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May 25, 2006
OGIC: Weekend at OGIC's
Everything you've heard is true. There were fancy-pants hot dogs, there were plays, and there was lots and lots of House, viewed with a hunger. Let's look at a few highlights.Saturday: Brunch at Hot Doug's Sausage Superstore and Encased Meat Emporium. I was actually trying to keep this place a secret until the next time the Gurgling Cod pays a visit to Chicago, but the cat's out of the bag now. At Hot Doug's the line on a Saturday afternoon bends around the southwest corner of California and Roscoe and practically out of sight, but I've seldom stood in a more cheerful long line. It's as if the length of the wait guarantees the transcendent goodness of the meal to come, and the patrons take an added pleasure in being part of a little community of good taste and adventure. Of course, the culinary adventures offered at Hot Doug's come with all the comforts of the familiar, presented in the usual trappings of the most quotidian of Chicago foods. Beyond the casing, bun, and toppings, though, anything goes--last weekend it was bacon-cheddar elk sausage with spicy bourbon mustard and stripey jack cheese for Terry and saucisse de Toulouse with anchovy aioli and fromagier d'affinoise for me. The blue cheese pork sausage with pear crème fraiche and toasted hazelnuts was a close second that still has me wondering what could have been, delicious as the saucisse truly was. Hot Doug's is all about the hard choices.
The afternoon was sunny and mild, and we brunched at a booth set up in the narrow alley between Hot Doug's and the apartment building next door, feeling like we were at a city cookout. Did I mention that on Saturday's Doug offers silky french fries cooked in duck fat?
Saturday: An hour or so at the Art Institute. We arrive and wander off half-cocked trying to find our way to the modern painting. But we find ourselves heading backwards in the time machine, from Seurat to Manet to Millet. With the eighteenth century beginning to loom, I ask a lady guard to point us toward modern. "You know that rainy day painting?" she says. Oh, we do. "Turn left there and go through the door behind it." Never thought about it before, but its size, iconic status, and placement at a crux on the second floor of the museum indeed make the Caillebotte picture as good as a trail of bread crumbs. We find modern, and a few surprises.
I have to go to work, folks. Coming soon is Saturday: The longue, bonne durée at Chicago Shakespeare. As well as Sunday: cutting up at Court Theatre.
Posted May 25, 2006 10:18 AM
