Ah, Summer touring....

Chicago:

I flew into Chicago, and met up with one of my best and oldest friends, Alix, who also happens to be the photographer who shot my album cover.  I’ve known Alix since we were in college at Oberlin, and we both still smoked cigarettes and had our baby fat.  Long long ago.  Alix eats kind of like I do (and actually has a strong allergy to garlic.  Allergies always make for inevitably food-conscious people…) and she took me to a couple of great vegetarian restaurants in Chicago. 
 
The first was a place called Handlebar. Cute place, good menu.  I got the “Everything Green Salad” – spinach, baby green beans, cucumber, avocado, edamame, pistachios, and sprouts with Green Goddess dressing.  Yum.  Alix got the vegetarian nachos, which looked yummy too.  The only thing about this place that was questionable was the service.  The waitress couldn’t tell us much about the food we were eating, and it took forever to come.  Ah well.
 
The other place Alix took me was The Chicago Diner. http://www.veggiediner.com/wp/
Ah, just look at that first page of their website!  Doesn’t it make your mouth water?  It’s a diner atmosphere, with all vegetarian and vegan food.  They also have a special gluten-free menu.  And the food is insanely good.  We shared the Three-Way Sliders – three different kinds of mini veggie burgers, each more delicious than the next, and the Asian Sesame Salad -- mixed greens, cucumber, carrots, red cabbage, radish, basil & cilantro, marinated tofu, black sesame seeds & blood orange vinaigrette.  The waiter was super-friendly and informative, and the meal was a hit with everyone – even our Texan meat-eating friend.    
 
Milwaukee:

My first stop was Beans and Barley, which was recommended to me by a couple of people.  They’ve got a great little store, which we wandered around while we waited for our meal… for about 40 minutes.  The food was kind of bland, and I’d say maybe we ordered wrong, but then, well, we all ordered wrong.   Really seemed like I would like it, and I was sad that I didn’t. 
 
The Milwaukee Whole Foods was also sadly lacking – it didn’t live up to my Whole Foods standards at all.  The salad bar and one hot food bar looked like they hadn’t been refreshed in a while, and the prepared foods counter had only a small selection.  Okay, I’m Whole-Foods-spoiled.  But this was just not up to par. But I got my almond milk, and that’s what I came for…
 
Thankfully, there’s Riverwest Co-op – a great local co-op store with a café attached.  It’s one of those places that just makes you feel good as soon as you walk in the door.  Nice people, locally grown produce, and meals prepared with care.  I highly recommend stopping in here if you’re hangin in Milwaukee. 
 
Okay, so another thing you should know is that throughout this entire summer tour I’ve been accompanied by my Texan meat-eating guitar player, Will.  He’s health-food tolerant, but I’m pretty sure he prefers a blue cheese burger over a tofu salad.  So it’s our challenge almost every time it’s dinner time to find a place that will be fully satisfying to us both.  We found two in Milwaukee.

Swig.  Okay, from the outside, this doesn’t look like a place that Will or I would want to go.  Totally swanky and modern design.  But it was recommended by our friend Bruce, at the radio station we visited, so we checked out the menu.  The first thing that caught my eye was the Pan-Seared Scallop Salad.  I am a big scallop fan.  So that was the first thing I ordered, and it was perfect.  Swig is walking distance from Summerfest, where we were playing every day, so we weren’t hesitant to go back, and bring friends.  Will ordered the burger, which I tasted, and then tasted again, and again… it was really good!  Other hits with us and our friends were the Roasted Portabella, the Peppercorn Encrusted Tuna,  and the great wine and drink selection.  
 
Café Hollander.  This was Will’s favorite of the whole Milwaukee run, I think.  They have a large selection of local beers (what made Milwaukee famous – if I were I better beer drinker, I would include a whole beer section in the Milwaukee blog, but with my sad intolerance to carbonation, I’d be much better off getting someone else to write that section!)  Will did a beer tasting, with 4 little glasses of local brews.  In addition to the beer, they have a great selection of salads, sandwiches, burgers, and fish entrees. 

 
Tomorrow I hit the road to drive out to the West Coast!  We’ll be in Salt Lake City, San Luis Obispo, Los Angeles, and San Diego… and all points in between!  Email me if you have any recommendations!
 
Love,
Charlie