… just a little different. We went to see a show as we’ve often done before but at a bar we’d never been to before, Hungry Brain. Kind of a cool place with little tables and some red leather booths and a nice stage.
Hungry Brain, generic
Hungry Brain with my friend Alison’s trio, Ghost Voices, on stage – though this must’ve been the sound check. The bass player’s not there.
For the first set, they played excerpts of several classical pieces, composers like Bach, Fanny Mendelssohn (Felix’s sister), Villa Lobos, all arranged for pedal steel, keyboard, and stand up bass. Alison’s husband Matt played drums on the last song, too.
Fanny Mendelssohn, 1847. image ID#2009537803, from Library of Congress
For the second set, Ghost Voices backed up a singer, Kelsey Wild, who has a very pretty voice but it was impossible to understand any of the lyrics and the gusts of cold air every time someone opened the door were getting really really annoying, so we left.
And got back before John & Megan, because that was the other different thing: we stayed with the kids at their place instead of a hotel. But we let ourselves in and they got back right after us.
We got off the Metra train at a different place, too. Instead of going all the way to Ogilvie, we got off at Clybourn and walked to North Ave. and took the bus to Kedzie, the west edge of Humboldt Park, and walked about 10 minutes to the kids’ house. Where we sat around and talked, with football on, for awhile then walked to a close by sports bar that has a lot of vegetarian options in addition to the burgers. Where we thought we’d be OK without a reservation, but only if we sat outside under the tent and ate with our coats on, which we didn’t want to do. Basically the place had filled up and they weren’t about to make anyone who was still buying alcohol leave their table, so we couldn’t get a table. Especially frustrating since Megan went online and booked us a reservation because the dining room showed wide open, but when our reservation time rolled around, 20 minutes after in fact, the best they could do for us was four seats at the bar where it was warmer and a touch quieter, but looked like there wasn’t room to bend our elbows to eat. So we went to a pizza place around the corner, next to Giant, a tiny award winning hipster small plates place that we’ve been to, Pizza Matta, that’s run by the same staff as Giant. We got a jalapeno & onion pizza, and a Caesar salad and added on some cheesy bread at the last minute. It was all really good. After we ate, Mark & I took an Uber to Hungry Brain and the kids walked to a different bar to have some drinks and continue watching football.
Our pizza looked like this if you imagine purple onions where the pineapple is.
They do a Detroit style burnt cheese crust on the cheese bread
In the morning in the snow we walked up to Roeser’s Bakery . It’s a traditional white sugar & lots of colored icings type bakery, with really good donuts. They already have their packzi day pre-order page set up. We got a half dozen donuts, then walked back and ate. The kids drove us back to Clybourn and we got the train home. I was worried about the roads because it was snowing in Chicago, and the sidewalks were some scary walking in Harvard, but the roads were dry, even on Hwy 14, so no problems driving at all. Mark went for a walk when we got back but fear of ice and cold wind kept me inside. Plus I had a ton of stuff to read, like the Matty Matheson cookbook John & Megan gave me for Christmas that was waiting in the porch when we got back.
