Wicker Park - Street Art and a Food Tour

 We left the apartment at 8:30 am to get to the Fairgrounds Coffee and Tea Restaurant to have breakfast before our Wicker Park Street Art Tour.  

Sharon and Jeanne each ordered the egg, sausage, and cheese Sammie and Kris and I each ordered the eggs, bacon, and cheese Sammie.  Delicious.

The tour was at 10 am and started from Fairgrounds.

Our guide, Brian, was very interesting and knowledgeable.  He talked about the history and importance of street art and how it has changed.  It is one way of making art accessible to the common person.  It is not only for the rich.

He told stories about the different artists.

We walked a short way on the 606 trail (2.7 mile trail, an alternative transportation corridor and park)

This one of Robin Williams was painted a short time after he died, during suicide prevention month.

The El went by frequently.  It was very noisy.

We finished the tour here.  It was about a 2 mile walk. We either have been or will go to all the places in the letters of Chicago.

Then we had to scurry and walk back to where the Art tour started to meet up with our Wicker Park Food tour.

We got back just in time to use the restrooms at Fairgrounds first.

Our fabulous food tour guide, Sann (short for Elizabeth Ann)

First stop was to go into the Walgreens store.  It is a converted bank.

The vault was impossible to remove so they used it.

Back to Fairgrounds for Funnel Cake Fries, berry compote and salted caramel cold brewed coffee 

Half a burger at Small Cheval

Sann was good about stopping talking when the El went by.  She said that it was the soundtrack of Chicago.

Empanada 5411 (54 is Argentina's code and 11 is code of Buenos Aires )

Baked bacon, dates, and goat cheese empanada.  Very delicious

We learned about different styles of houses

Some of us watch the show Chicago Fire.  It is going to be filmed here.  Jeanne's niece works for the Chicago Fire show so we will be able to find out when it will air.

We learned about different people who lived in this neighborhood.  Sann was full of a lot of great stories.

This little girl on the left was very interested in Sann's stories.  She kept getting closer and closer until her parents called her away.

Antique Taco (antique for the furniture and decor in the place not the tacos)

We got margaritas to go with our tacos.  Yummy.  We "got" to keep the glasses.  

Last stop was the Alliance Bakery.  We could pick our flavor of macaron.  We each chose the dark chocolate guanaja.  

The food tour was over so we got a cab back to the apartment for a little sit-down break.  We needed it. We had done more than 5 miles of walking.  At least with the food tour we got to sit down to eat. If any of us had been vegetarians or had other food issues they would have been accommodating. We all enjoyed the food.  My favorite was the empanada, Sharon and Jeanne's favorite was the taco, and Kris' was the burger.

I am going to break up today into 2 posts.  Too many pictures, too little time.