Last night I had the kind of night that made me really love living in Chicago (even though I had to rearrange my cute new outfit to include black leggings because it is still 55 degrees outside on JUNE 13). The night started out at one of the best BYOB restaurants in the city- the slightly yuppie but always fantastic Coast. Though I love sushi and will try almost any kind of food or drink, until last night I was a sake virgin. Having absolutely no knowledge of sake etiquette whatsoever, my best friend in the world Natalie and I had to be stopped by our amused boyfriends before almost pouring soy sauce in the adorable little bowls they give you to drink sake from. Despite having what I was told is very good sake, and attempting to appreciate the hints of apple and a little bit of almond and cinnamon, I have to say that I prefer wine made from grapes. After stuffing ourselves with sushi- you MUST order the white dragon roll, found here, which has been called "sushi crack"- talk turned to dessert.
White dragon roll at Coast
After hearing that we were just down the street from Hot Chocolate, which has been voted Chicago's best dessert spot for years, and on my list of places I must visit asap (I am the person who believes that chocolate is one of God's greatest gifts and actually think I became slightly depressed for 40 days when I gave it up for Lent one year, never to happen again) we hightailed it to the adorable little restaurant. Slightly buzzed from the sake I'm sure, the four of us decided that we each needed our own $11 treat, plus drinks and hot chocolate of course. After pouring over the tantalizing menu, we picked out our sweets (except for Natalie's boyfriend, whose sanity I questioned at first when he ordered a cheese platter, which ended up looking absolutely delish- three large hunks of cheese, salad, nuts, and an assortment of homemade breads). My boy, whose main weakness in life is cookies, ordered the cookie platter of course, which ended up being tiny bites of heaven. Natalie ordered the warm homemade sugar doughnuts with a hot fudge dip and sweetly salty caramel corn. And since I love all desserts with a passion and could never discriminate between them, my boy ordered me the s'more treat, an obvious choice considering my current obsession with anything s'more related (everyone must try the Limited Edition Edy's S'More ice cream). This beauty was composed of a homemade graham cracker, a frozen block of chocolate ice cream, another graham cracker, and was topped with a perfectly burned homemade marshmallow. Alongside the s'more was a perfectly adorable tiny glass of chocolate and cream soda phosphate topped with unsweetened whipped cream. If I didn't care about the shape of my body I would drop out of law school in a second and become a food critic, I swear. If you don't have room for dessert while here (shame on you) you MUST order a mug of hot chocolate. There are no words- it is liquid, creamy heaven.
As if the night was not already beyond expectation, a large commotion on the street caught our attention, and we were lucky enough to witness Chicago's annual Naked Bike Ride!! The trip only happens once a year, and the route is not disclosed until that night, so we were just fortunate enough to have a window seat on the right Chicago street. Our favorite was definitely the naked rollerblader.
Note: This is not actually the naked rollerblader we laughed at.
What a night. Until the next one...
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