience.

I've never been a Korean-food junkie. I had a really bad experience with bi bim bop at a Korean place in New York City, and since then I've pretty much run in the opposite direction when someone mentions the cuisine. So I stayed pretty conservative on this attempt, ordering the Beef Bolgaki lunch special - basically BBQ beef. Zack got the Kolbi special, BBQ beef short ribs. To our dismay, they didn't cook the food in the little charcoal grill/hole thing in the middle of our table, but rather brought the food out ready for eating.

I'll give the whole experience a 3 out of 10 - mostly for the novelty. The beef and rice were ok, and there were these soy-soaked potatos that I could eat, and a little iceberg-lettuce salad - but I found it largely unpalatable. Zack, as usual, ate every bite of his and enjoyed it for the most part. I was glad I'd at least tried it - until I realized I paid $10 for it. That's not a very special lunch special in my book.

Along with the check, the waitress/hostess plopped down a couple little plastic bottles of some kind of drink called Biofeel. The ingredients were mostly high fructose corn syrup and water, along with some kind of lactose bacillus something or other. I figured they were either trying to aid with our digestion or kill us with biological warfare. We shrugged our shoulders and tested it out. Kind of weird. Orangey sweet with an aftertaste of milk. Not bad, but just weird enough that I decided not to finish it. Zack, of course, liked it enough to finish his (but not enough to drink the rest of mine).

Zack and I forged on after lunch, searching out our next stop in Albany Park - preferably a bar. From what we could see, there were absolutely zero bars in the entire neighborhood. Google maps had a few suggestions, all several blocks away. We headed toward one of the closer ones - a Hookah Bar up on Foster. The walk north on Kedzie was not very scenic. Sketchy, if anything. Then suddenly we came across a campus - North Park University's. It was actually kind of nice! Very campus-y. Zack and I were both impressed. There was even a Starbucks - and now I'm wondering which neighborhoods we visit won't have one. But even in this college environment we couldn't find a bar - The Hookah Bar was closed. We almost shouted out to a student, "You there! Coed! Where do you drink?"

Instead we wandered around in disbelief that this entire neighborhood was utterly bar-less. We ended up circling back to the Kimball stop and nearly giving up, when there, right by the el stop, was a Bud Light sign beckoning us in from the cold. There was no sign on the bar to indicate which bar it was - just the Bud Light one, an Old Style sign and a flourescent rainbow Heineken sign. We stood there for a minute wondering if this was the lesbian bar we'd read was in the area - until an old, scraggly man came stumbling out from inside the dark bar. This was the only bar we'd found all day, and we were going in.

I wish we could have taken pictures of the inside of this place. It was one of those smoke-filled bars where everyone seems to know each other and everyone seems to be down on his luck. Everyone there was a scraggly man by himself, tossing back a bottle of Bud while Nirvana played loudly over the Jukebox. The bar was dark but festive, with decor like James Dean posters, street signs and vodka ads. Zack and I each got a beer and thought about playing a game of pool, ultimately deciding to play a couple games of Pac-man instead. No one seemed to mind us, but I think they were wondering what we were doing there. After finishing our beers we got up, slipped out into the daylight and hopped back on the Brown Line.

I had a great time in Albany Park, as did Zack - but we agreed we'd probably never return. I mean, come on, no bars?

The Challenge

Chicago is a city of neighborhoods. These neighborhoods function as miniature cities within a city, with their own mini-histories, mini-heritages, and mini-civic pride. Depending on who you talk to, Chicago has between 58 and 228 neighborhoods. For better or worse (read: worse), Megan and I tend to stick to the neighborhoods full of other 20-somethings who shop at Crate & Barrel and J. Crew. It's high time we branched out.

In the coming weeks, months and fortnights, we will, in alphabetical order, explore as many of these other neighborhoods as possible. How is that a challenge? It's Chicago in the winter. Megan hates the cold, and I hate missing college basketball.

Rules (subject to change or blatant disregard):

• For a neighborhood to count, both Megan and I have to go
• We have to visit at least 2 establishments
• We have to hit the neighborhoods in alphabetical order according to our arbitrary master list
  
• Rule #3 can be temporarily disregarded if there is some kind of once-a-year event going on in a neighborhood further down the list that warrants skipping ahead
  
• We don't have to go to any neighborhoods where you need a gun
• Unless we get a gun

Albany Park, here we come.

The Idea

I sat down to dinner tonight and turned on the TV to find that nothing was on - so I flipped through the channels until a show on WTTW caught my eye: "The Foods of Chicago: A Delicious History." Right up my alley. I switched to the station, which, to my chagrin, was right in the middle of a telethon - the part where they ask for money and read notes from viewers. Each viewer who donated money also made a Chicago restaurant suggestion from various neighborhoods. Hearing the names of these neighborhoods got me thinking: I've lived in the Chicago area for over six years now and I really haven't explored it much beyond the few neighborhoods in which I've lived. Just then, Zack came into the room - and together we came up with a plan.