The Single Girl Travel Guide: Cell Block Tango Edition

If you’re just as obsessed with theatre as I am, I am sure you figured out that this travel edition is about my time in CHICAGO! 

This is the second spontaneous trip this year, and just like the last one, I had a wonderful time. There were some work things sprinkled in, here and there, but I consider my work fun, so it still felt like a vacation nonetheless. 

However, my departure from LA wasn’t so pleasant because of well… Mercury Retrograde and a 6-hour delayed flight. My flight was originally planned to leave LA at 6 am, and on my way to the airport, I received a lovely email from my airline that my flight was delayed and was scheduled to depart at 12 pm instead! Honestly, it was too early for me to make a fuss, so I had the Uber driver take me back home, so I could sleep a bit more and deal with it later. 

I told my team, and my boss immediately booked me a new flight. We had our first team dinner at Next, and I didn’t want to miss it because the food looked so delicious, and I really wanted to go to a bougie dinner. Once I finally arrived in Chicago, I jetted to the restaurant straight from the airport, still a cool 45 minutes late, and joined my team! The food was incredible! We enjoyed a delicious dégustation dinner, sampling 14 different seafood dishes that included: Caviar Sando, Lobsters in lobster broth with lobster mushrooms, Pan Roasted Yellowfin Tuna, Belly Mussels, and more. We decided on the wine pairing, and I immediately put a pause on my no-drinking phase (more about that later). 

I didn’t get any photos of the dishes because I was a bit discombobulated from my rush to the restaurant from the airport, but the courses were beautifully presented and were incredibly delicious! Also, sometimes it’s good to disconnect from your phone and be present to enjoy the meal. 

Little Bad Wolf

The second food spot I checked out was Little Bad Wolf in Andersonville, Chicago, with my dear friend Eric! This place has a sensual and romantic vibe with dim lighting and modern medieval decor. They offer an extensive selection of craft beers, artisanal cocktails, and wine while serving upscale bar food. I grabbed a Chicken, Fish, and Steak taco, and shared the mac & cheese with my friend. To be honest and transparent, I didn’t love the fish taco because I felt the aioli was too thick and overpowered the flavor of the fish — which on its own had a nice crunch and was seasoned well. Additionally, I would have liked to had a spicy salsa and a tad bit more acidity on top because I think it would have balanced the flavors well. 

However, the mac & cheese was AMAZING and was my one of my favorite parts of the meal! It reminded me of the holidays and the added saltiness from the bacon gave it great flavor. Additionally, the staff was kind, and the atmosphere was lit, because whoever's playlist was playing while we were there had Eric and me dancing in our stools!

Check out my TikTok series Single in the City, which features my dishes here. 

Kasama

The next spot I tried was Kasama, located in the East Ukrainian Village neighborhood of Chicago. It is a bakery and Filipino Michelin star restaurant with authentic home-cooked dishes with a modern twist and everything was superb! My colleagues and I shared a Foie gras danish, a salmon danish, and a black truffle croissant filled with Delice de Bourgogne cheese topped with honey and truffle oil.

STOP DROOLING!

I also enjoyed the breakfast sandwich with hash brown, egg, and cheese and an Ube latte. I highly recommend you try this place and make sure to get there early because the line gets long pretty quickly! I arrived at 8:15 am for a 9 am open time, so I suggest you plan to get there around then. 

Check out my TikTok series Single in the City, which features my dishes here.

Next up are Ping Pong in Boystown and The Wiener’s Circle for a Chicago-style hotdog. My friends and I had a mini high school reunion at Ping Pong and enjoyed some delicious Asian cuisine. It's a cute date spot with dim lighting, cute cocktails, and good food. The following day I went to The Wiener’s Circle and got myself a hotdog. While enroute to Chicago, I sat next to two lovely women on the plane that told me where to visit while in the city. They mentioned the need to try a Chicago dog and repeated, multiple times, that getting ketchup on my hotdog was a NO-NO and the only condiment acceptable was mustard. So I got myself a hotdog with mustard, and it was delicious! I now want every hotdog of mine to be Chicago-style.  

Cindy’s Rooftop

The last food destination was Cindy’s Rooftop in the Chicago Athletic Association. It was my farewell dinner, if you will. My friend Eric and I enjoyed the Burrata with tomato and watermelon panzanella, the charred broccoli rabe with delicious lemon, mint, and carrot hummus, and the traditional rigatoni bolognese. This spot has a cute patio that overlooks the Cloud Gate sculpture in Millenium Park and has an upscale vibe that gives you a perfect excuse to dress up. 

Check out my TikTok series Single in the City, which features my dishes here.

I did enjoy other spots that weren’t centered around food, like the Garfield Park Conservatory and the Art Institute of Chicago. My handy tour guide from my company, (A) Part: A Recipe Guidebook to Chicago, did help me find cool spots to check out while in the city.

Overall, Chicago was a blast, and I can’t wait to go back again. This trip mostly consisted of me eating my way through the city. I ate so much and have ZERO ragrets (not even a single letter). If you didn’t catch the reference, please review this entire video or skip to 1:51 for a good laugh. 

Guess where I am going next in the comments!

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