Yesterday, the weather was perfect here in Chicago -- blue, blue sky, temperature in the mid-70s -- street festival weather. The weather inspired Peter to take us to two of who knows how many street festivals happening this weekend around Chicago: the Guiness Oyster Fest and the German Fest. What a blast!
Oyster Fest in the trendy Roscoe Village neighborhood was our first stop for oyster appetizers as Peter put it. Oyster Fest proved a gentle, somewhat upscale affair with lots of young professionals pushing around their first borns or wearing them face out on their chests. One little red headed baby strapped to his 30 something's father's chest this way earnestly dipped his whole hand into his father's beer while his dad talked to friends and then tasted his fingers with a scowl on his face looking as if his was a very serious assessment of what his dad was drinking. As we navigated through the street fair we wondered where the oysters were. We found the beer easily enough. Turns out you can only get oysters at one booth, and there is a line. Interesting, we thought, because you would assume that an Oyster Fest would be all about oysters, fried, Rockefeller, shooters. But no. This isn't Abbeville, Louisiana after all. The line moved quickly, though. They announced over a speaker system that over 12,000 oysters were sold at last year's fest. We had a dozen raw oysters, and bowl of very tasty marinated calimari.
We heard some music, too, rock and roll and then Irish rock and roll, and some ska. We were also treated to a group of highlanders playing all the bagpipe hits you can think of. There was an unusually high amount of very large dogs at this street fair. After a while we realized there was a booth dedicated to mastifs.... One smaller dog got pushed around in a baby carriage on a pillow.
On to dinner. German Fest takes place every year (apparently) in Lincoln Village. It's crowded into a corner there, and you've got to like brats and sauerkraut because that's all they serve. And beer. In special commemerative plastic souvenir steins. We loved our brats! A nice hearty meal which included potates, of course. We looked around for a bit and then settled in at the large beer hall style tent where a band of men in leiderhosen were setting up. Ya. A group of older people of German descent were all dressed up in colorful costumes complete with headgear. We decided they were our photo op. They were very accommodating and outrageously nice. They were from Minnesota, and one woman told me their carnivale season goes from November to Ash Wednesday. Hmmm. Who knew.
The band started up. Peter and I couldn't resist the oompa sounds of the German tunes and we were drawn to the dance floor to waltz and sway and sing along, whatever was demanded of us. The band peaked with a sing-a-long rendition of John Denver's Country Road.
It was only 8 o'clock when we left Lincoln Park to its jam packed celebration of al things German. We headed over to Fitzgerald's and sat outside in the still beautiful weather waiting for music and enjoying a chat and some Wishbone take out which is a very welcome addition to the Fitzgerald experience. We both loved the first band. Neither one of us had ever heard of this young woman Sara Porges, but what a personality and a great rocker. Word on the street is that she's from Massachusetts, maybe even Fall River (where my dad was from) and that she is Portugese. She seemed all-American to me last night and cute and funny as can be between rock outs. I'd see her again. The Iguanas came on next. They sounded good, but I was by then too tired to really enjoy them. Besides, without Derek Houston in the band, I can't seem to muster up my old enthusiasm for the Iguanas.
That was it the whole evening. Peter wants and gets credit for the longest datenight so far, and he is tied for the most number of venues in one datenight, but he's not competitive or anything.
Thanks, Peter, for a fun, adenturous date night. Much love, Renee
No comments:
Post a Comment