I Brake for (Fancy) Chocolate

Usually when G and I head to Chicago, we find some deep dish pizza to reward us after an arduous day of traveling. We purposely were pizza-free for the month of July so that this pizza would be especially delicious. How could so much cheesiness disappoint?

First stop the next morning was WIshbone, just a few blocks west of our hotel. We met up with some Rochester, NY friends who were also visiting Chicago. On our table were plates of French toast, omelets, shrimp and grits, a breakfast burrito, and biscuits and gravy. Every last one of us cleaned our plates and walked away satisfied.

We needed to walk off our breakfast so we headed downtown. We found Millennium Park at the lakeshore and admired the sculptures. Our friends headed to the Art Institute for the afternoon. We walked back to the hotel so that G could have some privacy for a phone interview. I kicked back and read a book. After the short respite, we made our way toward Michigan Ave.

I'd always heard tons of praise for Vosges chocolate. The company is known for mixing unusual flavors with its chocolate. G and I made a special trip to find the Chicago store. The shopkeeper was very helpful (in other words, she gave us lots of samples to try.) We chose some truffles--dark chocolate, kirsch, and dried Michigan cherry and dark chocolate and Mexican vanilla bean. G also picked up a Red Fire chocolate bar--dark chocolate, Ancho chile powder, and cinnamon. Crazygood.

For supper, we went to the Fox & Obel gourmet market. After some browsing and some wine tasting, we found the cafe and had a leisurely meal. G ordered the chicken salad sandwich on a potato roll. I had turkey, cranberry sauce, and brie on multi-grain. The best part was dessert, of course. We shared a cup of coffee and a decadent brownie.

On the walk back to the hotel, we stumbled onto a police barricade and several civilians with 2-way radios, herding people away from certain city blocks. We found the crew filming The Dark Knight, the Batman sequel. Of course, the burly guys guarding the set told onlookers, "Oh, it's really boring. They're filming some mockumentary about Bobby Kennedy." A block away and another burly guy, "It's a little movie called Rory's First Kiss." Um, maybe you should meet and get your stories straight. Also, you probably shouldn't be wearing a jersey with the name Wayne on the back.

I saw a small alley between office buildings so G & I ducked down there and sure enough, we made our way to part of the set. Before we could get closer though, another set protector guy (not so burly this time) found us and told us to be on our way. I thought I'd have some fun and try to confirm that this was the Batman set. "So is Bale here tonight?" I asked. "No, he's not on the schedule tonight." Ha! We were right.

In the end, all we saw was a Lamborghini ready for its closeup. A kid with a comic book t-shirt and binoculars told us that he glimpsed Heath Ledger being made up as the Joker. So how can we resist stalking the set again tomorrow night?