Gibson's Bar & Steakhouse

To celebrate my birthday this year, we grabbed lunch at Gibson's Bar & Steakhouse on N Rush St between Cedar St and Oak St.

According to Gibson's: "We are the only restaurant group in the country to have its own USDA Certification. Our beef is breed specific, Black Angus, and raised on sustainable farms in the Upper Midwest. Our beef is corn fed for 120 days and aged for 40 days, providing maximum flavor and tenderness."

The restaurant is very nice. It's not pretentious, and the service is friendly and helpful.

I ordered the 10 oz Filet Mignon medium well. It was a thick cut, and lightly pink in the middle, but not too pink for me, and it was a little charred on the outside. It was tender and tasty. It came with perfectly made Béarnaise sauce on the side. It came with a soup or house salad to start, and I chose the Bookbinder's Soup, which I shared with my partner. It's a tomato-based soup with carrots, celery, green peppers, leeks, mushrooms, and whitefish. It had a very rich flavor without being too filling as a first course.

I also ordered the Double Baked Potato as a side. All of their sides are huge and fit to share. The Double Baked Potato was fantastic, and I highly recommend it.

The Angry Crab

Recently, a friend went to The Angry Crab, and placed a big order to go for dinner. This time our order included lobster tail, head-off shrimp, snow crab legs, blue crab, and littleneck clams, with corn on the cob, red potatoes, and andouille sausage, all mixed with various spices. It was huge feast, and very tasty. We opted for a to go order this time since we ordered around dinner time and the wait for seating was about 3 hours. Also, it was a lovely summer evening, so we dined at my friends' home on their patio. Being more accustomed to East coast/Mid Atlantic seafood, we decided that some seafood we prefer steamed rather than boiled, but this massive seafood boil was still a wonderful treat. We laid out newspaper on their backyard table and had our own crackers, scissors, and hammers. We made a big mess, and it was great.

Cheese quesadilla with extras

Recently, at Costco, we bought a huge bag of shredded Queso Chihuahua cheese. How can we use it up? Quesadillas! I was lazy this time around, and most stuff was store-bought, but it was awesome.

Cheese quesadilla with extras

Ingredients (serves 2):

3/4 tbsp butter
2 flour tortillas
4 oz Queso Chihuahua shredded cheese
1 tbsp sour cream
1 tbsp guacamole (from Whole Foods)
1 tbsp pico de gallo (from Whole Foods)

1. Heat 1/2 tbsp butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add 1 flour tortilla, then 2 soft handfuls of Queso Chihuahua shredded cheese. Quickly cover. Wait 1-2 minutes. Fold the tortilla in half over the cheese, and cover again. Wait 1-2 minutes. Flip, cover again, and wait 1-2 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, spoon sour cream, guacamole, and pico de gallo onto both serving plates.
3. Repeat 1 for the second serving (you can get away with a little less butter since the pan's used and already hot).
4. Slice quesadilla's into 3's or 4's with a pizza slicer. Serve with the condiments for dipping, and enjoy.

Spicy smoked sausage alfredo bake

Last night's dinner!

Spicy smoked sausage alfredo bake

Ingredients (serves 2):

8 oz pasta
1 tbsp olive oil
6 oz smoked turkey sausage
2 garlic cloves
1/2 cup chicken broth
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tsp flour
1/4 tsp salt
Dash of pepper
Dash of cayenne pepper
Dash of red pepper flakes
1/4 cup shredded or grated Parmesan
1 cup shredded mozzarella

1. Cook pasta according to instructions, and drain. Preheat broiler.
2. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a saute pan over medium heat. Slice the smoke turkey sausage and add to pan, heating both sides until lightly browned.
3. Mince the garlic, and add to the pan. Cook until fragrant, 1-2 minutes.
4. Add the chicken broth, heavy whipping cream, and flour and whisk until it's blended and smooth.
5. Add spices and simmer for about 5 minutes.
6. Stir in Parmesan and 1/2 cup mozzarella until the cheeses are melted.
7. Add the cooked pasta to the pan, and mix together.
8. Move the pasta and sausage mixture into a baking dish, and top with the remaining mozzarella cheese.
9. Broil for 2-3 minutes, and serve.

BrewBrew Coffee Lounge

BrewBrew Coffee Lounge opened in our neighborhood last fall, and we finally went to check it out. They have coffees, teas, and a handful of sandwich options. Local art for sale covers the walls, and some books are available to read from a small bookshelf. There's free WiFi, and plenty of outlets. There's a variety of comfortable seating with tables and chairs and couches. It's a laid back environment with nice service and a sunny park right across the street.

I ordered the Reuben panini, which is corned beef, Swiss cheese, Polish-style kraut, and Thousand Island dressing on marble rye bread.



I think BrewBrew is a great addition to the neighborhood!

Michigan restaurants

We recently visited the other side of Lake Michigan, and dined out a few times.

We went to Tabor Hill Winery and Restaurant at their vineyard on Mount Tabor Rd in Buchanan, MI. The restaurant leans on the fancier side, but doesn't turn anyone away, and the servers and hostesses are very nice. There are views of the vineyard through the large windows in the dining room. There are some bird feeders outside of the windows that the kids with us loved watching.

We're big fans of Tabor Hill's Classic Demi Sec, so we each had a glass. It's a sweet white wine with a fruity overtone, and the Midwest's best-selling wine.

We ordered the Sriracha Shrimp to start, which is fried shrimp tossed in Sriracha aioli with wonton chips and crushed peanuts. It was plated beautifully. It was sweet with the right balance of softness and crunch.



I ordered the Duck and Gnocchi, which is thin-sliced duck breast over potato gnocchi with spinach, roasted tomatoes, and Asiago cheese. The duck was perfectly tender, but the gnocchi was overcooked.



The next day for brunch, we ate at The Mason Jar Cafe on Water St in Benton Harbor, MI. They have a diverse and creative menu with high quality fresh, healthy ingredients that are locally-sourced and organic wherever possible.

I ordered the Spicy Egg Sandwich, which is one organic egg over easy with chipotle aioli, avocado, bacon, and Amish cheddar cheese on a plain bagel. It was delicious. It was spicy, but not overwhelming, and filling, but didn't leave me feeling like I'd eaten too much. It comes with breakfast potatoes on the side. It was a very tasty brunch. If I lived in this neighborhood, I'd probably be here all the time.

The Angry Crab

The Angry Crab is a Cajun-style seafood restaurant on N Lincoln Ave in West Rogers Park that opened this March. It's been very hyped, and I've heard there's been long waits. We went around 4:00pm on a Thursday and didn't have to wait at all; however, by the time we left, a line was forming.

It's run by a trio of Vietnamese brothers. This cross-cultural type of restaurant began opening in Vietnamese neighborhoods at the start of the century, and are known as "boiling points". This is Chicago's first one. Everything you order is cooked together in one big pot and served all together.

There is communal seating, tables are covered with paper, and everyone's given a bib. There's a variety of seafood shipped to the restaurant daily from the Gulf and served with your choice of spices in plastic bags. You eat right out of the bag and discard shells and waste right onto the table. There's no plates or utensils except for a shellfish cracker and shell opener.

Seafood options on the menu include live lobsters, live crawfish, clams, head-on shrimp, head-off shrimp, mussels, softshell crab, snow crab legs, king crab legs, Dungeness crab, and blue crab when it's in season. You order by the pound. The concept is that you choose your seafood, then choose your spices. We went for the snow crab legs, mussels, and the Ragin' Bulls spice mix, which was classified as semi-spicy. You can also add meats and vegetables to your boil. We opted to add 2 pieces of corn on the cob, and 2 red potatoes, which were good additions. I also added a side of butter for dipping.



On the side, we had softshell crab over Cajun-garlic fries, which came with ketchup and a spicy sauce. Both the softshell crab and fries seemed overcooked to me, but we scarfed down everything.



There's no other restaurant like this in Chicago. It's worth a trip at least once. Go early to avoid the rush, and BYOB.

Panes Bread Cafe

Panes Bread Cafe is a hidden gem on N Sheffield Ave between Nelson St and Wellington Ave in Lakeview. It's a casual, affordable (cash only), low-key little restaurant. The bread is some of the best bread in the city, and it's always fresh. My favorite sandwich to order to the Turkey Club, which includes roasted turkey, bacon, American cheese, lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise. It's always served perfectly warm.