For those who know me, the fact that I have not eaten
Chicago pizza is hard to believe. I have
been traveling to Chicago since I was a little kid. When we decided to go to Chicago for our
anniversary, I really wanted to find something to do for my bucket list but had
a difficult time since I have done so many things in Chicago. One thing that I have always wanted to do is
walk on Wrigley Field. Unfortunately, we
were going to the park on the ONE day that you cannot tour the park and go on
the field. After much thought and Google
research, I realized that I hadn’t tried the one thing that is truly a Chicago
tradition…deep-dish pizza. I set out to
find the best location for deep-dish pizza since every pizza joint advertises
as the “best Chicago pizza”. I decided
on Gino’s East and set out to cross off #29….eat authentic Chicago Deep Dish
Pizza.
1. Start a blog
2. Go to the Presidential Inauguration / visit DC
5. Eating a raw oyster
6. Ride a mechanical bull
7. Cook a traditional Thanksgiving dinner by myself
8. Shoot a gun/target shooting
9. Go Mushroom hunting
10. Learn to sew / make something I can wear
12. Ride in a hot air balloon
13. Learn to play craps
14. Eat at Oklahoma Joe's BBQ
17. Learn to make a pie from scratch
18. Make Grandma's kolache cookies correctly
19. Take a shot of Jack Daniels
20. Take a cake decorating class and then decorate my own cake
21. Do at least one pull-up
22. Visit Graceland
23. Take a train ride/ weekend trip to Herman, Mo.
25. Run a 8 min/mile 5K
26. Take ballet class from the KC Ballet
28. Travel to Europe
29.
Eat authentic Chicago deep dish pizza
30.
Justin & I are both huge baseball fans. Since we started dating in 2004, we have gone to at least one MLB baseball game each year. Justin grew up a San Francisco Giants fan and I grew up a Chicago Cubs fan. Since being a Cubs fan is awesome, my sweet spouse has become a fan of my favorite team over the years. On our first wedding anniversary in 2011, he surprised me with tickets to Opening Day at Wrigley Field. Since that trip, we decided we wanted to make it to Opening Day early year and eventually watch a game at every ballpark. For our second anniversary, we went to Opening Day at Kauffman Stadium. We planned to travel to Pittsburgh, PA to watch the Cubs take on the Pirates for Opening Day this year but missed out on tickets. Instead of spending way too much for tickets, airfare, etc. We decided that our third anniversary would be spent watching either the Cubs or the Royals. Because I am partial to my Cubbies, we decided to ride Megabus to Chicago this year. As it has been in the past, we had a great trip. Every time I visit Chicago I want to move there immediately. I love that city! Then I realize how great of a job I have in St. Joseph and that I couldn’t make near the same amount in a city where the cost is triple that of where we are now. Instead we will just have to visit.
Our trip started out on Saturday night. Our trips to Chicago are starting to build many traditions. We ate at Winslow’s BBQ at City Market before we boarded that bus which is the same we did back in 2011.
The bus left at 8:00 pm and arrived in Chicago at 7:00 am on Sunday. I wised up and took zzQuil this time and was very happy I did. The ride will never be comfortable and I was happy with as much sleep as I could get.
We made it to our hotel way before check-in time. We ate breakfast at the hotel restaurant and then ventured out to walk the city and kill time. What we didn’t think about when planning our trip is that everything would be closed on Sunday morning. Luckily a few stores were open. We finally made it to our hotel room and were able to rest up a bit. Justin is a sneaky guy and disgustingly romantic. He surprised me with champagne and chocolate covered strawberries in our hotel room after our nap.
No trip to Chicago would be complete without shopping on Michigan Avenue. Justin was able to snag us a good deal at the Allerton Hotel right on Michigan Ave. It was perfect walking distance to all of the shops. My amazing husband continued another anniversary tradition by buying me a necklace from Tiffany’s. I definitely lucked out marrying a man who loves that store as much as I do! He is truly amazing and I love him so much.
Sunday night we meet up with our friends, Jim & Caitlin, for dinner. As much as we wanted to stay up and party a little, we were too tired and crashed early.
Monday was game day. We got to Wrigleyville early in order to enjoy an overpriced beer at the Cubbie Bear, another tradition. Again we sat in the bleachers and had to line up early to get good seats. It is hard for me to explain my emotions when I am at Wrigley Field.
That ballpark holds so many memories for my family and me. This year was the first year without my grandmother. She is the reason I am a Cubs fan and being at the park knowing she is no longer with us was really hard. As I get older I realize more that the love of my team and the sport of baseball is more important than who someone else cheers for. Each person has a reason to cheer on a team. Many times that choice has a lot of emotion and tradition tied to it. Fans will always be negative towards the other team and nothing will ever change that. For me, I will try to not get caught of in that anymore. I want to pass on to my kids the love of baseball and the Cubs and not the negativity that the opposing team can bring. In order to pass on the nice way to cheer on baseball, I will not be bringing them into the bleachers until he/she is at least 21! The bleachers are brutal but in a loving family kind of way ; ) If you cheer for the opposing team, you better have a thick skin or sit somewhere else. It is quite entertaining but so harsh. I definitely don’t partake in the banter. Let’s just say the atmosphere in the bleachers is one of a kind. Though I haven’t been to many ballparks, I would guess it is quite different to any park in the MLB.
I managed to eat 2 hot dogs, nachos and popcorn plus a few beers during the game. I wish I would have remembered I was planning to eat deep dish pizza later that night….oh well, it’s vacation, right? We enjoyed a Cubbie Blue beer (best beer ever!) at Goose Island post game and then headed back downtown for pizza.
I picked Gino’s East after finding a video on travelchannel.com (Check out the video here - http://youtu.be/N5KBMnrMUg0. Man v. Food had traveled there along with a couple other shows. My research told me that this place was definitely authentic Chicago pizza. The few people that I talked to who were either from Chicago or had traveled through before all recommended the pizza. Including my dad who ate at Gino’s East back in 1978!
Strangely enough, we had an appetite once we arrived. As always, our eyes are bigger than our tummies. We ordered garlic breadsticks and pizza! I will let the pictures speak for themselves. Yum yum yum yum!
I read about the crust at Gino’s and that it is made with cornmeal. The toppings are also put on the pizza in reverse order because the crust is so thick. You don’t even notice because everything is so delicious. The pizza is so filling. At this point it may rank as the best pizza I have eaten. Pizza Shoppe (KC) pizza ranks pretty high on the list and am now ready to try others to see how they compare. I am so happy to have added this to my bucket list and cannot believe I made it 29 years without eating this crazy tasty pizza. Even though we were overstuffed after our dinner we still had room for cupcakes when we got back to the room.
Again we crashed early, this time because we were buzzed and stuffed. We had to catch the bus the next morning and return to real-life and normal eating habits.
To anyone who hasn’t visited either Gino’s East or Wrigley Field, you must check out both on your next trip to the Windy City. Both are true Chicago traditions and should have a place on everyone’s bucket list. An added bonus is that we can sign the wall at Gino's. Justin & I did not miss the change to leave our mark!
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