Places to Eat

If you're not from around here, a tourist, protester, dignitary, you may just go to some random place for food, get something that sucks, then think all food in Chicago is horrible. That's not true. Sure, there are some sad joints around that taste horrible, but there are some little gems around the city that have some of the best food you can ever find.

Who has the best "food item"?

It's a common question when someone comes to Chicago.  I'm not going to cover the big name places, just Chicago favorites. When coming to Chicago, there something you need to know about us, we are highly competitive. Whether it be food, sports, parks, fishing spots, or even geographical locations, we will argue what is the best. Right now, I'll focus on Chicago Favorites within a couple miles of McCormick place, which seems to be the main hub for everyone.

Ricobene's -252 West 26th Street
Breaded Steak Sandwich

Started with two bothers. The may not have created the Breaded Steak Sandwich, but the perfected it to the point, almost no one will argue this point. Northsider's and Southsider's can almost agree on this, they have the best. Once you eat it, you will never forget it.

Connie's - 2373 South Archer Avenue
Deep Dish Pizza

You want the best deep dish in the city, you HAVE to go there. Hands down, it is the best you'll find. If you eat in, it's an atmosphere like few other. Every one of them, perfection in a pie. You would swear it's what they put all their time into.

Phil's Pizza - 1102 West 35th Street
Thin Crust Pizza

Now, this place can get me into trouble. Some people hate their pizza, I love it. The majority of the times, it's the only pizza I eat. Just the right crisp to the dough, perfect sauce, and never short with toppings. The perfect thin crust pizza you can find. Other may argue, but I cannot.

Freddie's - 701 West 30th Street
Italian Beef Sandwich

Few can deny the Italian Beef Sandwiches at Freddie's. Meat is the perfect thickness, perfect taste, and one can fill almost anyone with some left over. This is the place to go. I can't say anything else but Perfection.

Punky's Pizza and Pasta - 2600 South Wallace Street
Panzerotti

You will not find a better place for Panzerotties then Punky's. All individually made but they each seem to have a flavor all of their own. You just can't go wrong.

Villians - 649 South Clark Street
BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwich - Large Variety of Microbrew Beer

You like Barbecue? You like Beer? Look no further then Villains. Don't let the decor confuse you, it may look like a dive, but they have the best of both worlds. Their BBQ PPS is smoked in-house for 12 hours. With house made BBQ sauce and coleslaw, you'll never want to leave. As for their beer selection, they have over a hundred. You're bound to find something you want.

This is just a brief overview of some of the best, you have one for me to add? Let me know, I'll gladly add them on.

Note: Please treat these places as Neutral Ground. Don't start anything there, or alienate other patrons by preventing there from entering due to "Security Risk" of some nonsense like that. Remember, this is Chicago, we don't take that sitting down.

(Not A) Call to Arms

Quite a bit, I've been seeing people doing a "Call to Arms" to riot in the streets of Chicago. Why? It'll just work to prevent what message you have from getting through. News won't report on your side, they'll be too busy reporting on the riots. Those on the other, the law, are just doing their jobs. They are there to make money for themselves and their family. During the summits they will be putting in significant overtime. They are just people, like you and me. It's bad enough that they don't know if they'll go home to their families on a normal day, why make it worse. Things like this are why location have a damned army in front of their doors. This is why protesters get a bad name.


What ever happened to peaceful protest? About 4 years back, a group called "Anonymous" protested the crimes of Scientology during "Project Chanology". Beforehand, they called for this very thing, violence. A man named Mark Bunker (Wise Beard Man), who I had the pleasure of meeting, gave them the message to remain peaceful. They did, and you know what, Scientology is being prosecuted even now. Why? The protesters listened and remained peaceful which allowed their message to be heard. It's not a difficult concept.


When there is nothing to report but the message, it will be broadcast. So please, don't incite riots, it'll only take away what you want to give.


Fred Lowe

Chicago's Partial Retreat

I reported a few days back that the mayor was "sorry" about the mistake he made in regards to the new regulations. In fact, he changed the game up yet again. The parade is not going to be limited to 2 hours, but remain at the original time allowed. The regulation regarding resisting arrest, is not going to double anymore, but they will be raising the minimum fine. Lastly, I forgot to report on a regulation that would require one parade marshal for every 100 people, that is no longer being requested.

They're finally posting some cash numbers now. The Summits are going to cost between $45-65 million. Honestly, I thing $100 million sounds better. Again, they claim this will not come out of taxpayer pockets, but you know what, they'll have to pay significant over time to emergency services in the city, and where does that come from?

I find it funny that just last month, we had little information as to what was going on. Now we're being slammed with data. If news keeps flowing at this rate, I might have to do daily posts.


Lastly, congratulations to Coalition Against the NATO/G-8 War and Poverty Agenda, also called CANG8, for getting the first of many parade permits.

Downtown Lockdown

A little bit of breaking new. A proposal for the G8/NATO Summits includes a partial lockdown of a potion of downtown. Borders won't be disclosed until about 4 weeks prior to the summits.


Streets shut down? What kind of mess will that bring. I was planning on a post regarding possible street closures soon too. I'll still do it, but don't take it as a full truth. I'll see if I can't find out sooner for my readers.. This'll mess up everyone...
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Now that I have a bit more time I can cover some other things I wanted to.


With thew lockdown of Downtown, as you know, is NEVER as simple as they claim. For instance, for every day the parts of downtown are closed, each and every parking space will have to be paid for. Most of the meters will be at $5.75 for as long as the locations are timed. Might not seem like that much, but lets do a little math. Let's say 5,000 parking spaces. Let's say the spaces that need to be paid for from 5am, to 9pm. Right there is 16 hours. That's $92 dollars a day for just one spot. $460,000. And that's just one day. We're looking at, including staging, tear down, and the sort, about, let's say 3 weeks. Total would be $9,660,000. Now, they CLAIM it will not cost the taxpayers anything. It's coming from Private and Federal funds. I call bullshit. More they likely we'll get stuck with the bill, we almost always do.


Recently snipers were casing the area around O'Hare, Downtown, and McCormick Place. Now we know what airport everyone will be coming in. Security is going to be tighter then Lake Shore Drive at Rush Hour. People coming into the city around that time would be wise to come in either at Midway or take a train.


A little bit of hard-to-find news about the permits issued. To make up for blowing the new laws out of proportion, the city is offering free portajohns and audio equipment to protesters. What's next, armed escorts, hotels, free pizza? Well, I'll enjoy getting a slice or two. All joking aside, everything I find is making these Summits seem like far too much trouble then what it's worth.