Tuesday, February 4, 2014

The Gage

On a blustery Chicago day, we set our sights on indoor touristing, starting with the Museum of Science and Industry and their ginormous U-505 WWII submarine- a longish distance to travel in this city packed with activities, but well worth the taxi ride.  Post-museum marching, we were ready for one of these Bloody Marys Chicagoans always brag about.  We aimed for The Gage, recommended as an old-world Chicago institution, with a view.  
Smart women of the world wear Gage Chapeaus!!  (from the back of the menu)
Within the landmarked Gage Group of buildings, the window-walled restaurant felt like classic Chicago.  One of the reasons I love this city is because they embrace their architectural and design roots.  Instead of a city, like, say, NYC, where establishments are constantly upping the ante with modern design that is often fleetingly fashionable.  The Gage calls it "Refined Rusticity," which I find hilarious, because I also love to alliterate with semi-made up words.  I really felt like the Sausage King of Chicago when I walked into their plush dark wood-and-tile interior and ordered a round of Bloody Marys for the table.  They came, suitably, with kebabs of pickled vegetables and we were warmed.
Delicious, despite the bevvy of hipster ingredients.  Hipgredients?  Nope.

The large menus were less "classic Chicago" and more modern fare with buzzwords, but we were all happy to choose things with Woodland Mushrooms and various Aiolis.  The real hit with the out-of-towners were the "PBR" Battered Fried Pickles with Smoked Serrano Aioli, a hipster menu item that would have had me gagging in NYC, but here they were a table charmer that most of us hadn't tried.  Reminded me of a wintry day drinking in a Brooklyn bar, but with Midwestern craft beers instead of whiskey.

Chrome-plated tectonics 
After fancy sandwiches, suitably battered fish & chips and drippy decadent burgers, we persisted through the single digit degrees to check out the snowy Bean across the street.  We had the vaguest view of it from the Gage house window, camouflaged in snow & looking like an oblong globe, but up close we had it to ourselves, with a few other tourist stragglers, braving the frosty Chicago winds between Bloody Marys.

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