Chicago Visitor's Guide

JordansBulls · Post #181 » by **JordansBulls** » Tue Jun 10, 2014 1:30 am

Brought this up because I went to Munich back in March and went to the Original Hofbrauhaus, however I will be visiting back home to Chicago and I hear they have a Hofbrauhaus Chicago. Has anyone been to it? Is it any good?

HINrichPolice · Post #182 » by **HINrichPolice** » Tue Jun 10, 2014 4:15 am

Well since this thread has been bumped...

Au Cheval.

Best burger in Chicago? Yay or nay?

Dieselbound&Down · Post #183 » by **Dieselbound&Down** » Tue Jun 10, 2014 5:41 pm

JordansBulls wrote:Brought this up because I went to Munich back in March and went to the Original Hofbrauhaus, however I will be visiting back home to Chicago and I hear they have a Hofbrauhaus Chicago. Has anyone been to it? Is it any good?

I've never been but know where it is. Right on the expressway, built on a former parking lot and sandwiched between a multiplex and Toby Keiths (country singer) bar in Rosemont. Across the street from the convention center.

I would guess that, other than the name, girls in leiderhosen and beer it bears little resemblance to the one in Munich as far as atmosphere and charm.

drbg43 · Post #184 » by **drbg43** » Mon Jul 28, 2014 10:40 pm

Coming to Chicago the weekend of the 16th. Anything I should know about? What are some good places to go late night near the magnificent mile?

This thread is great BTW.

MalikJoakim24 · Post #185 » by **MalikJoakim24** » Tue Jul 29, 2014 3:31 am

HINrichPolice wrote:Well since this thread has been bumped...

Au Cheval.

Best burger in Chicago? Yay or nay?

not bad

drbg43 · Post #186 » by **drbg43** » Fri Aug 15, 2014 2:03 am

BUMP

did that work?

Post #187 » by **alucryts** » Fri Aug 15, 2014 2:09 am

Thank you so much for this bump...total instant bookmark. I am moving in to the Lincoln Park area, and this thread will be my bible as I learn downtown haha.

flat_eric · Post #188 » by **flat_eric** » Fri Aug 15, 2014 9:42 am

alucryts wrote:Thank you so much for this bump...total instant bookmark. I am moving in to the Lincoln Park area, and this thread will be my bible as I learn downtown haha.

I'll be staying in LP during my holiday in Chicago later this year. Let me know how you find it

Sent from my iPhone using RealGM Forums

organix85 · Post #189 » by **organix85** » Fri Aug 15, 2014 1:55 pm

HINrichPolice wrote:Well since this thread has been bumped...

Au Cheval.

Best burger in Chicago? Yay or nay?

Kuma's still wins for me cause the variety. The Au Cheval burger is great, but I still slightly prefer Kumas (Absu).

LoveDaBoo · Post #190 » by **LoveDaBoo** » Fri Aug 15, 2014 2:19 pm

Jesus, what's with these burgers and fried eggs? Disgusting.

drbg43 · Post #191 » by **drbg43** » Sat Aug 16, 2014 1:03 am

LoveDaBoo wrote:Jesus, what's with these burgers and fried eggs? Disgusting.

Yeah that sounds pretty gross. Is that a thing in Chicago?

genbar · Post #192 » by **genbar** » Sat Aug 16, 2014 3:11 am

drbg43 wrote:
LoveDaBoo wrote:Jesus, what's with these burgers and fried eggs? Disgusting.

Yeah that sounds pretty gross. Is that a thing in Chicago?

It's a thing in all foodie cities.

LOCKDOWN BAR & GRILL in Ukrainian Village, and Hamburger Mary's in Andersonville are my faves for burgers.

JordansBulls · Post #193 » by **JordansBulls** » Wed Aug 27, 2014 5:19 pm

Went to Giordano's yesterday and Lou Malnatti's today.

poolshark52 · Post #194 » by **poolshark52** » Wed Aug 27, 2014 5:30 pm

drbg43 wrote:
LoveDaBoo wrote:Jesus, what's with these burgers and fried eggs? Disgusting.

Yeah that sounds pretty gross. Is that a thing in Chicago?

Actually its quite delicious. The key is not to fry the egg to hard, you want the yoke to seep into the burger and bun! Mmmmmmm

Mk0 · Post #195 » by **Mk0** » Fri Oct 20, 2023 6:20 pm

Bumping this thread. It may be almost 10yrs old but I am using it for my trip in a few weeks.

ThisGuyFawkes · Post #196 » by **ThisGuyFawkes** » Tue Nov 7, 2023 5:17 pm

So I've been to many Bulls games in my lifetime, but never been to the UC. I'll be the area for a funeral so I decided to grab some tickets while I'm there. I'll be in Gurnee, but I wasn't sure about the best way to get to the game. It's the Magic game at 7pm on 11/17 (Friday night). I'll have a rental car so not sure if I should try to drive, but will traffic and parking be a nightmare? Is there a decent public transportation (train, bus, etc). Would an Uber be crazy expensive?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Post #197 » by **dougthonus** » Tue Nov 7, 2023 6:15 pm

mlitney01 wrote:So I've been to many Bulls games in my lifetime, but never been to the UC. I'll be the area for a funeral so I decided to grab some tickets while I'm there. I'll be in Gurnee, but I wasn't sure about the best way to get to the game. It's the Magic game at 7pm on 11/17 (Friday night). I'll have a rental car so not sure if I should try to drive, but will traffic and parking be a nightmare? Is there a decent public transportation (train, bus, etc). Would an Uber be crazy expensive?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

If you're going to drive, it's worth prebuying a parking pass from vividseats.com (or somewhere else, but I've found vivid to be cheapest). I'm assuming you would take 94 south then hop on 290 west to Damen and then go to the UC.

Lot K is a really good lot for that, as it's close off Damen and easy to get out of after the game to hop back on 290 and go the direction you want to go.

I'm not sure how long the drive will be, but a good way to check it is if you have your hotel address, just google maps it to the UC around 5:30pm CST on a game night and you should have a pretty good feel for it.

If you do public transit, you'll want to check the train schedule, but there likely will be limited options on the metra, and so you'll probalby have to very rigidly leave at a certain time to get there. You could also just uber from teh stadium back to gurnee, i'd guess it's like $60+tip.

madvillian · Post #198 » by **madvillian** » Tue Nov 7, 2023 6:17 pm

mlitney01 wrote:So I've been to many Bulls games in my lifetime, but never been to the UC. I'll be the area for a funeral so I decided to grab some tickets while I'm there. I'll be in Gurnee, but I wasn't sure about the best way to get to the game. It's the Magic game at 7pm on 11/17 (Friday night). I'll have a rental car so not sure if I should try to drive, but will traffic and parking be a nightmare? Is there a decent public transportation (train, bus, etc). Would an Uber be crazy expensive?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Granted I've been to exactly one game at the UC and it was 20 years ago or so but I would not want to be driving there and back. A Chicago native could help out but I believe there is a blue line stop within a few blocks. I remember going through the area on the way from the airport to downtown on the train.

jnrjr79 · Post #199 » by **jnrjr79** » Tue Nov 7, 2023 6:28 pm

mlitney01 wrote:So I've been to many Bulls games in my lifetime, but never been to the UC. I'll be the area for a funeral so I decided to grab some tickets while I'm there. I'll be in Gurnee, but I wasn't sure about the best way to get to the game. It's the Magic game at 7pm on 11/17 (Friday night). I'll have a rental car so not sure if I should try to drive, but will traffic and parking be a nightmare? Is there a decent public transportation (train, bus, etc). Would an Uber be crazy expensive?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Gurnee is far enough north that pretty much anything will be a pain.

Right now, 2 of the 4 lanes of I-94 inbound to the city are closed, so yeah, you'll probably have a decent amount of traffic on the way down, but the way back should be fine. It's pretty easy to use SpotHero or StubHub to secure a parking spot at the UC. Expect $20-30. There are also non-official lots nearby that work well enough. There used to be legal street parking nearby, but it's increasingly prohibited to park on the streets there on game nights unless you live in the neighborhood.

Public transit from Gurnee to the UC is possible, but it'll probably take bus/train/bus or bus/train/train and at least two hours, so even if there might be traffic, I'd drive. Getting back to Gurnee will be much faster via car, because you won't have much in the way of traffic that time of night once you've escaped the area immediately around the UC.

I don't know what an Uber would cost specifically, but my guess is something like a hundred bucks each way.

jnrjr79 · Post #200 » by **jnrjr79** » Tue Nov 7, 2023 6:33 pm

madvillian wrote:
mlitney01 wrote:So I've been to many Bulls games in my lifetime, but never been to the UC. I'll be the area for a funeral so I decided to grab some tickets while I'm there. I'll be in Gurnee, but I wasn't sure about the best way to get to the game. It's the Magic game at 7pm on 11/17 (Friday night). I'll have a rental car so not sure if I should try to drive, but will traffic and parking be a nightmare? Is there a decent public transportation (train, bus, etc). Would an Uber be crazy expensive?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Granted I've been to exactly one game at the UC and it was 20 years ago or so but I would not want to be driving there and back. A Chicago native could help out but I believe there is a blue line stop within a few blocks. I remember going through the area on the way from the airport to downtown on the train.

As a native who drives to the UC routinely, it's totally fine these days (not sure if you meant you wouldn't want to drive from a safety perspective or a hassle perspective). The neighborhood is better than it used to be, and in any event, on game nights there's so much police/security that I wouldn't be stressed about it. The annoying thing will just be Friday night traffic on the way down.

It's true there are blue and green line stops within walking distance, but it's not going to be super easy to access that stuff from Gurnee.