Inspired by mr fatarsenclarse weekend journaling I present to you the first running fat arse Chicago eat my fat arse weekend edition

Day starts on Friday in the office. MORE CUPCAKES arrive on the desk from a rep. Score. MoreCupcakes are delicious! I quickly scarf down the white and chocolate one. So moist.

Then it’s off to MARIPOSA in Neiman Marcus. I was pretty excited bout this because I hadn’t been in since they transformed from Zodiac last month. New interior, slightly new menu. But same old popovers and delicious beef broth brought out for free. Best soup you’ll ever drink.. My fat arse ate four popovers total.

Started the meal with the hummus – two types, regular and red pepper. Home made breadsticks. Very boring. And would not get again

Now one thing at the Neiman Marcus restaurants is they have models walking around showing off merchandise from the store. Friday there were two 6 foot brunnettes showing off some D’Ladi dresses. Dresses were beautiful and the models were hitting on me but I shut them down. No time for that. I chose the Filet Oscar for my main.

It was one of the best steaks I’ve ever had. Prime filet, prob 3oz of lump crab with a great hollandaise. I will be eating here more often.

And then for dessert made the no brainer when you’re at Neiman Marcus – the $250 cookies. I’ll let you read the legend, but these are very good. Although this time I thought they were a little dryer that usual.

After having to shake the models off my arms, I finally made my way south to Millenium Park to see Jaume Plensa’s 4 new sculptures that he brought out in honor of the 10 year anniversary of his big video/waterfall objects being installed there. Plensa really plays with depth perception with his recent stuff and it makes me quite dizzy.

I then headed across the street to Nordstrom’s Second Rack, the secondhand store for Nordstrom. Always like to get good deals, and found some Donald Pliner driver shoes reduced 90% down to $30. Sweet

Later on to celebrate, decided to go to Purple Pig. Saw it recently won another Michelin Bib Gourmand award. I’ve walked by this place hundreds of times but it’s always crowded. This time I was willing to wait, so called 2 friends and grabbed a table after an hour wait. The next few pictures will make you cream. I’ll just tell you what each is with a 5 star rating scale. I actually liked this restaurant more than any other in Chicago, and I’ve now eaten at over 350. I can say this restaurant would make it in NOLA.

olive oil basil poached tuna with quail egg, baby tomato and green beans
5/5 – just fantastic flavors

Halibut with olives, pickled watermelon, on top a artichoke lentil puree with a glazed beet sauce surrounding it. 5/5 – this was the best dish of the night.

the pork neck bone smear with ricotta. 3/5 – tasted like a red gravy. Good, but not great

fried Brussels sprouts with thyme and lemon. 3/5. Very tasty, but too simple to be served with other far more interesting items

peanut crusted scallops with chickpea aioli. 4/5 scallops were perfect.

pork secreto with roasted peppers and watermelon. 2/5 – it was good, but honestly flavors were boring and my least favorite of the night.

and for dessert the famous JLT – pork jowl, tomato, frisee and a duck egg on top. Had a bit too much mannoisaise at the bottom. 4/5 – so rich, not sure you should end on this. Gave me a stomach ache and a giant shite upon arrival at home. But it was great.

B/c much of the dining is communal, ended up next to a kind Auburn alum who let me try his fried pig ear. Really didn’t think it tasted that great. Just like really fatty French fries. Overall, loved PURPLE PIG

SATURDAY

Saturday I started with a full stomach but that wasn’t going to stop me. I read last week that the only Lettuce Entertain You restaurant that got a Bib Gourmand award was Beatrix. I’d never been there before, so why not. Upon arriving you see that this place is where good looking people eat. Half the waitresses have implants and are obnoxious about flaunting them. It’s a very hip scene. I got the eggs your way below

the eggs weren’t so great – just average. The bread was very nice. The chicken sausage was great. The hashbrown was pretty good. My companion got the bbq pork egg sandwich and she said it was very good.

From there, my friend said she wanted to go to Eataly. I despise this place. It’s a tourist trap. But while there, Mastercard was running a promotion #PRICELESS and eI nded up being the first person in line in their gift vending machine and scored a Vergnano espresso and bamboo chopping board. Yes! And those are my new shoes too at the bottom for you Outdoor Board readers.

For lunch after shopping, we made the short walk over to the Tribune Tower to HOWELLS AND HOOD. This place is known more for its beer than food, but she wanted to try it. I followed.
We started with a great cheesy guacamole dish and fried calamari. Calamari wasn’t great. Then I got the grilled chicken club, that was pretty darn tasty. The fries that came with it weren’t too great. Finished it off with butterscotch bread pudding. Not very good. I would not return to this restaurant. Food just wasn’t worth it

For dinner, had an event at Smith and Wollensky’s overlooking the river. Even though this would mean I would miss half the LSU Bama game (refs gave that game to Bama so many times) my attendance was required. I don’t really like S&W’s either. This night the food was pretty good, better than usual at least. We started with the seafood tower. Luckily I was at a table that wasn’t big on seafood, so I got 3 plates identical to this one. The jumbo lump was by far the winner of this spread. The rest were good, but not spectacular.

Then it was on to the Wollensky salad, which sometimes is good, but Saturday it was very lame and the bacon I had was pure fat. GROSS! No pic necessary.

I got the prime filet last night and it was about 12-14 oz of meat. I ordered rare to blue because S&W’s steaks are very dry and the cooks manage to overcook it. It was cooked just as I like it – prob rare to med-rare at most restaurants. It was good, but not like my steak at Neiman Marcus the day before. The mashed and mushrooms are always good thanks to obscene amounts of butter and salt. Dinner ended with their chocolate cake and berries which was dry and pretty tasteless. Overall, S&W’s is good for group functions, but the food just isn’t worth the price. This would have cost $200 plus by myself with wine, but I wasn’t paying so how can I complain too much? BTW, they serve Cokes in the bottles and they also have paper straws, another marginal win for the night. I wont even talk about the rest of the evening because it pains me so.

This post was edited on 11/10/14 at 4:32 pm