thekua.com@rest

When a little Japanese lady exclaims when ordering a sushi platter, it’s probably not a wise idea to order more…

Dinner at Sushi Time was great.

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After two birthday events on Saturday, and an engagement party on Sunday, I find myself in Copenhagen for at least this week at work. I guess there are worse places to be…

I do appreciate the people and the city so far!

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Despite being slightly jet lagged from my trip to Chicago, I still ending up going to see the amazingly talented Andrew Bird at Shepherd’s Bush Empire. It was a ticket I had booked way back when. Strangely enough, I found out recently he’s based out of Chicago and here I was seeing him away from his country having just returned from his home city. Strange? Definitely.

The ground floor of Shepherd’s Bush was completely packed by the time he came on and from what I could tell there were plenty of Americans, English and a handful of antipodes around. Andrew Bird’s style of music is definitely unique. It’s laid back, almost music-box like and absolutely enchanting. Just perfect when you want some easy listening tunes. I realise that it doesn’t really do him that much justice however I don’t think words can really describe the performance he puts on for a live show.

For his first song, he made recorded snippets of him playing different instruments, playing them back almost immediately, effectively turning him into his own backing track while he carried on with the main melody. It was completely mesmerising both visually and audibly. It seems like he plays a bazillion instruments and I never realised that the whistling you hear in his songs is also him and not some sort of synthesiser, able to replicate the strength, pitch and tones perfectly in a live show just as much as on the albums.

As a musician, Andrew Bird produces some stunning sounds. As a performer, he’s even more captivating by the way that he produces these intricate sounds with what looks like such minimal fuss on stage that I always thought were produced using some sort of synthesiser.

thekua.com rating: 9 out of 10

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Hands down one of the coolest places we visited in Chicago was The Violet Hour. It’s a speak-easy bar found in the Wicker Park area of Chicago. Its wall looks like a simple wall, and I believe is repainted every so often to keep it mysterious. You just have to try the door and see for yourself if it opens or not.

We heard that it gets pretty busy sometimes, and they have a policy of not letting more people in than they have seats for. A wonderful policy that means there is no over crowding and the atmosphere inside remains calm and enjoyable. We decided to arrive early at around 7pm, meaning that our eyes had to do a bit of adjusting from the bright sunlight outside to the near darkness inside.

The Violet Hour is split into a couple of different rooms separated by some long black flowing curtains. The first “room” is really the waiting area for those arriving too late, while the first room is part split into a bar and several booths for smaller crowds of people. There were about eight of us so we got some space out back, a loungier-type space with tall backed chairs, small tables and candles everywhere casting small shadows in every direction.

Their menu is spectacular with lots of different cocktail options (all at US12), plenty of single malt, brandy and tequila choices for those less inclined. They also have a nice selection of finger foods (we tried the kobe dogs, cajun prawns and the flatbread, all delicious options). Service was great with constant fill ups of the bottle of tap water and the waitress asking if we needed any help with the menu or ordering when someone new joined our group.

I remember trying the Oldest Living Confederate Widow (Bombay Dry, Lemon, Honey Syrup, Pernod Absinthe, House Orange Bitters), the Juliet and Romeo (Beefeater, Mint, Cucumber, Rose Water) and the Sitting Limbo (Beefeater, Pineapple, St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram, Luxardo Bitter). All of the cocktails were amazingly delicious, never tasting like acrid alcohol but definitely strong as you feel the effects hitting you quickly.

The Violet Hour is definitely a place I want to return to when I come back to Chicago in August.

Name: The Violet Hour
Address: 1520 N Damen Avenue, Chicago, 60622
Website: http://www.theviolethour.com/
The good: Amazing cocktails at only US$12, fantastic food and nice ambiance
The bad: Getting in early to need to get a table.

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One of the things recommended to me by numerous people was the Gangster Tour of Chicago run by these folks over here. As far as tours go, it’s a pretty easy one. You take off in a big black bus and two people (dressed in character) give you the low down of the history of the city with that special gangster point of view.

Unfortunately the bus itself, reminiscent of an old American-style school bus wasn’t particularly great for taking photos and let me focus more on the story that unwound itself. We visited many sites around Chicago, places where many of the gangsters grew up, where the battles were had, why turf wars started (and ended) and lots of little detail that would be easy to miss simply walking by.

The tour covers a lot of greater chicago as well so is a great way to see parts of the city that you wouldn’t think of really visiting including a drive by through Chicago’s tiny Chinatown and probably just as sizeable Little Italy neighbourhoods. Some of it gets pretty cheesy at times but was still well worth the US$28.

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I didn’t really elude to this in my last post but the reason I’m in Chicago at the moment is to celebrate the wedding of a couple of friends I met in the UK who ended up moving to Chicago. The day was a wonderful celebration including a large portion of family and friends from both sides of the pond (Gaz is English and Molly is American) starting the day with high tea at the very fancy Drake Hotel topping off the day with a sunset cruise around the Chicago shore line.

As you can see from the sunset above, Chicago’s finest weather came out to help make the day a huge success. It obviously rubbed off on the couple who couldn’t be help beam for the entire day. Here’s a picture of both of them.

The cruise ran particularly smooth considering that there was an unlimited tab on board and multiple decks. I don’t think there was any incidents whatsoever and everyone seemed to be really enjoying the time on board. I guess it’s hard *not* to if you have views like this to keep you entertained.

Thanks again and congratulations to both of them. I had a fantastic time and I know that many other people did as well!

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Everyone I’ve ever talked to always has great things to say about Chicago, and after being here a few days I definitely have to agree with them. Sure, it has it’s crime areas but then what big city doesn’t? Chicago is an amazingly walkable city, particularly as a tourist and frankly I can’t say that I’ve felt in danger or anything, even when walking back down town to get home after a night out in the River North Area.

The city is chock full of amazing architectural wonders, and an amazing number of high-rises. I would even guess that it probably has more floors per capita than any other city in the world. Historically it has the (former) Sears tower once called the tallest building in the world yet there are a huge number of tall buildings considering that I think the population of greater Chicago hovers around something like three million people. It probably makes a whole lot of sense with such bitter winters and blistering winds it apparently gets. I’ve been really fortunate with the weather this week with only one day where it was drizzly and though I wouldn’t necessarily say that it’s been hot, we’ve had a few days where the temperature has definitely been a very comfortable one.

I think Chicago is fairly well known for some of its art pieces, including the well known Cloud Gate affectionately known as the “Bean” (the picture above I took from below for something different) located in Millennium Park. It remains a huge draw card and why wouldn’t it with its still highly polished exterior producing a vast array of angles skewing any normal reflection. Just down from there is The Crown Fountain with the images of local Chicagoans smiling and moving around and then every fifteen or so minutes stopping to spout a stream of water from their mouth. I definitely recommend downloading the audio tour from the Millennium Park website as well.

Although I’ve been here for about five days, I can definitely see why Chicago appeals to so many people. There are plenty of art installations around the city (I especially liked this physical manifestation of the American Gothic painting) and the city seems walkable and for those that get tired or just plain lazy, taxis are cheap and public transport is very reasonable.

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Left yesterday(?) morning on a Virgin Atlantic flight to get to Chicago for a friend’s wedding celebration. Lovely all around. Flight wasn’t too packed (got a whole three seat row to myself!) and arrived at a reasonable hour. Can’t wait since I’ve never been here before.

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