Vintage Schmintage

A few weeks ago, The Girl and I attended The Vintage Bazaar's pop-up in a Pilsen warehouse space. I had been following BackGarage with interest since it was posted a few years ago on Reddit Chicago. I really wanted to like the pop-up, but I found it "meh." My most interesting purchase was 6 vintage buttons from a 70s deadstock vendor. (My only other purchase was a vegan s'mores brownie from Bleeding Heart Bakery.)  Otherwise, the pop-up was a nice stroll through the visual reminders of my early years, but really, the early 1970s were pretty horrible design-wise: I'll leave the avocado green, mustard yellow and basic brown dishware sets to someone far removed from the era -- like the hipsterish couples who were waiting for the bus to take them back to Uki Village.

I think that for me, part of the thrill of vintage is the thrill of the hunt. And while some vendors at the pop-up had some gorgeous mid-century modern pieces, a lot of them just had a lot of junk. Old chairs covered in layers of peeling paint, Samsonite leatherette suitcases, an old Mason jar full of marbles, stained linen pillowcases and other pieces of crap. It was not unlike digging through the bins at the Salvation Army or an estate sale at an Indiana farmhouse. The difference being that the S.A. is cheaper and the Indiana farmhouse offers the opportunity to use my imagination about what that family might have hung on their handmade hat tree (which now, for a mere $5, graces my entryway).

There were a handful of tastefully and sparsely displayed booths featuring mid-century modern furnishings.  It's a look that is appealing to me--living in a 1400 SF Chicago foursquare has deepened the appeal of mid-century modern with its box-on-legs look and hide-the-electronics functionality. But, for all the appeal of artfully displayed 1960s glassware, I prefer my decorating touches to come in the form of Wii remotes and contemporary Matchbox cars. 

Too Good to Be Real

That's how The Girl described her Snookelfritz sweet mint ice cream. I would describe it as too rich for my milk-intolerant self (the things we do as parents...stopped drinking milk when The Tot was a babe and haven't been able to tolerate much of it since), but: if you love milk, ice cream, and fresh ingredients, I highly recommend that you try it. We found Snookelfritz and lots of other organic goodies (farm eggs! fresh cream! a giant pretzel bun! arugula!) at the April Green City Market at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, where The Girl and I began our long Saturday morning Mama-The Girl playdate. (Yes, my five-year-old is weird: her idea of a good time is helping me at the grocery store, do the laundry, etc. I hope as her abilities grow, she'll start thinking that a mother's chores include going to work as well.)

Anyway, we went to the Green City Market. For some reason, I thought it was outside and found primo parking just off North Avenue. We ended up walking all the way up to the butterfly museum and back, passing tons of joggers and families of three pushing strollers. It was a long walk for me, let alone a not-quite 5-year-old with short legs. It was a beautiful day, but quite windy. We stopped at Starbucks for some iced tea on the long walk back. The side trip sparked a conversation about the origin of the name Starbuck. The Girl's theory is that it's called Starbucks because you can get drinks for a buck there. 

By the time we returned to the car, we were both pretty tired, but still had to go to Trader Joe's to do the bulk of our food shopping. A man about my father's age heard our conversation and was chuckling at the girl's reasoning for what went in my cart versus hers. I'm glad that we are so amusing, but it was actually quite refreshing to run errands with just one fairly helpful little person, in the city on a gorgeous spring day.

Modern Mediterranean

The Girl started swimming lessons at Independence Park last week. The time -- 6 p.m. -- is rather poor for a group of 3-5-year-olds, but I initially thought it was a parent-and-kid class and it was the only time that I knew could get in the pool with her. As it turns out, it's an unaccompanied-by-parent class. OK by me. The last thing I really want to do in January after a long workday and a long workweek is put on a bathing suit and get in a pool.

But today was lesson #2. So we made a mama-Girl playdate out of it. After her lesson, we headed out in search of food. The original plan was to eat at Target, where we needed to run an errand, but since The Dad took The Girl to McDonald's for lunch, I thought we had eaten enough crap for the day. Instead, I took her to Zebda, a new mostly-carryout deli that has opened not far from our house. 

We've ordered Zebda a few times -- twice for carryout and once, The Dad and I took The Tot there to eat-in. I've tried three different dishes on the menu and they've all been good. I usually find a restaurant, find what I like on the menu, and then order it every time. In the case of Zebda, it's all been so good, I want to keep trying stuff! Tonight, I had the grilled chicken panini ($6) and The Girl had the Gnocchi ($11). Both were fabulous. We also met the chef, Katie Garcia, who happened to be there. While I know there is some advantage to meeting the chef, I could think of nothing great to say except, "I'm glad you opened. And I didn't know you had cookies!" The Girl and I also got some gorgeous cookies to take home -- a round thing soaked in orange blossom scent and decorated with a white fondant flower dipped in pink sparkly sanding sugar, and a coconut petit-four dipped in white icing and decorated with blue dragees. We ate them after our trip to Target, but they'd be perfect with coffee.

Two for Tea

When I was a child, my family's get-dressed-up-during-the-holidays event was a trip to the Walnut Room in Marshall Field's. For my children, it may very well be tea at the Peninsula. I took The Girl there on Sunday for our first fancy-schmancy mama-girl playdate. I have been to the Peninsula a few times with friends and there have always been groups of fancily-clad little girls with their American Girl dolls, but until ChicagoParent came out with its list of holiday tea spots, I knew that I had to take The Girl. You can see us in the photo to the left. We were terribly overdressed, even for The Lobby/Avenues restaurant at the Peninsula, but I attribute that to the gradual casualing of America. I made reservations before Thanksgiving, but they were not able to take us until 5:30 p.m. on a Sunday. I was a bit disappointed, because when we arrived, the maitre d' took us into Avenues, which was stuffier and also emptier than The Lobby. They reassured it me that it was just as nice as The Lobby. And the service was good, as was the food, but it was just not as festive as The Lobby, with its two-story windows and giant Christmas tree, was. Oh well. Better luck next time.  For her part, The Girl was a dream. She was perfectly mannered, nicely dressed, and excited to be there. She drank tea--not the proffered hot cocoa--black, without sugar. The older couple dining next to us found her charming and cute. They kept asking me how old she was, etc. I told her that in England, they have "tea" for dinner, which she seemed to find interesting. We were both hungry, and enjoyed our little meals. The Girl ate most of her kids' tea:

From Blogger Photos

And part of mine as well. She did not like the lemon curd or the cold salmon, but she liked the curried egg salad on pumpernickel and some of the chocolate desserts. It was definitely a splurge--$18 for kids' tea, $38 for adult tea, plus $23 in valet parking, but I consider it part of The Girl's Christmas present, and it was pretty fun.