A Night at the Theatre

We are theatre people.  I'm not sure either one of us is a "theataaaah" person, but, having been on both sides of the curtain, we both love theatre of all kinds: plays, musicals, opera, even some weird, avant-garde theatre that's really more performance art.  That usually requires a special kind of audience member to appreciate it, though, and I, at least, am not always that audience member.  However, got a play about a laundromat set in a laundromat where I get to watch from atop one of the dryers as the three other dryers around me are on spin cycle?  I'm totally game.  (Thank you, Edinburgh Fringe Festival.)

So we were very excited to have not one but TWO opportunities to go to the theatre last week!  Chicago, as you may know, is a theatre town, and we just happened to arrive in the middle of the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre's Shakespeare in the Park Festival.  On Friday and Saturday, CST presented The Comedy of Errors in Welles Park, a really lovely community park walking distance from our humble abode.  My lovely friend, Charlotte, and her husband, Craig, invited us to join them for a picnic dinner and the Saturday performance, and as we always enjoy a good outdoor performance, particularly at Miller Outdoor Theatre in Houston, we agreed.

The play was excellent!  Great performances, though Michel and I agreed we both preferred the Antipholous and Dromio from Ephesus to the ones from Syracuse.  They even had three actors performing quite impressively as acrobats who performed the bit parts and executed the scene changes as acrobatic routines.  Such a fun evening!  I will say, the lack of a hill and people's propensity to bring lawn chairs hindered our view a bit, but overall you can't beat a gorgeous evening outside watching a well-performed play with good friends and delicious food.  

Our next theatrical opportunity came on Thursday evening when we attending the opening night performance of Sarah Ruhl's The Clean House at the Athenaeum Theatre.  The performance was the final play of the Something Incredibly Marvelous Happens theatre festival, put on by my good and amazingly talented friend, Laura Nash, and her other incredibly talented friends.  

The play, directed by Emmi Hilger and presented by Crabapple Productions, explores what happens when the lives of a doctor, her sister, a comedian from Brazil, and a breast cancer patient converge and is alternatively hilarious and heartbreaking.  Honestly, we were not sure quite what to expect, but it was a truly wonderful production with a great cast.  We were both particularly blown away by Cruz Gonzalez Cadel as Matilde, the Brazilian comedian who does not like to clean.  It was as if the part was written for her.  We highly recommend it, so CHICAGOANS, GO SEE IT!!  Tickets are available here.  There are four performances left, and it closes this Sunday, September 1st.  And a big thank you to Laura's mom, Gail Nash, for generously giving me and Michel her tickets!!

 

 The set, post-performance (that's Laura's couch!)

Me and Laura at the champagne toast, post-performance

If this is representative of the theatre Chicago has to offer, Michel and I have a lot to look forward to these next couple of years! 

Michel avoids killing thousands while installing a window unit

Twenty-eight dead in horrifying window unit installation accident.  That is more or less what I feared would be the outcome of DIY air conditioning.  Luckily the body count only topped out at around twelve.

Our apartment was built as employee housing by the Marshall Field’s Company in 1920, so, as one might imagine, there is no central air.   When you move to a city like Chicago people often say things like “Oh, you don’t really need an air conditioner.  You should be fine with a ceiling fan and an open window.”  These people are liars.  Two fans and an open window did virtually nothing to keep our bedroom from maintaining a temperature of about 10,000 degrees.

When left to one’s own devices, one has two air conditioning options: a portable unit or a window unit.  Pretty immediately I gravitated toward the portable option.  It requires no installation and carries with it very little likelihood of being accidentally dropped from a window on to an unsuspecting passerby.  Unfortunately, such units are expensive, less ubiquitous than their window mounted counterparts, and are known for leaking condensation all over the floor.  “Fine,” I thought, “we’ll get a window unit, but we’ll have someone else install it.”   Then we saw how long it would take to get such a person, and my thought became “Looks like I’m going to install our air conditioner this afternoon.”

After a little more research, we found the unit we wanted at Home Depot and purchased it along with some pink foam and duct tape to fill in any gaps the window unit didn’t fill in the window.

As I write this, it occurs to me that, given all of this build up, you, the reader, might now expect to read of a mighty struggle to install an air conditioning unit in our bedroom window.  Shockingly, it was actually pretty easy and free of major drama.  Sure, there were some issues with the adhesive foam strips that came with the air conditioner sticking to themselves, but, overall, I really didn’t have any trouble with it.  I mean in the middle of the installation I had to stop to save, and subsequently find loving homes for, some kids from a burning orphanage, but that’s not really germane to this story.   And even with that, the whole thing only took about twenty minutes, and that time was mostly spent inventing a cold fusion generator to power the window unit.*

In summation, do not fear installing your own window unit.  It only requires a screw driver, Styrofoam, duct tape, a window, and basic reading skills.  And an air conditioner.

*Reader Challenge: Can you spot the embellishments in this story.

**Reader Challenge Answer: No, you cannot.  There are none.

 The cold fusion reactor is just out of the frame

Breakfast, Lunch, and Chocolate

We have spent the last several days unpacking, organizing, and generally trying to make this new apartment a home.  (Special thanks to Charlotte and Craig for their herculean efforts on Sunday!)  And so we find that occasionally we need to get out and take a break.  Our street and neighborhood is perfect for this.  We've been able to explore several little shops, restaurants, and even a Farmer's Market without losing much momentum in our unpacking.  A few of our favorites from the last few days:

Amy's Candy Bar

Amy's is a super cute, old fashioned candy shop with a modern vibe just across the street from us.  When we got the apartment, the first thing Michel found while exploring the area on Google Earth was Amy's.  I think that sealed the deal for him.  

 

The shop is divided into varieties of chocolate candies and gummy/fruit candies.  There are all the old favorites plus kinds of candies of which I've never even heard.  There is even a special section for imported candies from all over Europe, mainly.  I was especially excited to see Winegums, a favorite of mine from England which Meghan had introduced me to in college!  The great thing is that you can get a little bag and buy however much you want of whatever you want.  We decided on a small bag for chocolate buttercrunches for Michel and dark chocolate sea salt caramels for me.

Ultimately we were a little disappointed in the buttercrunches, but the caramels were yummy, and who doesn't love a place that advertises root beer floats on their sidewalk sign?

Lincoln Square Ravenswood Farmers Market

One day we walked to the Lincoln Square Ravenswood Farmers Market for lunch and to grab some items for dinner.  It is a fairly substantial market, right next to the Western Brown Line stop (though we walked down my new favorite street in the neighborhood to get there rather than take the train) and has tons of wonderful-looking produce from the Chicagoland area farms.

One of the really cool things about Chicago is its proximity to Wisconsin and therefore its proximity to really, really, really amazing cheese.  And I like cheese.  A lot.  Like a lot a lot.  So living close to the place where that rich, creamy goodness of basil cheese my grandmother's friend brought her is made is a very exciting prospect.  But what I didn't know is that Wisconsin also produces gorgeous mushrooms, which, as many of you know, is my favorite food.  Cheese and mushrooms.  I am a happy camper.  In fact, that is what we bought at the farmers market: portobello and shitaki mushrooms and fresh blue cheese for scrambled eggs that night, our first home-cooked meal in the new apartment.  It was delicious!

As we were about to leave, we saw a crepe stand at the back of the market.  Now we love crepes, particularly the crepes at Melange Creperie in Houston, made by the one and only Buffalo Sean.  Sean's crepes are the perfect crispy texture with the most creative flavors made in the traditional Parisian street crepe style.  When we found out we were moving to Chicago, we asked Sean if he knew any good crepe places up here.  His response: he hadn't been able to find any good crepes, but he knew a few good Italian beef places!  This stand was run by two French guys with strong French accents and a traditionally French menu, though, so we gave them a shot.

 I had the strawberry jam crepe, and Michel's was ham and pesto.  Delicious flavors, but the texture of the crepes were disappointing.  Really thick and spongy, not at all crispy.  We do recommend checking them out if you are looking for a decent street crepe in Chicago.  But for the best, head to Houston and visit Buffalo Sean at Melange!

Over Easy Cafe

Our most recent find is a second breakfast place.  Along with cheese, we really like breakfast.  Over Easy has charming, modern decor and a friendly staff.  It was pretty busy when we arrived for a late lunch (they close at 2:30 p.m.), but we were greeted at the door and got a table right away.  Michel had their signature Sassy Eggs, a Tex-Mex confection of eggs, chorizo, ancho chile ketchup, sour cream and guac, and red potato hash.

 

I had the French Toast special: brioche French Toast with orange pastry cream and fresh, locally sourced blackberries and a blood orange syrup.  Both were fantastic!  However, it wasn't quite Marmalade.  And when you've had Marmalade's freshly made vanilla bean whipped cream, cream from the can just tastes like a sad, thin, watery imitation of whipped cream.  This experience showed us just how important your mindset and the people are when trying a new place, whether restaurant or other.  We needed Marmalade the other day, and Marmalade came through for us.  So, while we will enjoy the occasional jaunt to Over Easy, our regular breakfast place will continue to be Marmalade.

Michel made a prediction the other day that at least 90% of our blog will be about food.  We're par for the course, then.  I do hope to expand some, though, and I know for a fact that there is an upcoming blog on the installation of our air conditioning window unit, so get excited.  We have several blogs planned for the next few days (so much to do and so much to say), but after a while we'll be posting a little less frequently.  So thank you all for reading, and we hope you are and will continue to enjoy our adventures in Chicago!

 

The Diner that Saved Chicago

Michel: Moving, particularly across state lines, is a damn nightmare.  It's expensive, laborious, and generally unpleasant.  A good breakfast is none of these things.

Elizabeth: But we're getting ahead of ourselves a bit.  First, welcome to our blog, The Brown Line Diaries!  We have just moved to Chicago and are living about a block from the eponymous Brown Line.  While moving has not been easy for either of us, I have had a particularly difficult time.  Lots of crying.  Even more snot.  And so this blog is our attempt to force ourselves to get to know our neighborhood and have a positive experience in our new city.

And now for Breakfast: Or How Marmalade Saved Chicago for Us

Michel:  About 3 blocks south of us at Montrose and Damen, there is a diner called Marmalade that looks charming enough, but its unassuming appearance belies the true wonder within.

 Great Perry White's Ghost, is this place delicious!

Elizabeth:  Friday, moving day, had been kind of a hard day.  Moving days are like that, especially when there are unpleasant surprises.  I was pretty exhausted and upset by the end of the day, so Michel decided we were going to Marmalade for breakfast the next morning.  We got there and opened the menus: Texas Bennies (eggs benedict), chilaquiles, hash, enchiladas, pico de gallo.  For a Texas girl who had just about decided she was moving back home, this was a welcome sight.

Meet Gus, the awesome owner, and Margie, the best server ever!

Margie, a really nice Chicago and in fact Ravenswood (our neighborhood) native, took our order and explained the Tex-Mex menu theme: the chef was Mexican and had some experience in Tex-Mex as well.  It was so exciting!!!

Michel:  The food and the atmosphere are very reminiscent of Austin and the types of breakfast establishments therein.  Growing up, I had always been curious as to what hash is, so I decided to order the hash special.  As it turns out, hash is so great that it makes the work of Jonas Salk seem trivial.  Elizabeth had the brioche french toast with strawberries and homemade whipped cream.

 The Interior of the Diner

 Beef Brisket Hash...yum...

 Brioche French Toast...not quite my dad's, but really good with the most amazing, fresh vanilla bean whipped cream I have ever eaten!!

And the toast comes with homemade jam!

Everything: the food, the coffee, and even the juice was spectacular.  The biggest disappointment was getting too full to finish our breakfasts.

Elizabeth:  And then came the surprise.  We had mentioned to Margie that we were new to Chicago, hence our interest in the menu, and she had sent Gus over to say hello.  Suddenly, Margie brought out a welcome to the neighborhood present from Gus: the daily French toast special of sweet potato French toast with spiced pecans, sour cherries, and homemade whipped cream and caramel sauce.  It's like fall in your mouth!!!

Michel:  I don't even like sweet potatoes, and I loved it!

Elizabeth:  So thank you, Margie and Gus, for changing my mind.  Suddenly Chicago didn't seem quite so bad.  And now we have a breakfast place to take all you family and friends to when you come visit us!