Okay, no doubt about it. We've fallen smitten with Andersonville.
About three miles straight north of where we live now, Andersonville is a vibrant community. It contains some great restaurants (we tried Big Jones the other night with our friends Rebecca, Will, Greg and Gaby - delicious southern comfort food!) and delicious chocolates. We walked up and down the bustling Clark Street, exploring the various stores and eateries and generally admiring the neighborhood's character. Not nearly as "glitzy" as Lincoln Park, but fun and comfortable. We could live here. We even peeked in at an open house and were happy to find that the home prices in Andersonville are substantially less expensive than home prices in other neighborhoods.
We biked to our walks today, so we got a good workout. Biked three miles to Andersonville, another three over to Devon Avenue, and then six or seven back home via the lakefront bike path. That far north, the eighteen mile long lakefront bike path is surprisingly uncrowded. It was very relaxing to spend some time on the path rather than the streets - though I'm generally a fearless biker, I still don't like having to weave amongst all of those cars.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Walk #6: Devon Avenue
It's been awhile! We've been travelling and having guests, but we're finally back. To make up for lost time, we combined two walks into one this weekend. The first was Devon Avenue.
The card for the Devon Avenue walk was sorely lacking -- it just told us to walk down Devon between Western and California, and cited no specific stores, restaurants or landmarks. So we had to make our own way. That area of Devon Avenue is the center of Indian and Pakistani communities here in Chicago. Filled to the brim with Indian restaurants (Matt was seduced by the siren song of the lunch buffet all day long), clothing and jewelry stores, and incredible markets. We saw street vendors selling fresh coconut milk and incredible saris. If I wouldn't look like an idiot / poser, I think I'd love to have one.
Parts of Devon are apparently quite Russian, too, though we didn't see much of that. We walked by a Russian bookstore but that was about it. We stopped for a lovely lunch at the Viceroy of India. Now, I know very little about Indian food, so I can't offer you opinions on whether it was authentic or representative. But it was delicious. Isn't that enough?
The card for the Devon Avenue walk was sorely lacking -- it just told us to walk down Devon between Western and California, and cited no specific stores, restaurants or landmarks. So we had to make our own way. That area of Devon Avenue is the center of Indian and Pakistani communities here in Chicago. Filled to the brim with Indian restaurants (Matt was seduced by the siren song of the lunch buffet all day long), clothing and jewelry stores, and incredible markets. We saw street vendors selling fresh coconut milk and incredible saris. If I wouldn't look like an idiot / poser, I think I'd love to have one.
Parts of Devon are apparently quite Russian, too, though we didn't see much of that. We walked by a Russian bookstore but that was about it. We stopped for a lovely lunch at the Viceroy of India. Now, I know very little about Indian food, so I can't offer you opinions on whether it was authentic or representative. But it was delicious. Isn't that enough?
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Out of town
Last weekend we were out of town, visiting my dad and his wife in Atlanta. We'll be back with another walk this weekend!
Monday, June 2, 2008
Walk #5: Southport
Though I was pretty tired when I got home from my class reunion in South Bend on Sunday, Matt and I went on a walk near our house: on Southport Avenue between Belmont and Grace. We'd been in and out of this neighborhood to go to a few places, like Take Five (a Michigan bar where all food is $5) and Tango Sur (a great Argentinian beef restaurant that's surprisingly inexpensive and a BYOB).
We stopped at Paper Boy, a paper/card/gifts store that is like a larger version of Two Sided -- my favorite card store. We walked up Southport, stopping at Starbucks for an iced coffee for Matt, and then ducking into Candyality. Candyality is a large candy store with all sorts of fun classics like candy lipsticks and candy cigarettes. They had neat gift baskets of candies from different decades, and also claimed to have fantastic gummy bears. Matt and I bought some, and we agree. The store's gimmick is that it tells you your personality based on the candy you buy -- apparently the gummy candy said we were sensible, the Jelly Bellys said we were creative, and the red licorice said we were loyal folk.
Though the neighborhood was fun and active, we didn't feel any strong desire to move there. Phew. At least one we can cut off of the list.
We stopped at Paper Boy, a paper/card/gifts store that is like a larger version of Two Sided -- my favorite card store. We walked up Southport, stopping at Starbucks for an iced coffee for Matt, and then ducking into Candyality. Candyality is a large candy store with all sorts of fun classics like candy lipsticks and candy cigarettes. They had neat gift baskets of candies from different decades, and also claimed to have fantastic gummy bears. Matt and I bought some, and we agree. The store's gimmick is that it tells you your personality based on the candy you buy -- apparently the gummy candy said we were sensible, the Jelly Bellys said we were creative, and the red licorice said we were loyal folk.
Though the neighborhood was fun and active, we didn't feel any strong desire to move there. Phew. At least one we can cut off of the list.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Walk #4: Lincoln Square
After being out of town for another couple of weekends, we pulled a card out of our box and headed up to Lincoln Square. It's an old German area in the northwest part of Chicago, seemingly bounded by Damen to the east, Western to the west, Montrose to the south and Lawrence to the north.
Per usual, we loved the neighborhood. It's right on the brown line, so it's easy to commute into the loop. There's a little shopping area that's almost entirely a pedestrian street, filled with cute restaurants like Bistro Campagne and the Chicago Brauhaus and awesome stores like the Merz Apothecary. There's a good looking movie theater and a wine store, and it's just generally pleasant. There isn't much traffic, and the streets are wide and open. My favorite spot is the Book Cellar -- a combined bookstore/wine bar. Alas, we've found another neighborhood we'll consider in our house hunt. When will it stop?
Per usual, we loved the neighborhood. It's right on the brown line, so it's easy to commute into the loop. There's a little shopping area that's almost entirely a pedestrian street, filled with cute restaurants like Bistro Campagne and the Chicago Brauhaus and awesome stores like the Merz Apothecary. There's a good looking movie theater and a wine store, and it's just generally pleasant. There isn't much traffic, and the streets are wide and open. My favorite spot is the Book Cellar -- a combined bookstore/wine bar. Alas, we've found another neighborhood we'll consider in our house hunt. When will it stop?
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Walk #3: Ukranian Village
As we were in Iowa last weekend, we didn't have a chance to do one of our walks. But we're back this weekend with a walk in Ukranian Village.
This week's walk was rather short, and centered around a stretch on Chicago Avenue and on Oakley Boulevard. We saw a couple of incredible Ukranian Catholic churches there, and ate lunch at a funky restored bar called Tuman's on the corner of Chicago and Leavitt. The highlight of the walk was enjoying the quiet, leafy streats around Chicago Avenue. We ended up stopping it at an open house for a condo in the 2258 Huron Lofts. The building is a converted church, and the details inside are incredible. There are apartments where the choir loft used to be, and the apartment we looked at was where the altar area was. Matt and I previously agreed we would wait another year befoore buying a house, but this made me want to buy one right now. I wonder if we'll be able to last another year :)
So the short of it is, we didn't see anything particulary notable, but we really liked the feel of the neighborhood. When we start house hunting for real, we'll go back!
This week's walk was rather short, and centered around a stretch on Chicago Avenue and on Oakley Boulevard. We saw a couple of incredible Ukranian Catholic churches there, and ate lunch at a funky restored bar called Tuman's on the corner of Chicago and Leavitt. The highlight of the walk was enjoying the quiet, leafy streats around Chicago Avenue. We ended up stopping it at an open house for a condo in the 2258 Huron Lofts. The building is a converted church, and the details inside are incredible. There are apartments where the choir loft used to be, and the apartment we looked at was where the altar area was. Matt and I previously agreed we would wait another year befoore buying a house, but this made me want to buy one right now. I wonder if we'll be able to last another year :)
So the short of it is, we didn't see anything particulary notable, but we really liked the feel of the neighborhood. When we start house hunting for real, we'll go back!
Monday, April 21, 2008
Walk #2: Broadway
We missed a weekend in there while I was out in Washington D.C. and Matt was travelling to Boston. But we're back!
We originally drew a card for a walk in South Chicago, but having read and listened to the news over the weekend (and having received work that needed to be done over the weekend) we selected a walk a bit closer -- the Broadway Street walk. This walk was less interesting than our first, for a couple of reasons. First, we live in the neighborhood, so we've seen most of the places on the card. Second, unlike our last walk, all of the locations were shops or restaurants. Not so many cultural sights on Broadway between Diversey and Addison.
We did, however, stop at Windy City Sweets. We got a pecan/chocolate treat, a peanut butter truffle thing, and a s'mores-like creation. (Okay, none of those are very descriptive.) The first two were alright, but the s'mores creation was delicious. The chocolates were quite expensive, though -- we spent nearly $10 on those three!
We also took a detour and went to our very first open house. We checked out a beautiful loft just a few blocks north of us in Lakeview, with exposed brick, high ceilings, and exclusive roof rights. Even though we're not ready to buy a place yet, it was fun to start daydreaming.
See you next week!
We originally drew a card for a walk in South Chicago, but having read and listened to the news over the weekend (and having received work that needed to be done over the weekend) we selected a walk a bit closer -- the Broadway Street walk. This walk was less interesting than our first, for a couple of reasons. First, we live in the neighborhood, so we've seen most of the places on the card. Second, unlike our last walk, all of the locations were shops or restaurants. Not so many cultural sights on Broadway between Diversey and Addison.
We did, however, stop at Windy City Sweets. We got a pecan/chocolate treat, a peanut butter truffle thing, and a s'mores-like creation. (Okay, none of those are very descriptive.) The first two were alright, but the s'mores creation was delicious. The chocolates were quite expensive, though -- we spent nearly $10 on those three!
We also took a detour and went to our very first open house. We checked out a beautiful loft just a few blocks north of us in Lakeview, with exposed brick, high ceilings, and exclusive roof rights. Even though we're not ready to buy a place yet, it was fun to start daydreaming.
See you next week!
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