‘Sunday Funday better than a Monday, can only do it one way and that is the drunk way!’– You’re the Worst
So maybe we weren’t exactly drunk, but we did have a very fun Sunday this past weekend. Our friends Lei and Chris had invited us to brunch at Nightwood, located in the Pilsen neighborhood downtown. We agreed immediately and then asked them if they wanted to go to the Art Institute later in the day and maybe Eataly if we could fit it in. Dave’s wanted to check out the Magritte exhibit for awhile and October is the last month it will be open there. They picked us up around noon on Sunday and we made a surprise detour to pick up Lei’s sister at the airport. Then we were on our way to go eat some brunch!
I loved the place right away, at first you walk up to an enclosed patio which looked very cozy. It was too chilly to eat outside so we made our way inside which was bustling with people and made me quite glad Lei had made a reservation. The menu is simple which I like because I get overwhelmed when there are too many choices. At the top of the menu were listed two gourmet donuts. One was butterscotch glazed donut with bacon crumble and the other was a chocolate Cremeux donut with a milk powder crumble. Apparently the butterscotch one its always listed and the other one changes periodically. We ordered two of each to share which was a good thing. They were delicious, but very rich. And me with my new vow to have no dessert during the week was a little overwhelmed by the sweetness. For my main meal I ordered the coppa and farm egg sandwich which came with tots. They were the size of a ping pong ball so in other words…Amazing! Oh and I ordered a Bellini too. We all ordered something different which is always nice so you can try a little of everything. By the way this is one of my favorite things with my friends. We always offer each other a taste or a sip of whatever we’re having. After we ate, we just sat and drank a bit more…Bloody Marys and Beermosas. It was really quite lovely!
After our brunch we made our way over to the Art Institute and the Magritte exhibit. I didn’t know much about the artist other than he is a surrealist and I’m familiar with the painting of the train coming out of a fireplace. He isn’t totally my style, but it was cool to see his work up close and personal and some of it made you think a little which is always a nice bonus.
After Magritte we ventured into the modern wing and saw a lot of cool art that had structure to it. I think this was my favorite part of the museum.
Then we walked through a section with a lot of Buddha statues to go see the paper weight collection.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been at the Art Institute and it was a great trip with a bonus of making me feel cultured when we left.
Then we started walking to Eataly. This is a place Dave and I have been trying to go for months. It was just about a mile walk up Michigan Ave and we had earned a treat! When you step inside it’s like a little mall of different foods, drinks, groceries, and cooking items. We stopped at the Lavazza bar and all had a warm drink while we stared at the Nutella bar. I’m not kidding, it exists! Meanwhile the hot chocolate I got was like drinking a melted chocolate bar so I didn’t try to add another chocolate item to my body. We didn’t have too much time because we had to get back to the burbs, but we checked out the upstairs beer, olive oil, vinegar, and produce sections. I made it out of there without buying too much- balsamic vinegar and some fancy pasta, but if I stayed as long as I wanted to I probably would have bought the whole place! It was a jam-packed day but we had such a great time and now we can mark a few items off our list of things we’ve been wanting to do. Cheers!
Uncharted 