Exploring Chicago: Lincoln Square

Last night I met up with Becky and Nina for some dinner in Lincoln Square, which is one of my favorite neighborhoods in Chicago and also really close to where I live. It's heavily influenced by its German roots and features a lot German bars, restaurants, and shops and has a couple German festivals a year, which are a lot of fun. We went to one of my favorite restaurants in the city, Cafe Selmarie, which is located right on Giddings Square, which is the center of the Lincoln Square business district.

When we arrived the band, The Stingers, was already playing.

Cafe Selmarie has great dinner but serves the best brunch in the city on the weekends. If you ever go there for brunch I highly recommend ordering their chilaquiles (which is a Mexican egg and tortilla casserole) or their corned beef hash. You really can't go wrong no matter what.

There's a bakery at the front of the restaurant packed with goodies. My favorite treat is their cherry streusel pie, which, unfortunately, they didn't have last night.

Every Thursday night they feature a prix fixe three course menu for $22.

   

We started with the goat cheese, which was different from how I've normally had it there. It had sundried tomatoes, caramelized red onion, mushroom, red pepper, and goat cheese in it. My friends and I are huge fans of goat cheese so we were a little underwhelmed by the amount of goat cheese but the flavors were still really good.

I ordered the mixed green salad to start.

Nina and Becky ordered the special - Salmon Oscar - which came with crab, asparagus, and mashed potatoes, with a dill cream sauce on top. I tasted it and the salmon was a little overcooked but the dill sauce was not overtly dilly and the mashed potatoes were heavenly - I am pretty sure they use Yukon golds.

I ordered the chicken pot pie, which I pretty much always order for dinner when I am there. It comes with this giant pastry crust on top that flakes into a million pieces when you crush it.

The anchor of the neighborhood, Chicago Brauhaus, which is an old German restaurant, sets up a food booth on Thursday nights. You can order their freshly made Bavarian pretzels, brats and sausages, and German beer like Hofbrauhaus. I came to the Brauhaus for my 28th birthday with my family and my friends and we had a blast. They have a dance floor and a polka band that plays every single night of the week. It's like a time warp in there.

Since Cafe Selmarie didn't have the desserts we wanted we decided to walk across the square to have gelato at Paciugo.

They have so many different flavors but are eager to let you try however many you want. I tried the olive oil and black pepper because it sounded intriguing, but it didn't really taste like olive oil or black pepper! I also tried the chocolate jalapeno and I could definitely taste the jalapeno.

Their coffee gelato is very strong, almost espresso like, but it is the closest thing to coffee I've ever had in an ice cream or gelato.

There's seating outside Paciugo, so we relaxed for a little bit and enjoyed the band, which played covers of rock and roll classics. Kids were running amok everywhere.

At the edge of the square next to Lincoln is the Giddings Plaza Fountain - dedicated in 1999 by Mayor Daley.