In Chicago

We’ve been in Chicago for the last few days, for our anniversary (which is actually today).
We came up on Friday night and stayed in Merrillville overnight so we could visit my cousin Joe and his wife Melinda. Ate at a Greek/American place called Maxim’s Restaurant & Lounge, on Broadway — the most fabulous restaurant ever, bar none. If you want it, they have it.
Saturday morning we drove up to Chicago, with a detour over to the Brookfield Zoo. Sally and I had both been there before, but 40 years ago. Undoubtedly much has changed, although it’s been so long that neither of us could remember much about how it was back then. We spent about four hours there and had a great time.
At around 2 we headed downtown to our hotel of choice, the Marriott Renaissance Chicago at Wacker and State, right on the Chicago River — which is where I’m writing from now. Everything is within walking distance. The Oriental Theatre, where Wicked is playing, is down a block and around the corner. Marshall Fields’ (we refuse to call it Macy’s) is down the same block and to the left instead of to the right. The CTA lines converge right outside the hotel.
Across the river is Smith & Wollensky, where we had dinner last night (thank you American Express reward points). Sally had the grilled shrimp and I had a 10oz filet mignon. We shared the hash browns (enough for 4 people, I swear) and the waiter brought us a thing that sort of looked like an ice cream sandwich with one cookie removed for dessert. We also bought a piece — excuse me, a slab — of their chocolate cake to take home. I will take a picture of that cake later and post it. It’s enough cake to feed a whole family. Our waiter Tim and his lovely assistant Carrie were superb. The restaurant is fun, and it doesn’t hurt that you can look up through the skylight and see Marina City towering up above you.
On Saturday night we thought we were going to eat Chicago-style deep dish pizza at Giordano’s…except that we couldn’t FIND Giordano’s. After walking about a mile in an attempt to find it, we found instead a little Italian place at the foot of the Hotel 71 called Bella Bacino’s. Their Chicago-style deep dish pizza put Giordano’s to shame. Highly recommended.
As implied above, we did see Wicked again at the Oriental. Just as good as it was last year. We sat up in the balcony this time and decided we liked the view better than sitting in the 7th row of the orchestra. One thing we discovered while checking out the seating for friends back home is that you cannot see the dragon on the proscenium arch from the dress circle. Accordingly, if you see Wicked in Chicago, we don’t recommend sitting in the dress circle.
We also went up to Wrigleyville, even though the Cubs were in St. Louis, to buy some Cubs swag.
So now we’re getting ready to come home to go back to work tomorrow. Sadly enough.
UPDATE: Here is the cake from Smith & Wollensky.