My girlfriends from Alabama planned a weekend up in Chicago and I was so excited to see them! We call ourselves the Gravy Girls. We all became friends a few years ago, Amy, Moniqe, and I lived in the same neighborhood in Alabama. Monique was new to the neighborhood and wanted to get together with some ladies, she met Amy and wanted to host a dinner and asked Amy to invite some friends over. Long story short we all got together (along with Meredith who couldn’t make it to Chicago) and while we were eating we talked about what gravy is to us. Monique made the most amazing dinner (her cooking is top notch) with her Nana’s gravy. Coming from the West I think of gravy as potatoes and gravy with pot roast or turkey. Amy thought of brown gravy over potatoes too, Meredith thinks of white gravy because that’s what she grew up with in the South. Monique is from New Jersey and upstate New York and her gravy is what I call pasta sauce. She has a recipe from her Nana and it is so good, I’ve craved it since moving away. So that’s how we became the Gravy Girls and breaking bread together is kind of our thing so while they were here we had to try out some top rated restaurants in Chicago. Chicago is known for it fabulous food and we weren’t disappointed once the entire weekend.
We went with a bit of a goat theme, we ate dinner at Little Goat Diner the first night the girls were in town. It was amazing!! If you’re there for breakfast/brunch I recommend their Bulls Eye French Toast, I went with some friends from here and it didn’t disappoint. For dinner we ordered the Machos Nochos, my picture doesn’t do them justice. They’re my favorite thing on the menu! You really can’t go wrong with anything though, it’s all pretty fabulous.
The next night we went to Girl and The Goat which is the original restaurant (Little Goat Diner is like her little sis). The owner/chef competed and won Bravo’s Top Chef. Both restaurants are located in the West Loop which I love, it has such a fun atmosphere. It’s really hard to get into Girl and The Goat so we were pretty excited that we managed to get a table. The food was so amazing, I loved everything we got. None of us had ever tasted goat and felt it necessary to do so while we were there. We ordered the goat empanadas and they were delish!! It’s a family style restaurant so we all tasted each others food and I can honestly say everything was really, really good! I’m hoping I’ll be able to go back at least once before we make our move. Try it out if you’re in town but don’t forget to make reservations (like three months in advance)!
Hope you’re not as hungry as I am now!
xo,
-Mishelle
calicrest 