My adventures in Chicago continue and this time it centres around the Wedding Brunch which was held the morning after the ceremony.
If you missed the other posts, you can find them all here, here and here
Well the wedding was outstanding and during the course of the evening we had been invited to a brunch taking place at The Siena Tavern the next morning.
Knowing how good the tavern was, it was a no-brainer.
Getting up early we put on our semi-posh outfits, did our hair and makeup and headed out for the 5 minute walk to the tavern.
On arrival we found out that the wedding party hadn’t yet arrived so we sat down outside to wait. It wasn’t long before some of our new friends started turning up.
These consisted of long time friends of the bride and groom and we had formed a friendship with them over the past four days.
Eventually the complete party was assembled and we were taken into a private section of The Siena Tavern.
This was really quite cool and so was the fact they had a live DJ playing some chilled out tunes.
The Bride told us that the meals had been pre-ordered and would be served family style; basically put in the middle of the table and you helped yourself.
Cocktails were ordered all round for those partaking, as well as Champagne. Boo and I opted for a mocktail and we all sat chatting amongst the tables whilst waiting for the food to arrive.
As we had been told, the food was pre-ordered however there was a printed menu advising of what we were going to experience.
For starters we had two dishes; Coccoli and an Acai Bowl.
Having never experienced either, I eagerly read the menu. Coccoli was a plate of crispy dough, stracchino cheese, prosciutto di parma and truffle honey.
The Acai bowl was granola, toasted coconut, goji berries, crispy banana and heaven honey.
When these arrived I was blown away.
The plate of cheese, parma ham, dough and honey was absolutely delightful.
Huge fried dough the size of baseballs were surrounded by soft gooey cheese. The Parma was flavoursome and the truffle honey only emphasised that flavour.
The Acai bowls came in glass Mason jar style containers and just looked like a bowl of jam with some berries decorating the top. However, these were filled with granola and other fruits and was a bit like a bowl of overnight oats.
Absolutely delicious in fact.
Next came the main courses which were exceedingly luxurious. Lobster Benedict, Avocado Toast and Egg Sandwiches might not sound too fancy but let me tell you, they were outstanding.
The lobster Benedict was a huge plateful of fresh lobster meat, served with a truffle Hollandaise sauce. This was served alongside crispy brussel sprout leaves, frisee and Polenta toast.
Avocado Toast wasn’t your standard effort. This one had watermelon radishes, heirloom tomatoes, smoked paprika and pistachios on top.
The egg sandwiches were more like exceedingly posh Sausage and egg Mcmuffins from Mcdonalds.
Fennel sausage, scrambled egg, Calabrian chili aioli, cheese, cherry tomatoes all served in a brioche bun made for the most wonderful breakfast item.
If you thought this was good, then add on top the melon plate AND sticky parmesan potatoes and you had a meal to knock your socks off.
I started off by putting some of the lobster on my plate along with some of the parmesan potatoes. Adding one of the egg sandwiches I decided not to overload my plate and didn’t get anything else.
Every single mouthful was delicious. It simply was some of the best food I have ever eaten, even though it sounded so simple.
The lobster was soft and juicy, perfectly cooked and complimented by the truffle Hollandaise. The brioche bun made the egg sandwiches pretty special until I got to the fennel sausage and realised THAT was the star of the show.
I had some more parmesan potatoes and acai bowl and decided if I was going to try the avocado toast.
To be honest, I am not a massive fan of avocado so I decided to go with some of the fruit plate, just to cleanse the palate.
One of the strange highlights of the morning was the fact that there was a World Championship Axe-Throwing contest being shown on TV.
It was absolutely fascinating and everyone got completely into it. We ended up almost ‘betting’ on who was going to win and scrutinising their techniques.
This was probably helped by the cocktails that were flowing and so was the conversation. The Bride and Groom circulated round all the tables, chatting and making sure the guests were happy and had enough to eat.
I certainly had and needed either a little walk or a nap to get over it all.
This was actually sorted out for us when the majority of the group decided to have a walk to a few bars and partake of some lunchtime drinks.
We ambled along together towards The Fairmont Hotel. The outside was quite imposing, but inside it was a little like a beach party.
Boats, Oars and even a rope swing were in the lobby and so Boo and I had to give a jaunty little salute.
Cocktails were the order for most of the party but I spotted a non-alcoholic Florida Weisse beer from Untitled Art. Flavoured with passion fruit puree, it was so delightful I even convinced the bartender to sell me a couple of cans to take away with me.
After a couple of drinks we decided to move on and headed to The Chicago Athletic Association.
Now if I thought the fairmont was a bit imposing, The CAA was even more so!
Built in 1893, the outside was absolutely magnificent and I just knew the inside was going to be even better.
Heading in, the Bride and Groom gave us a bit of a guided tour which started in the Games Room; literally a huge massive room where you could play everything from Foosball to Shuffleboard.
There was even a built-in Bocce Bay.
Sadly it was absolutely heaving and we decided to go to a slightly quieter area, which resembled a dark, gothic library; literally right up my street.
Sitting having a few drinks we were introduced into the peculiar yet spectacular “Chicago Style Popcorn”.
Chicago style consists of caramel covered popcorn mixed with Cheddar cheese flavoured popcorn.
Sounds disgusting, right?
I have to admit it wasn’t something I expected to like however it was extremely addictive. In fact I just couldn’t enough of it.
Some of my new friends went on to tell me that for the ‘good stuff’ you really need Garretts Popcorn. Apparently there were eleven Garretts shops throughout Chicago selling various flavours including the addictive Garretts Mix.
Of course, we wanted to know where the nearest shop was so we could get a bagful!
We were quite a way out from our hotel so we decided we would have a walk around, eventually arriving at a Garretts.
Saying goodbye to everyone we walked towards Millennium Park to have a look at the fabled ‘Bean’ art installation, a huge reflective bean shaped monument.
Unfortunately there are entrance requirements on a Sunday including queueing in a completely different area to where we were, bag checks and security.
Apparently it is only at weekends and although I wanted to see the Bean, I didn’t want to walk half way round the park to join the queue AND there was a chance later in the week to see it again.
We walked towards the area where our hotel was and came across “Sundays on State” where there were stalls, live music, and food sellers.
Sadly we had arrived late in the day and things were winding up and people were loading their wares up.
There was a Nordstroms, Target and a Garretts all in reach of each other so we had to have a bit of a mooch around in each.
Boo was a bit of an enabler and came across a couple of products that I both needed OR wanted.
I had expressed my desire to get a bottle of perfume as I was running really low and Boo found the fragrances.
They had Issey Miyake on a great offer and I grabbed a bottle before spotting the Clinique “Take The Day Off” cleansing balm which is absolutely brilliant for even the heaviest make-up.
And the piece de resistance was a gorgeous Kurt Geiger envelope bag made from stunning shades of lipstick red acrylic.
Pennies spent, we walked to the Garretts and got a huge bag of Garretts Mix to take back to the hotel for Dinner.
After all, I was still stuffed from the massive brunch I had eaten earlier!
Till next time,
SPSG xxx