1. Japonais, 600 W. Chicago, is really pricey sushi, with lots of shi-shi girls in swanky tank tops and fake tans posing with cosmos at the bar. But imagine you’re on a second date with a guy who owns a boat: he’s going to take you out on a Friday night. “There’s this sushi place up the river I’ve always wanted to go to,” he tells you. You’re game, ‘cause this guy fascinates you. You climb on board and he cruises up river to the wall outside a restaurant where a lot of young guys in overpriced suits are smoking cigars. This is not a dock or a port, but he pulls up anyway, ties up, and you two hop over the railing. The guys in cigars look impressed. You go right in, wearing sweatshirts and blue jeans, but they seat you anyway, at the very end of the sushi bar nearest the kitchen. At the end of the dinner, you prance right out to the boat, where cigar-smoking guys are admiring the ship. You hop the fence, untie, and push off.
Did it really matter what the food tasted like?
2. Dick’s Last Resort, 435 E. Illinois, is described by NFT (Not for Tourists Guide to Chicago) as “Tourists’ last memory of the night.” It no doubt is, nestled right into the magnificent mile in between conglomerate hotels and 8-floor shopping meccas. It’s also situated right on the Ogden Slip, a small inlet of water just west of Navy Pier, north of the Chicago River. Last year, on the first day we tore the shrinkwrap off Mazurka in cold, chilling April, we took a cruise down the river, up into the Ogden Slip, where we docked and walked around downtown. We decided to spend the night there, and since it was so early in the season, nobody said anything. In the morning, we went to Dick’s Last Resort for brunch, where you can throw things and write on the walls. It was a pretty good brunch buffet. Then we climbed onboard and cruised home.
3. The Green Dolphin, at Webster and Ashland, I have mixed feelings about. This is where we cruised to have dinner with our friends Jay and Lynn the night we spotted the South Loop coyotes. This is also where, two days later, we chose to dock and pick up Birthday Girl Kathy’s 27 friends. The owner – or whoever he was – was none too happy; he tromped down to the dock and gave mighty hell to our captain. “This isn’t a public dock – you better call somebody – we gotta private party here tonight.” He then went and locked the gate so that Kathy had to go up and sweet-talk him into letting in the last few party guests. But as far as dinner goes, the dock is easy and safe, they have a terrific chef (the tuna is excellent), a killer wine selection, and afterwards, you can go into the lounge and listen to awesome jazz.
4. Reza’s, 432 West Ontario, is an outstanding Middle Eastern place I’ve eaten at a hundred times, in the River North area, as well as its northern little brother in Andersonville. It’s terrific. We usually go by motorcycle. You can probably get there by boat. Or take a taxi. The food will be just as good. (Mark and I had our first fight here – he wanted me to tell him a story like the main character in Out of Africa and I went blank. I spent a half hour hiding in the bathroom, giving myself a pep talk in the mirror not to walk out on him. Ah, young love.)
5. Bob Chin’s – now defunct – it used to be right next to Mark's favorite Italian place Sorriso’s, also defunct. I’ll be honest – I’ve never eaten dinner here. But I feel compelled to list it as a place on water to fall in love, because four years ago my best friend Jill had her first date with Scott here, aboard his brother Mark’s boat, which at that time was Mazurka’s predecessor, the Escape Hatch. They docked and ordered mounds of crab legs, which Jill hadn’t a clue how to eat. “I look around and everybody’s just opening them up like they know what they’re doing…I had no idea.” Scott ended up cracking the crab legs for her. “There was nothing pretentious about her,” he says, “She just was who she was. It was refreshing.” Two years later, they got married in Michigan. I stood up for Jill, Mark stood up for Scott. That’s how we met. (At their wedding, Jill’s Aunt Karen suggested perhaps I date the best man. “They’re good people,” she said, “They’re water people.”) A year after that, Mark and I got married. Jill stood up for me; Scott stood up for Mark. They had just learned they were pregnant. On May 3rd, 2007, their daughter Sophia was born.
Mark, Jill, Scott, Felicia, August 2005
(Part of the meme game is to tag other bloggers. I tag Mary, Kristin, Jenny.
Nicole (Sydney, Australia)
velverse (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
LB (San Giovanni in Marignano, Italy)
Selba (Jakarta, Indonesia)
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tanabata (Saitama, Japan)
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Michigan, United States)
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TopChamp
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(Honolulu, HI, USA)
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the weirdgirl (San Francisco Bay Area, CA, USA (I'm still pretending to be an anonymous blogger))
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(Moline, IL USA)
Life Aboard Mazurka
(Chicago, Illinois, USA)
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