It's the complimentary beverage part of the evening, so I stole away quick to sip a Miller Lite and tell you something about Chicago. Seeing as how I only left the hotel/conference grounds once to go to dinner last night, I can't tell you much about Chicago.
But, Chicago is expensive. I bought a pack of gum and a small bag of Combos yesterday, and it cost me just under $7. I bought a Diet Coke 20 oz. this morning for $2.16. To put this into perspective, I'm used to pop machine 20 oz. sodas for $1.10, and a pack of gum and combos would normally cost me about $2.30 or so.
The snow also falls up here in Chicago. Okay, that's only partly true. I'm on the 23rd floor of the Hyatt Regency on (heh) Wacker Drive and, this being the windy city, from my 23rd floor perspective, the snow actually appears at times to go upwards.
Oh, and judging by my recent comment log, my blog is getting spammed big time from some fucking spammer called Spy Software. Ironic. I banned their IP address. We'll see how long it is before they change it. Damned spammers.
A bunch of the editorial and sales staff for the magazine is supposed to go out for Chicago-style deep dish pizza tonight. We'll see if it's as good as I've heard.
Posted by Ryan at March 14, 2005 06:56 PMI think the convention center is expensive. Not Chicago per se.
Posted by: David Grenier at March 14, 2005 07:53 PMYeah, I found the stuff outside the loop to be pretty reasonably priced.
The pizza in Chicago is not, IMHO, all that. Actually, so far, NY coal-fired pizza is the best plain cheese pizza I've ever had. Other than that, Pagliacci in Seattle has Chicago and New York beat all to hell. Also, Seattle generally seems better for slice bars. Zeek's, Mad Pizza and Pagliacci all make damn fine pizza in their separate ways.
I was particularly blown away by the disparity in quality in New York. I've worked in half a dozen Seattle pizza restaurants and everywhere I worked we used whole milk mozz and brick ovens. I couldn't believe how many places in New York seemed to use cheap white cheese and electric rack-mount ovens. And the slices! Old and small. In Seattle, a pie starts glazing, we throw the fucker away.
I mean fuck's sake; why not just buy a fuckin' microwave pizza and have done?
Posted by: Joshua at March 14, 2005 08:31 PMYeah, hotels in the Chicago area are pretty expensive ... especially the convention centers.
Of course I don't spend a hell of a lot of time down town, so I'm not really an authority.
Posted by: david at March 21, 2005 11:28 AM
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