Chicago

I don’t often speak highly of Chicago, mostly because it’s no New York. But – I’ve got to give credit where credit is due. Chicago can be a pretty cool town. Maybe it’s because on this particular trip I did zero things touristy (no Bean, no Museums, no Millenium Mile or whatever) or maybe it was because I was with two of my best friends, but I really enjoyed being there.

I saw some great things and thought to myself that maybe Chicago is not the WORST after all. If you’ve never visited Chicago, it’s time you should. The following posts will hopefully convince you.

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Summer Weekend: Highbar

Um, do you normally see shots like this on City Mitten? Nope. But isn’t it pretty?

I love summer. The days are flying by, which means so are the weekends. But I love the weekends! Someone make them longer! This weekend really went by too fast and most of the time I didn’t even have my camera with me. Actually, on Friday night I had my camera but no memory card. AGAIN. We had dinner at Juliet Supper Club which was actually good despite lots of horrible reviews I’ve read online. It’s more of a club than a restaurant and it was very sparkly inside. Six of us ladies and P for Panos and we definitely had a good time. Then I went to the Hudson Hotel followed by Hudson Terrace (after I learned they are two different places) and I have pictures of neither. The pictures today are from Highbar, a bar in midtown of all places. It’s a rooftop and there was a barbeque and it was so much fun. Especially because my girl Kayti was in town!

I think this is one of three pictures we got of us two this entire weekend. Sad, sad. And here’s a picture of my boys Tim Revell and Patrick:

Tim is probably sad that you can’t see his purple pants. The rest of the night was spent at Rose Bar and Griffin. Rose Bar was beautiful and chill and I liked the art. Griffin has the most awesome chandelier I have ever seen… And that’s the kind of weekend I had. Tomorrow we return to our regular programming with a restaurant that is oh so fancy. :)

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Brunch Party: Bushwick

Hello! And Happy Monday! Some weekends are just so fantastic that you can’t stop thinking about how fantastic everything is.

Like these cookies from Momofuku Milk Bar and Bakery!

I usually don’t care a lot about cookies. At all. Unless they’re straight out of the oven, I’m just not interested. Until now.

I always think about my friend Michelle and how she likes cookies and wants me to go to more cookie places so I was going to go to Paradis for their AMAZING chocolate chip cookies (that I care about even if not straight out of the oven) and get those for the brunch party a bunch of my friends had on Sunday, but Paradis is closed on Sundays so it was off to plan B. I’ve heard people talk about Momofuku cookies and I’ve seen them given as a birthday present (on Friday, actually), but I’ve never been motivated to try them out. I mean why would I go to Momofuku Milk Bar and not get their awesome soft serve with some funky topping? Or an entire chocolate chip cake? But soft serve doesn’t transport well and I wasn’t shelling out for an entire cake, so cookies were the way to go. Let’s talk about them now. I got three kinds: Compost – which has pretzels, chocolate chips, coffee, oats, butterscotch and potato chips; Chocolate-Chocolate cookies, which really need no explanation (besides the fact they’re almost like brownies); and Blueberry Cream cookies with dried blueberries and milk crumbs.

My world has changed. Never will I think of cookies the same way. Compost cookies are fantabulous, Blueberry Cream are SO fantabulous, and Chocolate-Chocolate is KILLER. They were all soft and gooey and everyone at the party had four heart attacks each when they tried them. So now you know.

Besides these awesome cookies at the brunch, let’s hear it for these awesome people:

And that wasn’t even everyone. Other people came and went throughout the day but this is everyone who was there when we decided we needed a cheesey family photo. It was a “New to NYC Brunch” because a lot of people have moved here recently or have internships here for the summer. I’ve been here for three years so was put on a panel with a Q & A format. Just kidding.

There was sooo much food at the brunch: cheese poppers, guacamole, watermelon, apple pie, quiche, biscotti, etc. Of course we had mimosas and there was also a waffle station!

This is how Missy makes a waffle. We also went on the roof:

I love brunch and I always think of it in terms of “let’s go to brunch” versus “let’s make brunch” so it’s cool to have people in my life who make me change it up, even if my contribution to “making” brunch was bringing Momofuku cookies. I doubt anyone would complain. ;)

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