I went to Chicago for a quick conference flying on United Airlines. Because it was a conference, my time was limited to the events. Fall is a great time to visit Chicago, the sun is still out and the humidity has left.
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| Chicago skyline |
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| Chicago - River |
Interestingly, I'm beginning to come across a lot of 'integrated' hotels. In other words, hotels that are sharing the same building but are house on different floors of the same building. In this particular case, I was staying at the La Salle Hotel, Autograph Collection. I would later find out that the JW Marriott is also in the same building; however, both hotels have their own separate entrances. The LaSalle is on La Salle whereas the JW is on Adams. The rest of the building is occupied commercially with office space. The La Salle and the building lobby is the same entrance and the reception desk is on the top floor with the hotel lobby bar and restaurant. The JW entrance occupies most of the ground floor so you do have to go down from the La Salle to the building lobby to get to the JW.
After seeing the rooms at the JW from a colleague, the rooms at the La Salle are nicer. It is a new hotel and I would recommend over the JW.
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| King Suite Living Room |
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| King Suite Bedroom |
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| King Suite Bathroom |
Dining
Grill on 21 - La Salle's hotel restaurant, I found the breakfast very enjoyable. The hotel gives Platinum and up members food credit and I opted to use it for breakfast. I enjoyed the options they had on menu very much. Service was pleasant and quick as well.
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| Autograph omelet - Grill on 21 |
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| Avocado Toast - Grill on 21 |
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| Swedish pancakes - Grill on 21 |
Tea% - located on 57 East 11th Street, Chicago, IL, I ordered a basic passion fruit green tea with boba and found it ok and a little pricey. I think the owners are Thai as there are thai snacks also available for purchase. The place is cute but nothing I need to come back to.
Revival Food Hall - now that we no longer like the term food court, we now only have food halls. The trend of trendy gourmet eateries in shared spaces continues in the windy city. It was nice to have options in one place but it was clear that the office crowd really makes this place jam packed. I ordered my food to take back to my hotel room to eat because finding seating was too hard. I picked up some bakery items from Familiar Bakery, some bbq from Smoque BBQ, and coconut rice from Minahasa. Overall, it was fine and I would return if I was with someone to try more things.
Little Goat Diner - if you are a fan of Girl & Goat, this is an offshoot of that restaurateur. More diner style, I had breakfast with a friend. American asian fusion is the theme of the menu. The katsu sandwich was good, how can you really go wrong with a fried chicken sandwich? The muffin was also tasty.
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| Katsu Sandwich - Little Goat |
Roanoke Restaurant - Without realizing it, I ended up at the sister restaurant of the Grill on 21 for dinner. I joked with my colleauge, we could have just stayed warm and walked to the lobby restaurant. I was not terribly hungry and I opted to get appetizers and dessert. I ordered biscuits and dates with bread pudding. Overall, I enjoyed my meal and found the service solid.
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| Burrata - Roanoke |
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| Roanoke |
Lou Malnati's Pizza - The last time I had pizza from Lou's it was through the mail. It was nice to sit down and have a salad, pizza, and dessert. It is a long wait so be prepared. The restaurant lets you order while waiting to be seated to speed up the service. My colleague didn't want to get the full cookie pizza so I ordered the individual. After seeing the individual, I should have gone for the full-size version.
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| Ceasar salad - Lou Malnati's |
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| Deep dish pizza - Lou Malnati's |
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| Individual cookie dessert - Lou Malnati's |
Eataly - My colleague insisted on visiting the Chicago Magnificent Mile location because she thought it was a larger version of a local restaurant close to work. The names are similar but it was not and after ordering pizzas, I asked her why she wanted to come to this location given that there was one locally (but not near work). After more discussion, she understood her mistake but we were already committed. I've always seen Eataly in various locations but never had any interest in going in. It was fun to be in a market, deli, restaurant, and bakery all in one kind of place. I didn't find the food more compelling than any other italian restaurant. It was just the convenience, like an italian only Whole Foods.
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