TOP 5 New Restaurant of 2009: Mercadito

I was finally able to make my way to newly opened Mercadito. And I'm so glad I did. Despite some initial rumors about the wait time, even with reservations, being ridiculous, I still had heard rave reviews about the food. Especially the drinks and the tacos. Anyone that knows me personally would know that this place pretty much had me at that. I went with two of my favorite ladies and we thought the guacamole and mushroom tostadas were wonderful, but the highlight was definitely the tacos. The tacos are small in sets of four so it's perfect to go with a group and try a bunch of flavors. We tried the skirt steak and shrimp and we have had multiple conversations since wishing we would have had more! The cocktail menu includes your basic kick-ass margarita but really excels in the fun new twists like "Pepino el Pyu" (tequila, cucumber, lemon, cumin salt) and "Smokey Pablo" (tequila, mango, chile morita, blueberry float). Grab a group of friends and try this place soon - you might see me there! Not in Chicago? There are three locations in NYC and one in Miami.

A yummy variety.

Rendering of the Chicago location - you get the idea.

Favorite New Find: Duchamp

Duchamp in Bucktown opened in October 2008 and I am completely upset that I am only now discovering this delicious spot in my own hood. Not to mention, the restaurant was very empty when we were there, so encouraging everyone to stop by so this place can stick around. You won't be disappointed. The menu is eclectic and refreshing – fun takes and interesting combinations. The portions were perfect. Not a fan of giant diner food, but hate what my father lovingly refers to as, “Elf food.” Duchamp nailed it. We started with a cheese tray and the seared sea scallops. I think I’ve eaten more scallops this year than ever in my life and these were near the top. The table loved the ‘Steak & Eggs’ – a grilled skirt steak with bacon/parmesan quiche. The skate wing ‘Fish & Chips’ and Amish chicken with eggplant were both favorites as well. But our group couldn’t get over the simple, yet spectacular dessert. After all the lengthy titles, the menu simple reads ‘Cupcakes and Ice Cream Sandwiches.” Perfectly cooked little chocolate cupcakes and vanilla ice cream between two homemade chocolate chip cookies.

Delightful. All of it.

Dim shot of the interior but you can make out the long, communal tables and lucite chairs. Less is more folks.

Where you can find me once the weather warms up. Seriously, what a deck!

Until then... I'll stick to these.

Signature Room

I attended a holiday party in the Signature Room and wasn't really impressed with the food or drinks. Or the crazy ear popping involved in rapidly going up 95 floors. But none of that mattered when we got to look out at this all night:

Please excuse the glare - the iPhone did it's best. As much as I hate total tourist traps... the view of Mag Mile from there was absolutely amazing. I love Chicago.

New obsession: Scrapblog

With the holidays coming up, I’m always looking for creative gifts for my friends and family. I recently stumbled upon Scrapblog, which allows you to turn your photos into amazing and intricate photobooks and other fun gifts. I’ve always been a scrapbooking nerd and I’m sure you’ve heard of other sites that do this, but Scrapblog has hundreds of different themes, stickers, decals to make the pages your own design. You can also just do a QuickMix option, where Scrapblog automatically populates a selected template with your photos – in less than 5 minutes.

Scrapblog allows you to create and personalize an online scrapbook by combining digital photos with themes, stickers and decorative backgrounds. The site will pull photos from Facebook, Photobucket, Picasa, Flickr among other photo sites. It’s incredibly easy. Once you’re done you can post your online scrapbook for free to Facebook or email it to friends. Or you can opt to purchase an actual book and they are significantly less than other photo book sites. I’m putting one together for my mom for Christmas of the past trips we’ve been on. Seriously, the book I made cost $20 to print/ship!

If you’re like me, you have tons and tons of random photos on your computer that you never look at and a lot of photos other people have tagged you in on Facebook that you’d someday like to have. Scrapblog is free and incredibly easy to make the photos into something worth looking through.

 
To top it all off, Scrapblog is offering 25% off all printing for the holidays! Just enter HOLIDAY25 at checkout.

Addams Family Musical debuts in Chicago

Broadway aficionados: if you’re in Chicago, swing by the Oriental Theatre to check out The newly released “The Addams Family” musical. The musical debuted in Chicago on November 13, 2009 and will run in Chicago until January 10th. The musical will then move to Broadway in the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre where the first preview will be March 4th and Opening Night will be April 8th.

To my delight, the show did its best to showcase the quirky family in all its grim glory. The house set is alive with ghosts of ancestors and interesting pets, like one surprising star of the show – their horny pet squid...seriously! Headlined by Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth, the cast was incredibly solid and I could hardly believe they were only in their third week. A lot of familiar faces too – for me, I recognized “Fester” from a stint in Heroes, and “Grandma” was the strange aunt in Garden State (the one who makes him a shirt that matches the wallpaper?). I thought the two standouts were Krysta Rodriguez (Wednesday) and Carolee Carmello (Alice Beineke). Both of the women had spectacular voices that would give you chills. But as you can imagine, Nathan Lane stole the show. He stumbled in and out of a Spanish accent (which he did not need) but was so animated and hilarious that with one smirk he had the whole audience laughing.

The music was catchy and the cast was superb, but most of all I enjoyed the way the writer had fun with all the Addams’ Family idiosyncrasies. I’d definitely recommend seeing it while you can!

TONIGHT: bluemercury Holiday Party!

Bluemercury, Chicago's phenomenal one-stop shop for makeup and skincare, is having their annual Holiday Shopping Party TONIGHT, Wednesday December 2nd! Never been to Bluemercury? My first trip was three years ago when I moved here and I've been exclusively going there ever since. They have the best of the best in products and every single employee is literally a wealth of beauty knowledge. An employee even called to ask me if I wanted her to set aside some products if I wasn't able to make it. I adore this place.

They have a wide range of brands including some of my favorites: Fresh, Bobbi Brown, NARS, Trish McEvoy, Kiehl's, Laura Mercier, ReVive, Diptyque candles, GoSMILE, REN... the list could go on forever.

And what better time to stock up on your makeup and beauty regimes than with a great discount. There are different levels of discounts depending on how much you spend. Not to mention FREE samples, snacks and champagne!

Here are the details:

bluemercury Holiday Shopping Party

2208 North Halstead, Chicago, IL 60614
Phone: (773) 327-6900
Wednesday December 2
Time: 4 P.M. - 10 P.M.


Hope to see some of you tonight! Don't live in Chicago? Don't worry, bluemercury is located in twelve states as of now - find a store near you.