ICA 2009 in Chicago
1st June 2009
Only because of the proximity to Al’s Beefs on Ontario and Wells did I carry Melanie’s purse while she attended the 57th annual meeting of the International Communication Association convention held at the North Michigan Avenue Marriott Hotel this past week. It’s a dirty job, but I promised to love, cherish, and honor 30 years ago and dammit, I’m going to do it.
My teen years were spent in the greater Chicago area where I attended high school at West Aurora High with Tom Skilling, the WGN weather guy, his little brother Jeff, formerly of Enron now residing in a Federal facility, and Eric Halfvarson, operatic basso profundo, plus a larger cast of 2,000 really good kids from the late 1960s some of whom are my fbff. While the mountains of West Virginia are my home now, Chicago is an old stomping ground.
Sure, the ICA conference was heady, bright, and nuanced, but for me the best part of the trip is the food. I ate a yard (okay, only 28 inches) of Al’s beef sandwiches. Al’s makes, hands down and thumbs up, the greatest sandwich in the history of Western Civilization. As long as Al’s is open, everything is going to be okay in the world regardless of who’s President, the current S&P 500 index, or who won American Idol. My college roommate, Mo, introduced me to Al’s back in the early 1970s. Even if Mo sold me into the sex slave trade, I’d still be thankful for that initiation.
Sated on beef, we went looking for something different on Saturday and literally stumbled into Le Colonial on Rush Street. Hubba-hubba. It is a French/Viet fusion place that aims for the look and feel of Saigon circa 1950. Le Colonial is a beautiful room (check out the shots on the website) that also possesses an upstairs mahogany bar the likes of which they don’t make any more. I could sit up there all day sipping small vodka martinis. And the food! Good grief, well done Asian resides in a class all its own and Le Colonial provides well done Asian dishes to suit any taste or appetite. We’ll be back in Chicago this November and I plan to take up residence at Le Colonial (and it’s just a few blocks from Al’s!).
For dinner we had a fun time a Bin 36, just down river from the new Trump Tower. [BTW: The Trump place does not encourage walk in hoi polloi traffic. Be warned.] Bin 36 is a trendy place with an emphasis on value, food, and wine. It offers an extensive cheese and wine menu with a focus on flights. Thus, you can sample a range of tastes, yet eat just one regular sized serving. The whole flight strategy, whether with wine or cheese or even Vienna sausages, is a bright and effective persuasion play. Combinations of bites that sum to a whole dish provide interesting and provocative choices. Yet, most places don’t use the idea. Back to the opera!
Café Spiaggia was a delight. Very pretty room, excellent service, nice views out the second story window of North Michigan avenue and the Drake Hotel. And, the food’s pretty good, too. Melanie loved it and I appreciated it. I’ve got a junkie palate and prefer fat, salt, and sweet tastes. The chef preferred bright, sharp, bitter, and sour tastes. And, they were well done.
Vivere has a great room that looks like a 1950s Las Vegas show room. Very interesting layout and décor. The food and service, however, were simply poor that night. Perhaps the stars, the moon, and Uranus aligned for a harmonic dissonance, or maybe they’re just not that good. Hard to say with one meal. We won’t be back. Whenever I have a poor experience at a restaurant, I always want to leave a copy of my Persuasion Guide with the manager. While good food is an argument all its own, how a place surrounds that food is also an argument. It seems that failures arise from a “good enough” attitude when there is so much more that could be done to enhance, expand, and elaborate the experience. If by any chance, you are in the restaurant business, please read up on persuasion whether my book or someone else’s, like Robert Cialdini’s outstanding, “Influence.” There are so many possibilities.
We’ll leave Chicago with a funny, artistic moment that demonstrates the City of Big Shoulders also owns a Big Sense of Humor.
Perhaps this is what Melanie and I will look like someday. She keeps talking about a game preserve with land, lottsa land, and the silver skies above with critters and gardens and trails.