Holy crap did I have a busy weekend.
Friday night The Girl and I dined at Bucktown newbie Bluebird. Don't let Chicagoist's review fool you. It' sucked. Service was ass, the food was mediocre at best and the seats were designed for anorexic five year olds. Let's break it down, shall we? The service started out promising, the friendly owner/manager type guy sat us, gave us the bullet on what the place was about and dropped food and drink menus. The server showed up 20 seconds later asking for a drink order. Given that the beer menu had about 50 different beers ranging in price from $6-$50 (yes, they have a $50 beer) we required more than 20 seconds of research. He came back about ten minutes later to take our order. The Girl doesn't drink beer so she ordered her standard Stoli and pineapple. No pineapple juice on the premises. No lemonade either so she ended up ordering a Stoli rocks with four lemon wedges. (It should be noted that the mixed drinks were a very reasonable $6, as much as the cheapest beer on the menu.)..... I just got back from a meeting and totally had my flow interrupted so let me just say this: Avoid Bluebird Bistro for the next six months. That should be enough time for the service and food issues (inexpensive but bland. Also a somewhat deceptive menu. A "pork loin" was nothing more than a hamsteak. The soft pretzel that accompanied the bratwurst was a Superpretzel. This might have been acceptable if it had been filled with cheese. Or shrimp. Alas, it was not.
I did other stuff too. Let's see I: Shopped for furniture, bought two lamps (80% off!), got riotously drunk on Saturday night, played a shit ton of Bioshock and completely emptied my parents' waterlogged basement. I was wrung out and used up last night.