Illinois Day 1 - Deep Dish, Dogs, and Dramatic Foliage
Today started out with my friend Kathryn leaving to take an early flight to go see their parents. After bidding my friend a fond adieu, I went to get some coffee at the excellent but sadly now defunct Buzz Coffee Roasters. I’m sad to hear that Buzz has closed because they had some really strong and tasty cold brew that kicked my morning into gear.
After fueling up, I made my way to where I’d be staying for the rest of the week. One of my mom’s best friend's daughters, Diantha, lives in Chicago with her partner Graham, and they were kind enough to take me in. Growing up Diantha was closer in age to my brother and sister so I had fond memories of our families hanging out, but I hadn’t really seen her since I was in single digits. When they took me in though, it was like no time had passed and there was an easy familiarity of shared family and friendship. They also proved to be the perfect tour guides for my particular interests in Chicago, because Diantha studied art and Graham is a musician (and long-time bassist for the Blue Man Group!) so they were happy to hear about my travels and steer me toward their favorite spots in the Chicago art world.
Before I could get to exploring though, I still had some important business to attend to post-break-in, namely getting a new laptop to keep this dang blog going and a new window for my car so I could actually drive.
I started out getting a new computer, or at least one that was new to me because it was exponentially cheaper to find a refurbished mac than a brand new one and 45 states in my budget did not have new Macbook money left. Luckily, I found a nice 5-year-old computer in my price range, at a place called Experimac, and they were very quick and helpful getting me set up and ready to go.
Getting my window repaired went a little less smoothly, and I was on the phone with my insurance company for well over an hour trying to find a place that could take me ASAP. Eventually, EZ Auto Glass proved to live up to their name and they took me in quickly and held my dumb hand through all the insurance billing.
Best of all, the glass shop was only about a block away from one of the most respected institutions for authentic Chicago-Style Hot Dogs: Jimmy’s Red Hots. The Windy City takes their hot dogs very seriously, and they don’t trifle with an inferior product so to be considered one of the best hot dogs in Chicago means you’ve gotta have a pretty damn good dog. Jimmy’s Red Hots did not disappoint. They’ve been slinging dogs since 1954, making them one of the oldest continuously operating vendors in the city, and they run out of a beautifully no-frills brick building which you can see has remained virtually unchanged these 50+ years.
The titular red hots lived up to this historical legacy admirably by upholding the high standards of Chicago-Style Hot dogs. What makes a Chicago dog special is multi-faceted: 1. The actual dog is almost always a 100% Vienna Beef, the city’s trademark dog since 1893, and they can be steamed or grilled but never boiled 2. The bun is usually a Rosen Bun made famous by Sam Rosen, a Polish immigrant to the city, circa 1909, and they are to be steamed (never toasted) to make them maximally soft and able to be squished into a perfect handhold 3. Toppings can consist of “dragging the dog through the garden” a depression-era innovation of to add some nutritional value to the cheap and easy dish by adding vegetables like peppers, onions, pickles, and sweet relish. 4. German Yellow Mustard is acceptable but ketchup is a cardinal sin and many shops (including Jimmy’s) have signage strictly forbidding the condiment. As a generally condiment-averse boy, I had no problem avoiding the red stuff, but I might have been mildly blasphemous by avoiding the mustard and relish, which are supposed to be particularly good in the city, but I did actually leave on some of the onions which added a bit of sweetness but not too much to the delicious and perfectly textured affair. Throw in some fantastic hand-cut french fries, and you’ve got a damn fine lunch which is the best way to learn about a city’s history.
After lunch, my window was fixed so I was able to take my newly renovated vehicle and get in some sight-seeing. My first stop was one that multiple people had called a must-see, a beautiful little oasis in the middle of the city’s West Side: Garfield Park Conservatory. Garfield Park is one of the oldest and largest greenhouse conservatories in the country, consisting of over 2 acres of greenhouse space and over 10 acres of outdoor gardens. The conservatory was the brainchild of landscape architect, Jens Jenson (wonderfully ridiculous name), who worked with a team of Prairie School architects and New York engineering firms to bring three different smaller West Side gardens under one roof. The greenhouse itself is a spectacular structure meant to emulate the large haystacks of the Midwest with a shape aesthetically gentle but structurally strong. It was completed in 1907, and it must have blown turn-of-the-century Chicagoans away:
Over 100 years later, it was still mighty impressive, and it was even better inside. Visitors are wowed right when they walk in by the largest greenhouse in the collection, the 65 ft high and 90 ft wide Palm House, which contains over 70 different species of palm trees. The palms are housed in a perfectly tropical environment, and Jens Jensen’s big innovation for turn-of-the-century greenhouse curation was to make the indoor gardens look as much like naturalistic landscapes as possible. It’s become more of the norm now, but novel or not it really adds to the immersive experience of leaving urban Chicago and entering a totally different biosphere. In some ways my timing was particularly lucky, because I was one of the last batch of visitors to get to see the awe-inspiring Scheelea Palm (top left) which actually outgrew the conservatory in 2019, just one year after my visit.
Beyond the stunning greenery and architecture, the conservatory also has a lovely collection of permanent and rotating art installations, and the Palm House was complimented by a whimsical sculpture by Claire Pentecost called the Persistence of the Unsorted. The sculpture beautifully rides the line between adorable and creepy as it presents a boat of strange animal-human-hybrid creatures sailing above the palms. Whether they come across as sweet or offputting, the creatures are packed with just tons of personality and they add an almost mythic air to the garden.
After the Palm House, I visited the Show House which is where the Conservatory hosts its big annual flower shows. I was visiting in the off season, so I didn’t all the theatrics, but the permanent plants (like the vibrant, powderpuffs on the left) and the calming water features made it a treat at any time of year.
After the Show House, I passed through the Horticulture Hall, which doubles as a popular event space in the city. They were getting ready for some kind of wedding or fancy dinner, so I couldn’t really explore the space, but I did get to take in the hall’s absolutely breathtaking mosaic fountain sent from Chicago’s sister city of Casablanca.
Next up, I took a step outside of the greenhouses for a little bit to stroll through the Monet Garden, a small but lovely outdoor garden featuring different flowers that inspired the famous French Impressionist. It was really neat to see how much the colors and shapes of the flowers really do remind you of Monet’s paintings considering his work is known for its looser approach to realism.
Back inside the greenhouses, my next stop was the Aroid House. The name Aroids refers to the type of a flower, consisting of a structure made up of a modified leaf and a stalk of tiny flowers (really evident in the middle picture), rather than the climate of the garden. As opposed to dry and arid environs, aroids are most commonly found on rainforest floors so the greenhouse is kept at a pleasant temperature and humidity. Some of the flowers likely feel familiar as aroids are common houseplants due to their ability to thrive in low light. One plant that might seem less familiar is the Garfield Anthurium (on the right) because it was actually created right here in the conservatory when a former director hybridized two other plants in the early 20th century.
As lovely as the flowers were, the star attraction of the Aroid House (for me anyway) was this incredible koi pond accentuated by beautiful Persian Lilies by fan-favorite glass artist, Dale Chihuly. While I didn’t take the best photo in the world, you can still see the way the light reflecting off the glass lilies creates a pretty neat effect.
After the Aroid House, the next greenhouse was the Desert House, which was one of my favorites. I love the variety of funny little shapes that cacti and succulents come in, and they always seem to have a ton of personality. I also learned that there’s actually a species of prickly pear cactus that is native to Illinois which I would not have guessed.
The star of the Desert House was this magnificent Century Plant, with its towering flower structure that can reach up to 8 meters in height. The plant’s name derives from the fact that it only flowers once in its lifetime (which is usually somewhere closer to 10-30 years rather than 100), and the conservatory’s specimen still hasn’t bloomed so it’ll likely be a pretty big and exciting event when it does.
After the Desert House, I stepped out to explore some of the Conservatory’s 10 acres of outdoor gardens. I couldn’t have asked for better weather, and it was really sort of magical being in such a wide-open green space right in the middle of a sprawling metropopolis. You almost forgot you were still in Chicago.
Even with my rudimentary photography, some of the flowers were so pretty they couldn’t help but make for dazzling subjects:
I particularly liked getting to see some aquatic plants gently bobbing in the ponds and water features that classed up the trails.
Some artistic additions to the trails included a peaceful garden labyrinth and funky bench emblazoned with the poem Anecdote of the Jar by Wallace Stevens (which you can read here in case the photo is hard to zoom in on).
Lastly before going back inside, there was a small and pretty demonstration garden consisting of flowers and vegetables that visitors can learn to grow easily and sustainably in the city.
Back inside the Greenhouses, the next garden I visited was the Sugar From the Sun house which is really four different gardens in one. The goal of the house is to highlight the pretty miraculous process of photosynthesis and show how different plants take the sun’s energy and make sugar. The house is divided into environments highlighting water, air, sunlight, and sugar to showcase the different stages of the photosynthetic process and to show how plants across a variety of settings have adapted to make sure it happens. I don’t know how much of the different themes I truly picked up, but the sheer variety of plants in this house made it a real showstopper with long hanging plants, tropical fruits, bright colorful flowers, and some nice art thrown in for good measure.
One of the most incredible specimens was this plant just starting to grow inside a large hollow pod. I believe the pod was man-made but it made for a pretty striking spectacle.
The last greenhouse was the Fern Room, which the original architect intended as a vision of Chicago a million years ago. There was a real primeval atmosphere hanging over the room as the giant ancient ferns sprawled in every direction, and it was sort of haunting but beautiful in its own way.
Leaving the Conservatory, I got one more look at Claire Pentecost’s charming sculpture, gliding above the palms.
Heading back to my car, the L (Chicago’s elevated trains, a really great public transit system) station just outside of Garfield Park caught my eye with its whimsical platform made to look like a Queen Anne-style Victorian cottage. It was a nod to the historic Homan station that this current station replaced, and it made for a fun transition from the out-of-time-ness of the conservatory back to the bustling city.
All that nature and strolling started to tire me out so I went to get a little pick me up at beloved Chicago coffee chain Dark Matter Coffee. Dark Matter specializes in excellent coffee and funky psychedelic art, and I was positively delighted by their flagship location, the Mothership, which is wonderfully designed to look like you’re stepping into a steampunk spaceship. It was perfectly wacky, and their iced coffee was fantastic.
Adding to the sci-fi-ness of the experience, when I stepped out of the coffee shop there was a car parked in front of mine that was the same color, same make, and had damage in the exact same part of the bumper (though I don’t know if they also hit a bobcat in North Dakota). It was very eerie.
My next stop was one I was probably the most excited for upon entering the Windy city, and that was to get some quality deep dish pizza. I made my way to one of the premier pizzeria's, Pequod’s, for a prime personal pan (say that three times fast). The place was understandably very popular, so I had to wait for a bit before dining which just meant that I got to catch up with my cousin, Kevin, over the phone for a bit which suited me just fine. Once I got seated, I really decided to make the most of my time there, celebrating having a computer and a complete car again and putting my robbery behind me. I went all out, getting cheesy garlic bread, a personal deep dish, and the signature Pequod’s IPA made in collaboration with the city’s Spiteful Brewing. It was divine, The pizza might look a little funny because they put the sauce on top of the cheese, but there’s a method to the madness because the layer of cheese blends seamlessly with the fluffy deep dish bread and starts to caramelize around the edges of the thick pan adding a crispiness that puts the whole thing over the edge. There are those who don’t believe in deep dish pizza as a cuisine, but as far as I’m concerned they're all fools and Pequod’s makes an excellent case for my position.
After Pequod’s, it was a little too late and my belly was a little too full of cheese to make it to any open mics which was a bit disappointing but I still got my comedy fix because Sacha Baron Cohen’s Who Is America? had just come out. It was astonishing to see how even after Borat and Bruno, he was still able to trick current politicians into revealing their worst selves, but I guess that’s what’s so remarkable about the grifters in this country in that they tell on themselves constantly but they still get elected. As funny as Sacha consistently is, that doesn’t stop being a little terrifying.
Favorite Random Sightings: a restaurant ominously named Moonlight Vulture; a place offering something not at all suspicious called Holistic Dentistry; posters over town claiming to be left by someone called the Lucky Gnome; a restaurant called the Chinese Friendly House; the interestingly named Squasht Boutique; and a bumper sticker that just said “Cheezborger cheezborger cheezborger” from an early SNL sketch inspired by a Chicago tavern.
Regional Observations: Chicago is a beautiful city with god awful roads.
Random Joke of the Day:
After 50 years of wondering why he didn't look like his younger sister or brother, the man finally got up the nerve to ask his mother if he was adopted.
"Yes, you were son," his mother said as she started to cry softly. "but it didn't work out and they brought you back."
Song of the Day: