Gilt Bar

When I first moved to Chicago, 5 years ago, I created a list of every restaurant I wanted to try. I'd add restaurants as they popped up around the city or friends recommended them, and check them off after I went. I've always loved food, trying various restaurants, and documenting my meal with photographs and videos but when I started planning events for work I got vastly more into keeping up with new restaurants and sharing recommendations. My knowledge of the Chicago restaurant scene increased tenfold. Here's my tried and true list of favorite restaurants all over Chicago broken down by cuisine: American, Asian, Breakfast/ Brunch, Dessert, Italian, Latin/Spanish/Mediterranean, Markets, Pizza, Rooftops, Seafood & Steak.

Read along with me as I tell you exactly how I spent the perfect 12 (ish) hour date night in Chicago with my husband and our two best friends. Reva, my fire wife and book bestie have recently entered our hockey romance era (didn't know that was actually a thing but here we are). After reading a couple hockey smut novels we found ourselves booking a trip to the windy city to enjoy a Chicago Blackhawks game...since it's valentines day next week we invited our hubbies to join us too ;) It ended up being the absolute perfect evening beyond fulfilling our hearts' hockey desires. We were led to the last standing prohibition era speakeasy, in the basement of the oldest building in Chicago. We shared a second hand smoke fueled nostalgic visit to one of the mob boss locales as well. Foodie finds on this trip were a solid 10 out of 10! Our hotel was just the right amount of classy yet affordable and we plan to return in the summer to spend time exploring the area on foot here too! If you enjoy this guide please do me a solid and save it to your faves and share with a friend and leave me a comment below :D Follow me on instagram for all my real time travel finds www.instagram.com/jesstakethetrip/ This is a living guide - if you save it you will receive future updates including any new places and deeper insights!

Being gluten free doesn’t have to be hard in Chicago