YAY!!!! It’s Friday! Anyone else as happy as I am?! I think I’m going to just pass out when I get home tonight! Haha soooo exhausted from this week. I did have a good time though! On Wednesday night I had a dinner meet-up with some Chicago-area alumni of my sorority, Kappa Delta. We try to get together every month or couple of months and this time we went to dinner at a restaurant called Quartino!
Since dinner was at 7 and I got off work at 5, I didn’t just want to take the bus home and then turn around and come right back downtown, so I grabbed some coffee and hung out for a while downtown. I sat and read by this fountain for a bit. The slight mist from the water was so calming and kept me cool even though it was pretty warm out!
While I was walking to the restaurant, I had to stop and take a picture of this. It was just so pretty all lit up in the dusk light!
Quartino Ristorante & Bar is in the Streeterville area (I believe…) of Chicago and is pretty popular! They are Italian and serve everything tapas style. Since I knew most everyone would order pasta and pizza (which they did!) I decided to just order my own food separately. They even had a gluten free menu!
First I had the Zucchini, served chilled with sundried tomato. It was delicious!
Then I also got some cheese, the Pecorino Romano, but I didn’t end up eating too much because I didn’t like it as much as I thought I would. It was just really dry and flavorless.
The last item I got, and the star of the evening, was their Farmhouse Chicken. Honestly, I was expecting a chicken breast, maybe sliced so it looked nice. Um. They gave me one of every type of piece of chicken: wing, drumstick, breast, thigh, it was SO GOOD! The dark meat was definitely the best but it was amazing. So glad I ordered it!
Although the restaurant is waaaaay too pricy for me to go more than on a random special occasion. I love their tapas concept (everyone else really enjoyed their food and being able to taste about 10 different dishes!), their service was amazing, and the food is delicious and creative!
On Thursday there was a farmers market a few blocks away from my work. My leg muscles have been pretty sore and I keep hearing cherries help with that, so I decided to use my lunch break to walk there and back since it was so nice out!
I ended up getting raspberries and cherries, and let me say, these are the BEST raspberries I have ever eaten. Hands down. They were juicy and amazing. Just amazing. I can’t even think of a better descriptive word, but it was the kind of food where you close your eyes and go “mmmm” when you eat it. Yep. That good.
Have you ever had great farmers market experiences?
Are you a fan of tapas-style restaurants? I can’t every choose, and I like to try a bit of everything, so I love it!