I took the bf on the Chicago Food Planet Food & Cultural Tour in Bucktown/Wicker Park for our 2 year, and it was Awesome!!!!!
Pros: Getting to learn all about mom & pop shops that serve up GREAT food, learning about the history of Chicago and its architecture from our savvy tour guides, and EATING at 7 cute, popular, and tasty eateries in 3 hours!!
Cons: I was still hungry after the tour! The weather was COLD to be outside for this long. Oh! And there were a couple complaints with the choice of eatery…read on to find out why? Now let the journey BEGIN!
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Stop #1: George’s Hot Dogs
A Traditional CHICAGO-STYLE hot dog stand established 60+ years ago.
What goes in a REAL Chicago hot dog? Mustard (no ketchup!!), diced onions, hot peppers (HOT!!!), sliced tomatoes, relish, and celery salt!
Taste: According to the bf, it was AMAZING. He’s a dude who hates mustard and he downed his hot dog in 30 seconds. Since I don’t eat beef, I literally had a salad in a bun, but it was actually very tasty thanks to the fresh plethora of crunchy veggies!
Did you know there are over 2000 individually owned hot dog stands in Chicago???
Verdict: B+. We will eventually return…hopefully for some other form of protein inside my hot dog! There are just so many hot dog stand in Chicago there’s no need to go back to George’s. Right?
xxx
Stop #2: Hot Chocolate
SURPRISE!! It’s a restaurants AND a dessert bar!
We sampled a home made marshmallow and the “Medium hot chocolate”.
Taste: The marshmallow was soft and fully, while the hot chocolate was RIDICULOUSLY rich, as if someone melted a bar of milk chocolate into liquid form and stirred in half a cup of whole milk. WAY too sweet to me and quite a few others on the tour, particularly the men. hehehe Go figure.
Verdict: A-. The bf and I want to go back for the great looking menu and to try other desserts!
xxx
Stop #3: Goddess & Grocer
Gourmet Foods & Catering established in 2004 by an Australian lady who also owns Feast Restaurant in Chicago.
We sampled one of the best-sellers, which was their beet salad.I HAD high expectations for this and was unfortunately disappointed.
Taste: I didn’t finish mine. Even though I normally like beet salad, something about the beets was off. It was slightly bitter and the dressing used to coat the beets were a little too thick.
Score: B-. Um…I’m not going back for more salad but they had good lookin’ salmon and carry green tea sake, which I’ve never heard of!!!
xxx
Anyone watch Real World Chicago?? This is where the contestants lived!
Apparently, MTV bought out the little coffee shops in the building to convert it into living space. Residents in the area were so afraid Real World crew would wreck their neighborhood that they were known to egg the contestants!
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Stop #4: Piece
MY FAVORITE stop. A fabulous thin-crust Pizzeria and Brewery-pub (meaning they make their own beer in house)!
To start, they gave us CUUUTE shot glasses of cold, house-brewed beer. I’m not a fan of the bitterness in beer, but the bf said it was “good”.
We tried their “white pizza base”, which is olive oil, garlic, Parmesan and mozzarella topped with basil and fresh tomatoes.
Taste: TO die for. I love thin crust pizza, and Piece has such fresh ingredients. I still can’t get over how delicious basil and garlic taste in a pizza. mmmmmmmm
Did you know that in Chicago, thin-crust pizza outsells deep-dish pizza by at LEAST 3 times??
Verdict: A. I’m totally coming back!
xxx
Stop #5: iCream
Liquid nitrogen-frozen customizable ice-cream anyone??? Nope, this ain’t iron chef, but the owner of iCream got her inspiration from Food Network’s very own Alton Brown!!
Check out the tentacle-like liquid nitrogen pipes they use to freeze the ice-cream liquids right before your eyes! Lucky us also got to meet the entrepreneur herself, who started iCream after her b-school prof told her she’d be crazy not to turn her business plan into reality!
We tried a regular ice-cream with blackberries and injected with blue dye.
Taste: Not what I would have chosen, but the ice-cream texture is creamy and dense.
Verdict: B. I loved meeting the owner and I definitely want to return to make my own flavor combination (green tea!!) but the sample we got was just…not good.
xxx
Stop #6: Milk & Honey
My least favorite because we didn’t get to go in at all because of a lame reason – that we were going during peak business hours. UHHH when we went, the restaurant was half empty, while we GOT SEATS at Hot Chocolate and they were jam packed at 12:30!!!! LAME.
We tried a house-made granola with cherries, sunflower seeds, almonds, and coconut.
Taste: I have to give it to them. All the inredients were delicious, fresh, and crunchy. However, I don’t doubt that most of you food bloggers out there can make a comparable granola with the same inredients.
Verdict: B. Good tasting granola, but it’s just LAME to say you’re a “stop” on the food tour and then not bring us into the restaurant. I didn’t learn a thing about this business, plus I could have just bought the granola on my own!
xxx
Stop #7: CoCo Rouge
Chocolate Lounge established in 2000 who has a fancy shmancy owner who is the #1 dessert chef pick by Chicago’s renowned Chef Charlie Trotter!
These chocolates were $2.50 a piece!! Danng…2 pieces of chocolate and you can buy a footlong at Subway.
We tried a milk chocolate truffle and a dark chocolate, both with some UBER complicated ganache filling that the owner himself described for us in a 2 minute ingredient listing shpiel.
Taste: It was good, but that’s all I can say. As a chocolate lover, I prefer my Godiva and Ghirardelli’s hands down.
Verdict: B-. SERIOUSLY? $2.50 a truffle? We’re in a recession for heavens sake!
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So there you have it. 3 hours of food from 7 different eateries!
I highly recommend these Chicago Food tours through Chicago Food Planet. Out of the two tours they offer, I prefer the River North/Downtown tour over this one. You learn a lot more and walk a lot more too!
How fun! The ice cream looks delish 🙂
Beet salad? Hohum. I haven’t tried it, but I think I like beets.. Yes, yes, yes I do like beets. I’ve tried it in soups before, but hum beet salad ehhhh….. =_=’
Pizza to die for? KKKKK, I WANT SOME!!!
And LOL to the blue dyed ice cream.. but green tea? great choice!! I would do that too!!! Hum, or mangoes…. nahhh, i’ll go with green tea. LOL!!
Wow! Thanks for sharing all of that Michelle! It’s really great to see when you post reviews b/c we live close enough to go to these eateries and I LOVE hearing what you have to say if we ever wanted to go. I know you’re honest and I appreciate that – it’s not the same as some brochure or website hyping it up.
That pizza looks heavenly! It’d have been my favorite stop on the tour, too! I think we have very similiar tastes b/c that hot chocolate did not sound good to me and I don’t like beer either! 🙂
ooh – that tour looks so fun!
another city i really want to visit! thanks for the fun recap!
woooo…. I didn’t know this king of things exists… foodie tour…. so cool!!! 🙂 I should find one for DC area. But first I should fast myself for a day in order to really savor all them in so short of time. 😀
Will you take ME on a Chicago food tour?! YUM! Except, ketchup is mandatory on a hot dog! I’ll take that creamy hot chocolate though…it does look like melted candy!
You know how to eat right, Michelle!
omg i loveeddd this post! chicago just seems like SUCH an awesome city and i need to visit. its funny that thin slices beat out deep dish, because i know how famour you guys are for your deep dish. yum. i love all types of pizza though but im sure chicago has got some great slicessss. you are a chicago foodie QUEEN 🙂
I’ve only been to Chicago once. Such a fun trip. We went to Hot Chocolate when it was a brand new restaurant. I really liked it. I remember having cream of asparagus soup and a pear salad. And some great hot chocolate! And a mini milkshake too.
FUN!!! I gotta do that tour!!
I can’t WAIT til Friday!!!!!!!!!!!
haha that’s the neighborhood where i live 🙂 how do you like chicago?
What an awesome post!
That hot choc (and MARSHMALLOW!!) – look amazing!! 😀
Sorry about the beet salad!
Wow – so many delicious eats today!
I laughed about the hot dog… it’s really not a hot dog without the meat. That’s called a salad sandwich!
The hot chocolate looks evil-y good (especially that fluffy marshmellow – I just want to pick it out!)
My favourite is the chocolates… $2.50? It’s pricey but worth it for orgasmic chocolate!
you’re stops are making me drool man. please stop with the constant food porn haha its making me hungryyyy. glad you had so much fun with your boyf 🙂
looks like fun and a lot of good food
I LOVE this post because my cousins live in Wicker Park!! Next time I visit them I’ll have to hit up some of these places!
Mmm food tours!! Sounds delicious and looks like you had a great time! 🙂
What a fun tour! If I ever have time when I’m in Chicago next, I’ll have to look into taking one. icream sounds really interesting and a little scary! I’d love to visit and see it in person!
Oh..and about the ice cream I posted about…it was fortified, the milk was regular low fat milk.
I tried tofurkey because I saw others in the blogworld were eating it. I don’t really think it tastes that much like turkey, but at least it doesn’t have nasty preservatives or nitrates! 🙂
mmmmmmmm that chocolate lounge looks like reason enough to go to chicago!! looks like you had some seriously good treats 🙂 Jealous!!
a food tour??!! that sounds like so much fun! looks like you ate some amazing things! I’m drooling over that pizza… 🙂
I WANNA FOOD TOUR WITCHU! That looks like SO much fun! I am down for the hot choco, the pizza, the ice cream, and everythang ELSE!
And I am very intrigued by the 2000 hotdog stands.
wow, looks like a lot of fun to do a food tour 🙂
the ice cream place would be my fav place to visit i think!
over 2000hotdog places? wow, they must love hotdogs in chicago!
glad you had a fun time 🙂
Hi! 🙂
Thanks for finding my blog. I am so excited to read yours as well! Haha, I try to be really nice too and it usually works but at 4:45am in the morning, I was not in the mood to kiss butt. Since our gym is so small, (like the size of a really tiny hotel gym) there really isn’t a system in place, its just come as you go. But since we’ve lived here, I’ve probably only seen 3 people in there. Haha, good for me!
Thanks for leaving me a shout out. Looking forward to reading your page and keeping in touch.
Take care!
that totally sounds fun!! every city should get behind that 🙂
So glad you found my blog and stopped by! Isn’t the blog world just great, because now I found another one to follow–yay! =) Love your posts. I read about that iCream place in a magazine..thanks for the review.
What a phenomenal outing! I’m hoping there is an equivalent offering in Boston…
Those chocolates look AHH-MAZING!
Diana
Wish you had taken me along! I think a flight over to Chicago would have been so worth it! sounds like such a fun food tour!
I’m totally jealous! I will just leave it at that!:)
Everything looks amazing, and I’m glad you had fun!
I’ll take one of those hot chocolates and some fancy truffles – good chocolate is expensive, and I like it!
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