Celeste

I love a good cocktail place and have been wanting to go to Celeste ever since reading about it in Chicago Eater. This place is in the heart of River North on Hubbard, and you will see quite the going out night time crowd when wandering the streets down here. You feel excited and energized just being here.

The first floor is focused on being a cocktail bar, and apparently there is a second floor that is a lounge and supper club, called Deco Room. Although the menu is extremely limited, it seems like an amazing date place. The colored backlighting makes for quite the ambiance. There are a plethora of fantastic cocktails to choose from, all ten bucks.

Overall, I highly recommend coming to this place. You'll have to go before 11pm though if you don't want to wait in a line 50 people deep.

Paris Club Bistro and Bar

I always loved Paris Club so was a bit bummed when I heard they were rebranding themselves and going by the new name of Paris Club Bistro and Bar. I wanted to check it out, so headed down to the River North neighborhood with my friend Michelle. 

Although this restaurant was impressive, because I knew and loved the old one so well, I was semi disappointed by the menu and ambiance. I loved how the old menu was massive and you could order tons of amazing small plates. This is now more of a typical French restaurant, and you have to order a meal. That being said, the food was great. We truly loved everything we ordered. The restaurant also just feels a bit more formal now, like it'd be great for a business meeting, but I could find better places to go on a date. The restaurant now has lots of dark wood, leather and tufted chairs.

Overall, this is a solid restaurant to come to and always a great recommend. The location is phenomenal, and you can guarantee a consistent and good experience.

Davanti Enoteca

I had never been to Little Italy before this weekend, but had always wanted to check it out. I finally made a date and went with my family to Davanti Enoteca. The original location is on Taylor Street in Little Italy, but they've also expanded and have one suburb Chicago location, a River North location, and two restaurants in California.

I could tell this place was good immediately after walking in, as we had a relatively early reservation and the restaurant was PACKED. As in, not one table open. There is a vast menu and they recommend ordering several plates and sharing with the table. This was a great way to be able to try a lot of the menu items. The food was absolutely amazing, and you have to order the focaccia di Recco, which is baked focaccia stuffed with fresh soft cow cheese and a honeycomb topping. To die for.

I did however find the restaurant to be very loud. I felt like we could hardly hear each other unless we were almost yelling. Definitely not a good place for a first date!  Also, the dishes came out very quickly and it made me feel a bit rushed. At times, I felt like we were being bombarded with food, and maybe we should have spaced out when we placed our orders.

Overall, I highly recommend coming to this place. Definitely make a reservation though because you will never get a table walking in. Also, plan ahead for parking or bring cash for valet. Almost the entire area around the restaurant is permit parking, and the available pay to park spots were few and far between (non existent in our case).

Coalfire Pizza

Earlier this week I went to Coalfire Pizza, which is west of the highway towards the United Center. This place had been getting a lot of buzz as a good pizza place, and as many of you may know, pizza is my ultimate favorite food, so I had to check it out. Chicago Eater recently listed them at number 4 on the list of 14 Chef-Approved Chicago Pizzerias. Thrillist has also written several articles on Coalfire, the most recent was including them in the article titled "The Most Ordered Menu Item At 20 Popular Chicago Restaurants," in which they highlighted the 'Nduja pizza that we ordered (of course).

My first impression walking in was not so great. The place has no ambiance, and I'd never seen pictures of the inside so I didn't know what to expect. That being said, I was happy with the rest of my experience. The staff was very friendly, and the menu & pizzas are truly amazing. Like the name suggests, the pizzas are baked in an oven fueled by burning coal. They are on a very thin crust and the toppings are so creative, and it shows that they are using high quality ingredients. The first pizza we ordered was the 'Nduja, which has salami, fresh mozzerela and basil. The second pizza we ordered was the Pesto - the giant globs of ricotta made this a winner in my book! I was definitely also craving the Prosciutto pizza; I might have to attempt to make something similar at home. We also ordered some of the cupcakes, which they apparently get from Chicago Cupcake, and they were out of this world good. Especially the red velvet.

Overall if you're local and looking for a very laid back night in which you'll get some great pizza, come here. I wouldn't recommend this place for an out of town guests outing, or as a MUST go to place though.