Walking. Gossip. Travel.

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2022 US Trip – Day 14 (Chicago – Connie’s Family Restaurant)
For the evening meal, after our busy day chasing puddles on the waterfall trail, Scott and Deb chose Connie’s Family Restaurant which proved to be a very good choice. Established in 1944, it’s a well reviewed traditional American restaurant which is family owned and operated that is open relatively long hours, from 07.00 until 22.00 every day.

I can’t say that this is rare in the United States, but I did think that the menu was too large for the size of the restaurant. Although, having noted that, the food they served was excellent, but I do wonder whether they need such a breadth of dishes. I’m afraid that the name of the restaurant has escaped me, but when I was three (so just over 15 years ago….) I do know that I went to a restaurant chain in the United States and the whole stylistic element of this menu reminded me of that (I’d add that the menu must have come back with me from the United States, I don’t have an encyclopaedia memory of past menus). All very exciting.

As is common in these family restaurant style set-ups, there is a free soup provided to start with and also a heap of crackers and breads are carefully heaped up on the table. This is the United States, they can also pile up butter without people complaining that there’s not a clear calorie count available.

The bacon blue burger with, well, bacon and blue cheese, as well as the heap of fries and salad on the side. Incidentally, let me mention once again that the United States know what to do with bacon, it should be streaky, crispy with the fat nicely burnt. Delicious. Also, I liked the subtle gherkin at the back, this should be included with all burgers. Indeed, this burger meal is set out just as I would serve it, with the meat being cooked appropriately to medium. Note Scott’s heap of chicken in the background and they’re his vegetables, I would hardly ordered those.

The service was as expected in the United States, which was attentive, personable and welcoming. The surroundings were dated, but I think that’s part of the concept with a family restaurant, it’s about being homely rather than necessarily on-trend. Although the restaurant is located in a suburb of the enormous city that is Chicago, this still felt like a venue in a quiet backwater and retained its charm because of that.

I didn’t feel the need to go for a dessert, not least as the portion sizes of the starter and main had meant that unnecessary. But they were, of course, available in a cabinet near to the bar. I didn’t delve too deeply into the beer options here as I noticed the rather generic nature of the selection, with a limitless coke seeming more suitable in any event. I was also aware that the next morning I was embarking on a pilgrimage to the holy land of Goose Island.

A very good choice and if I was in the area again, I’d merrily return here.
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December 24, 2022
2022 US Trip – Day 14 (Naperville Century Walk Mural)
I’m not sure that I’ve seen such a realistic (I will shy away from representative for reasons I’ll mention later) mural as this one in Naperville, painted between 2011 and 2013. It features a number of local scenes and I understand that the individuals featured in it are real people, making this something of an epic project to have undertaken.

One side is modern Naperville and the other a more historic scene. The lead artist for the project was Marianne Lisson Kuhn and I’m pleased that there appears to have been no vandalism of the mural over the ten years that it has been here. I rather suspect that this wouldn’t last too long in many locations within the UK with numerous ‘humorous’ additions added.

One really positive element about this mural is that it’s a snapshot of time in around 2011 and 2013, so people can see younger versions of themselves as well as remember others who were in the town. I’m not sure about the helicopter though, it makes it look like it’s some Chinese type surveillance of the local denizens.

The detail is incredible, this is a close-up of one of the documents that an individual in the mural is holding.

There has been a campaign in Naperville recently to either destroy the mural or repaint elements because it doesn’t show the diverse nature of Naperville. Personally, I rather hope they don’t damage the mural, there’s space to create a more diverse imagery of the town as it is today if locals don’t feel it’s representative. In defence of the Century Walk Corporation who originally commissioned the mural, they note that they did include people from diverse backgrounds and they are willing to extend it, which all sounds very positive. It would seem really rather lovely to do something every ten years to show the development of the town and its population. This is the sort of thing that Dereham should have.
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December 24, 2022
2022 US Trip – Day 14 (Naperville – Starbucks Reserve)
Excuse the poor quality photo taken from a car, but I had only realised this was something a little quirky after I had walked by it. And I don’t quite understand what’s happening here, because Starbucks were very excited to make Naperville their fourth global location for the grand Reserve store concept. The other three were in Seattle, New York and Shanghai, so it does feel a little odd that they selected what seems to be the quiet backwater of Naperville to open. Although I suspect that Naperville has a fair amount of money and wealthy residents, which seems a likely reason.

Anyway, to great acclaim and excitement this store opened in May 2021. Starbucks released the above photo of their shiny new shop, I think it looks rather lovely and I’m not really someone usually tempted by this brand. Although I’d note that there aren’t enough chairs there, unless there are more out of shot, as Starbucks gets a lot of people taking up one table to use their laptop on and they then camp out there for hours. The quality of the coffee and food is much more decadent than other Starbucks locations, all having a touch of grandness about it.

But, moving forwards, Starbucks shut the store just 14 months later and when we went to Naperville in October 2022 they were going through the process of converting the store back into a normal Starbucks. I’m not sure what went wrong, but reading the alleged comments of staff that customers have written in reviews, the locals just wanted normal lattes and didn’t want to pay for the expensive options that the Reserve store offered them. I note that there was an affogato bar here, it’s a shame that concept wasn’t extended to more Starbucks stores if nothing else….
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December 24, 2022
2022 US Trip – Day 14 (Naperville – A Tribute to Car Dealers)
This isn’t one of my quirky post titles, this is genuinely a tribute to the car dealers of Naperville when the stained glass was created at the beginning of the twenty-first century. There were seven auto dealerships within three blocks of this central building at one point, until there was a move to make them all of of town where they could have more space. There’s more about this whole arrangement at https://www.centurywalk.org/impact/art_details.cfm?artID=17 and I liked this, a real effort to try and tell the story of businesses and people throughout the town’s history.
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December 24, 2022
2022 US Trip – Day 17 (Chicago – Brookfield Railway Station to Chicago Union Station)
One final breakfast at the Rodeway Inn and my plan for the day was to get to Chicago city centre before going back out to the airport for a flight to sunny Las Vegas.

Waving the hotel goodbye. I’d better add that I didn’t physically wave as the reception staff might have thought that I was a bit odd.

Back at Brookfield railway station and for reasons I’ve mentioned several times already, there was no way for me to buy a ticket in advance.

The train came sweeping in on time with its horns blaring. It’s very America, it’s just not the same getting on the train to Great Yarmouth. Partly because the trains in the United States actually operate, but I’d better not digress. It’s not clearly visible in the photo, but there’s a bin behind that rear bench and there was a squirrel in there merrily playing and cutting up the bag. The station staff didn’t seem entirely thrilled.

After safely boarding, I went for the top deck again.

I paid for my fare in cash, which I think was just over $5, and the conductor puts the ticket in the gap to show that I’ve made payment. It’s still a little strange trying to conduct financial affairs by peering over the barrier, but it adds to the experience I suppose.

The Chicago skyline, with the anti-sun coating on the window clearly visible.

It was about a 25 minute rail journey and the train arrived on time. The service was relatively busy, but there were always seats available upstairs and downstairs.

The large scale map on the wall of where Amtrak service in the United States and there are plenty of gaps, including many states with no rail service at all. It’s not ideal.

I’ve been to Chicago Union station many times before, but I’m still always slightly in wonder at its grandeur and beauty. 100 years ago this would have been how everyone travelled, before the convenience of domestic air flights and also before mass ownership of cars. The station itself is from 1925, replacing the smaller building which had served rail passengers since 1881. The word “union” is used because it was used by multiple rail companies, hence the number of Union Stations around the country.

Well that photo is slightly on the wonk, despite my best efforts at the time.

A bit better. All that space, it’s an architectural masterpiece and there’s plenty of seating. It’s fair to say there’s some wasted space here as well, but at least it doesn’t feel cramped.

It’s definitely the best way to arrive into Chicago. There are some other handy practical features to the station as well, such as the free toilets although I wouldn’t say that they’re the highlight of the proceedings there. Anyway, that meant I had a few hours to explore the city centre once again before getting back on the subway to go to the airport.
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December 23, 2022
2022 US Trip – Day 16 (Chicago – BuckleDown Brewing)
I had a rather lovely morning in the hotel catching up on things whilst being delighted with myself how cold I had made the room by having the air conditioning on full pelt. I accept that there are environmental issues, but I overheat too easily and Chicago in October was too hot for me so it was an occasional treat.

However, I thought in the afternoon that I’d go for a meander to a nearby brewery. I did wonder about this sign and how car drivers are supposed to know that it’s a school day, but perhaps I overthink things. I was quite annoyed at these traffic lights as they took over two minutes to change which as a pedestrian seems excessive to me. It also annoyed me that they’ve banned jaywalking in the United States as I couldn’t risk crossing the road in case I was fined. Again, perhaps I overthink. But I was standing there for two minutes and that gave me time to think, although it was primarily about whether the lights were broken and were never going to change. But, I digress.

Although I was in what I’m calling Chicago, I was more precisely in the suburb of Lyons. Wikipedia notes that this was a hotspot for political corruption and dodgy businesses in the 1960s and 1970s, but it has been cleaned up now and is very middle-class.

I was heading here, to the delights of BuckleDown Brewing which opened in December 2013. It was well reviewed and within a twenty minute walk of the hotel, so it would have been a travesty for me not to visit. I’m also glad it was on the side of the road that I was walking, as it’s located on 47th Street which I had no idea how to cross and it was like the M25 in terms of traffic volumes. I’ve noticed I seem to be spending an inordinate amount of time writing about traffic issues, but I was in the United States and I feel that’s allowable since everyone seems to own eight cars.

I was the only customer when I entered and the staff member was very welcoming and conversational. She talked me through all the beers that the brewery made and they only have their own products, with no guests. They are heavily into pale ales, but they had various different beer styles amongst the mix.

I asked if they could do me a flight of beers so that I could try a few, which the staff member willing did and offered recommendations. I did the food pairing choice all by myself though. I tried six beers (I was at the bar for a while, indeed so long that it was quite busy when I left) and the quality was really rather good, I especially like the Cactus Pants with Lime and Sea Salt, which is a twist on their core lager. There were two standout beers though, the Hideout Hazy Blood Orange IPA and the Mega Fat Rino Imperial Stout, both delightful. Oh, and the Nacho Cheese Doritos complemented the beers perfectly.

As an aside, the taps were very aggressive and it was like being under Niagara Falls for my hands. Indeed, this was more of a waterfall than what I had walked a few days previously.

I really liked this brewery as the customers were interacting with each other and with staff, so it felt laid-back and inviting. The surroundings were clean, the service was timely and I felt very welcome. The taproom is open every day and as I mentioned earlier it’s well-reviewed, although someone left 1/5 and described himself as “a bud light man”. I make no comment. All very lovely and as I often mention, I’d merrily recommend this location and indeed also the brewery’s beer.
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December 23, 2022
2022 US Trip – Day 15 (Chicago – McDonald’s on Old Route 66)
There is little point to this post other than this McDonald’s at 2315 W Ogden Avenue in Chicago, on the old road that was Route 66, has become one of the destinations that I remember from my several weeks long trip in the United States. A slow walk from the wonderful Goose Island to my train, this is a random point in time that I’ve quite fondly recalled.

I ordered via the kiosks as that’s the preferred method now, but I was the only customer in the place. The crew members were suitably polite when handing over my food, but that’s the only interaction that I had. But, despite the place looking like it hadn’t been cleaned for several hours, it felt like a little slice of the United States. Not the debris on the floor, just the whole efficiency of the service in what is perhaps one of the main exports of the country. And, the Chicken McNuggets were delicious with the hot Picante sauce, as was the Hot n’Spicy McChicken. What a time to be alive and all that….. There are moments on any trip when I just think that a moment is unexceptional, but is actually representative of the entire experience. And typical of me, this is the point in time that I’ve decided to pick out. I accept that I need to get out more.

It’s a very badly reviewed location on-line, with some customer service issues clearly evident and they like locking the inside early and make people drive thru (which would have been a problem for me). But, it was all quite memorable for me, despite being entirely lacking in inspiration. I did say that there would be little point to this post ?
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December 23, 2022
2022 US Trip – Day 15 (Chicago – Goose Island – Fulton Street Taproom Tour)
After having visited the taproom of Goose Island, it was then time to go on the tour that I had pre-booked a few weeks before. The tour guide was knowledgeable and engaging, with the tour lasting just over an hour or so. I’ve gone on a lot of brewery tours over the years and I’m never quite sure that I understand entirely what is going on as there are some many bits of polished metal kit about, but I think I’ve worked the basics out. I’m fairly confident that I’ll never be a brewer though.

There were numerous samples available and the guide allowed visitors to try whichever beers they wanted from this list. With the exception of BCS2022 (Bourbon County Stout) of course, that’s off limits for the moment.

The bottling part of the operation.

Some of the giant beer tanks and I’d note that I had come the furthest of anyone on the tour. Indeed, I was the only one from outside the United States.

Everything about this operation was substantial. As some back history to all of this, Goose Island was formed by John Hall after he travelled around Europe and decided that he thought Americans should be treated to some craft beer. It would be nice to say that Goose Island is an independent company, but they’re owned by Anheuser-Busch who also produce, if I’m being honest, some generic rubbish as well. But they haven’t ruined Goose Island, so I have no complaints and indeed it was only following the takeover that the brewery’s beers became more widely available.

This is the innovation centre where they brew up small batches of beer.

It was quite interesting reading the sheets of paper where the ingredients are listed and what has been amended during the brewing process. I thought that I’d better not take a photo that could be zoomed in on, just in case I was accused of breaching some commercial secret.

After the brewery tour we then went across to the facilities on the other side of the road, but this shows just a part of the large brewery complex that Goose Island have here. This brewery building was opened in 1995, although it has doubled in size since then and it is now 143,000 square feet in size.

This is a warehouse where I understand the infamous Bourbon County Stouts were once stored, but they’ve been moved now and this whole room is more for display than anything else. This exciting bourbon aged beer is something that they’ve been doing since 1992 and they’re now perhaps the best in the world in brewing this type of product.

Although some of the barrels are full.

These are all old wine casks, where they, and I quote, “use wine casks as an environment for beer, wild yeast and fresh fruit to ferment for nearly a year”.

The vineyard label is still visible on the cask.

I hope that’s not a leakage of Bourbon County Stout.

More tasters were offered and this one has yet to be given a name, which means it’s a loss to Untappd…. A nice rye beer though.

I mentioned in my taproom post that I had perhaps the best beer that I’ve ever had, the Rare Bourbon County Brand Stout 2015. This is the 14% version from 2021, which I thought I had tried in Goose Island in Shoreditch, but that transpired to be the 2020 edition. That made this free taster even more exciting as it was another one in the series I got to try and it was once again remarkable. Decadent, rich and with flavours of chocolate, molasses, whiskey and some more subtle notes, all quite beautiful.

I thought that the tour was entertaining, factual and I was pleased with how many free tasters of beer that were available, that was more agreeable. They did also offer everyone a free pint glass, but there was no way that I was going to try and get that back, so they gave me several branded plastic Goose Island glasses as well, which I’m pleased to note did get back safely. The tour is $15 and it’s worth it for the tasters alone, so well worth a little visit. It’s fair to say that I left the Goose Island premises entirely happy with my afternoon out.
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December 23, 2022
2022 US Trip – Day 15 (Chicago – Goose Island – Fulton Street Taproom and One of the Best Beers in the World)
I’ve already mentioned that my first impressions of this bar were positive as a staff member was welcoming and immediately moved my brewery tour forwards without any issues. That gave me an hour to try some of the beers before the tour and then I could spend longer at the bar after the tour. If I still sound excited about this tour, that’s because I was rather looking forwards to this.

The bar doesn’t really do flights other than of their four core beers. I asked if any of these would be in the tour and the manager went off to check with the tour guide and it was apparent that one would have been duplicated, so they merrily gave me a different beer on this flight to avoid duplication. I appreciated that they didn’t find it odd that I didn’t want to have the same beer twice, but I have an Untappd account to keep varied….

I wasn’t expecting overly exciting from these four beers because they’re designed to be a little generic as part of their core range, it’s the dark beers which Goose Island is perhaps best known for. However, this is the Lost Palate NEIPA which I very much liked, not least because I like mangoes and cinnamon and they’re the ingredients that power through. All very pleasurable and I liked how clean the whole bar was, the staff seem very proud of this venue.

The service was impeccable, personable and timely. Despite being run by a large corporate business, this feels on-trend and slightly edgy in an exciting way. It’s at this point that I went off to the do the brewery tour, which I’ll post about separately.

Back in the taproom, the bar gave me this beer, but I can write with confidence that this didn’t impact on my next comment. And that’s because this is perhaps the best beer that I’ve had. This beer has an Untappd rating of 4.72 and the best rated beer in the world is sitting at 4.77, so that puts that a little in perspective. At the time of writing, this is the 13th best rated beer in the world and it’s the Rare Bourbon County Brand Stout 2015 edition.

I’m going to struggle to describe this 14.8% beer in a manner that gives it justice, but this is a barrel aged stout where the flavour is rich, smooth and every sip has an impactful taste. It’s also complex, with a sweet flavour but yet being full bodied with hints of chocolate, vanilla, fudge and heaps of bourbon. It might be thought that a 14.8% beer would be just too high in alcohol, but there was no sharp edge to this and it almost had port like richness. Intense, exciting, decadent and as perfect a beer as I can possibly imagine.

I’ll leave this post here, I think I’ve made sufficiently clear that this is one of the best bars that I’ve visited. Pitch perfect service, environment, cleanliness, customers, beers and surroundings.
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December 23, 2022
2022 US Trip – Beerhaus in Las Vegas
This beer restaurant is centrally located on the Strip, outside the New York New York casino and to be thrifty I deliberately visited during the happy hour. I think it’s between 14:00 and 18:00 on Mondays to Fridays, where local draft beers and a number of food items are reduced.

It was perhaps a little formulaic, but the server was friendly, the environment was comfortable and I liked it here. I was given a large booth table which was handy, with the server bringing over the drinks but they don’t take food orders as there’s a separate counter for those. I thought that was a slightly strange way of handling the ordering proceedings, but there was no queue for food and it was all easy enough to understand.

The Peace, Love & Hoppiness from Big Dog’s Brewing Company was a suitably refreshing pale ale, brewed locally. One limitation I had with the local beer menu is that two of the breweries I had already visited in Las Vegas, so there wasn’t an enormous selection to try I hadn’t sampled before. However, it was still a very credible local beer menu, with national options available as well, although they weren’t in the happy hour pricing. The free tap water is just about always provided as a matter of course without needing to ask for it.

Firstly, that is a beer on the left hand side and very good it was too, the Love Juice from the Lovelady Brewing Company who are located in Henderson, just a little way down the road. Lots of fruit flavour in the beer, as is evident from its colour and so that also made it healthy and nutritious. Secondly, the hot dog was also very agreeable and that’s a Nathan’s beef hot dog, one of the national favourites.

I’d happily recommend this restaurant, it offered an immediate and laid-back environment which always seemed inviting and warm. It wasn’t particularly busy in the afternoon, despite the happy hour, but there were plenty of staff about. There aren’t a huge number of venues on the Strip that focus primarily on beer and this seems like one of the better options.
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December 22, 2022