Come on, baby don’t you want to go
Come on, baby don’t you want to go
To the same old place, sweet home Chicago
Robert Johnson may have written the lyrics, but most of us remember the Blues Brothers version of Sweet Home Chicago. As a former Chicago native, I sing the lyrics every time I return to the Windy City.
As mentioned in last week’s article about Hot Doug’s and The Purple Pig, Chris and I spent multiple nights in Chicago, Illinois, recently to see Phish at the UIC Pavilion. While planning for this trip, our friends Mindy and Patterson insisted that we eat at Girl and the Goat with them. This restaurant is so popular, we had to book a reservation more than two months in advance. It turned out to be an excellent choice for our “farewell to Chicago” meal with our friends. I would like to thank Mindy for her help as guest photographer for some of the pictures posted in this article.
The “Girl” from Girl and the Goat is Stephanie Izard–she won the illustrious title of Top Chef in Season Four when the show was hosted in Chicago. She opened Girl and the Goat in Summer 2010, and the restaurant has developed a cult following since. I am always curious when a restaurant gains this much buzz. Is it because they have a good Public Relations firm? Is it because the chef is popular? Is it because the food is actually that good? In the case of Girl and the Goat, the food is that good.
We started off with two types of oysters. I’m admittedly not the biggest fan of oysters by nature. Raw shellfish has never been my thing. However, these were lightly roasted in a wood-burning oven and prepared in unique ways I had not experienced previously.
READ ON for more on Girl and the Goat…
Over the last couple of weekends, I have been exploring different parts of Harlem, taking in the nice weather and heading to parts of the neighborhood that I hadn’t been to in a long time. One of the streets that I have been enjoying walking up from Central Park North (110th St) is Lenox Ave aka Malcom X Boulevard. As I was walking, my hunger started building up and it was then that I stumbled upon a hidden treasure, Edmonds Cafe.
The number 1966 in the top left corner is NOT the address of the restaurant, it is the year that this small family owned and run business opened in Harlem. Sure, when you think of Soul Food in Harlem Sylvia’s and Amy Ruth’s come to mind. Those two places are well known, with a large following amongst locals and tourists alike and most times have lines of people waiting to get in.
However when it comes to the real deal, you know the kind of place that people stop in after church or for a quick family meal, my money, palate and hunger keep on bringing me back to Edmonds. My last two trips to Edmonds were both on Sunday afternoons and it was nice to see most of the people who were coming in greeted by their name with the staff/family who own and run it asking questions about their guest’s families, treating them like they are part of the extended Edmond’s family. READ ON for more…
