my kind of town
It was very nice to be back in Chicago. I did not buy a single record, mostly because I had no time and no money, but I intentionally packed only one bag that was _not_ a DJ bag to ensure that I wouldn't have any room to bring them back if I wanted to buy any. I _did_ stop in at Dusty Groove to see their new digs, though. I hadn't been to the new store yet; back when I went to Dusty Groove, it was only open one day a week. Now they're a seven day-a-week music powerhouse. The new space is bigger (slightly) but it actually feels more cramped because they've jammed in a bunch of extra records into the retail space. I'm sure that the storage area for their online operations is much bigger, but they haven't really made the retail area any bigger.
I also got to go to Green Zebra, which is a mostly vegetarian restaurant on the border between Wicker Park and River West. The food was fantastic, if a bit on the pricey side. Granted, my brother and I probably eat more than the average person, but we managed to run up quite an expensive bill between the two of us. We each had three courses, which ran from lighter to fuller in flavor, but I would hesitate to place names such as _appetizer_ or _salad_ or _entrée_ on them because they didn't quite break down so neatly.
My brother started with chilled beets with mascarpone and port vinaigrette (the beets were specifically from some farm that I can't remember; I'm assuming it must be local to Chicago) and I had a plate of five different types of heirloom tomatoes, artfully sliced and arranged, with a dollop of "vanilla and green tomato ice cream" placed on one of the tomato varietals. There was also a drizzle of vinaigrette on the other four varietals.
William moved on to have "Okinawan sweet potato and ginger dumplings" in a star anise and soy broth. The brother was quite good, but the sweetness of the dumplings didn't quite mesh with the savory broth. I had the "slow roasted shiitake mushrooms with savoy cabbage wrapped in potato" which I think were then pan-fried in butter. This was an excellent dish, and it seemed to be a very popular one from glancing around the restaurant at other diners.
Finally, my brother had a gallette with grilled chantrelles and sweet corn as the filling, and I had the eggplant and tomato tart. Both dishes had phenomenal pastries that were light, flaky, tender, buttery, and sweet. The gallette, however, was a much better choice, as it was more savory and a fine finish to the meal. The tart that I chose was nice, but the flavors weren't bold enough through every bite (it was easy to get a forkful of only eggplant) and there wasn't quite enough Parmigiano Reggiano for my tastes.
We split a bottle of viognier (Copain's Broken Leg Vineyard, from California) between the two of us, and I finished with oolong tea and he had a coffee. Neither of us was hungry at the end although we suspected that after a few hours, we would be. Which is true, but that could also be attributed to the drinking we did afterwards.