Post: #201

(12-24-2014 01:59 AM)BadgerHut Wrote:  My understanding from quick visits is that Chicago has almost all the social and professional amenities of a place like New York City (big city full of opportunity), but without the self-referencing pretense that accompanies most young people's move to NYC. Can't get much better than that.

It is very livable but the winters are brutal. Manhattan tends to be 10 degrees warmer and less snow. Population growth is zero, more college graduates leave than stay/arrive. Yet they still are adding residential units downtown which leaves the luxury prices very reasonable. I would still recommend NYC to someone in their 20s for the life experience.

Post: #202

Underground was mentioned a few times in the previous thread. For those interested in going I recommend following the advice outlined in this thread, since door is tough.

Go on an off night, introduce yourself to one of the hosts outside, and say you'd like to come back on a different night. Ask for the host's card, and from there you can text him on a night you want to go and he will put you on the guest list. Or go the Facebook route outlined in the link.

Post: #203

Can you Chicago players recommend any venues or weekly parties with a high concentration of Asian women? Thanks.

Post: #204

Headed to Chicago 4/9 - 4/12, right downtown.

Some tourist stuff with family (Shedd Aquarium, the Skydeck), but I plan on doing my own thing as well.

Interested in meeting up, lemme know. I pulled same day lay last time, looking to go 2/2.

Post: #205

(03-07-2015 07:24 PM)lilseezie Wrote:  Can you Chicago players recommend any venues or weekly parties with a high concentration of Asian women? Thanks.

Alot of the River North Bars and Clubs have TONS of asians, some are even like 95% asian. For anyone who's into Eastern European women or any other specific ethnicity Chicago has tons of clubs which are either completely devoted to a certain ethnicity or have a particular night where its like all Russians or all Hungarian or whatever else. I used to hit up this spot in River North where all the Brazilians went.

I havn't really been into clubs for a few years and as you all know the scene changes and the hot clubs turnover pretty frequently but I'm pretty sure sound bar is still a pretty cool spot and heavly asian.

Post: #206

(07-03-2013 11:36 AM)thegmanifesto Wrote:  

(03-21-2013 05:02 PM)chyamor Wrote:  Wrigleyville Summer Fest August 3 – 4, 2013 Wrigleyville
Wells Street Art Festival June 8 – 9, 2013 Old Town
Taste of Randolph Street June 14 – 16, 2013 West Loop
Taste of Greece TBA Greektown
Sheffield Garden Walk & Festival Lincoln Park TBA
Old St. Pat’s World’s Largest Block Party West Loop TBA
Pitchfork Festival Near West Side TBA
Lollapalooza August 2 – 4, 2013 The Loop NA
Do Division Street Fest May 31 – June 2, 2013 West Town


Will update as more come out. G the ones you where asking about

Wells Street Art Festival June 8 – 9, 2013 Old Town
Taste of Randolph Street June 14 – 16, 2013 West Loop
Sheffield Garden Walk & Festival Lincoln Park TBA
Do Division Street Fest May 31 – June 2, 2013 West Town

wine festivals and fashion/restaurant week are tba

Be sure to get bottle service at Paris club on hubbard for nothing but 9s/10s for the night.

Didn't get to make it to Chicago.

How were the streetfests?

I am going to try to go next year for sure.

Chicago always has some cool street fest going on. The best ones are like when Greektown has Greekfest and some of hte larger summer fests but if you go on these websites that list all the events going on any particular weekend there's a ton of cool little neighborhood fests like Wicker Park fest and all these other things that many people probably never hear of but are worth checking out. I love when they have the Italian fest but its not the best for women for whatever reason.

One of my fav events is the Chicago largest block party or something like that. It takes place in south loop or printers row or something. Its not cheap like $40 to get in but my girls uncle runs a tent during the event so we normally get free tickets. Some big name performers and lots of women.

I know a lot of you guys are into Russians and Eastern Europeans, go check out Ukranian Village around North Avenue. Not the best spot for nightlife but for daygaming or even neighborhood bars it's nothing but Russians, Ukranians, etc. Its kinda funny my girl grew up there, she's hispanic, can't speak a word of spanish but can speak polish, russian, ukranian, and a few other languages, I think 5 all together, from going to school with all them from a young age.

Post: #207

Oh...here's my solo trip to Chicago last time...I never posted this before. First solo game trip ever.

tldr: Went solo travel to Chicago for 3 days and nights, got SDL, met a couple forum guys, missed a couple forum guys. h3ltrsk3ltr and I ran some night game, I showed him my patented napkin game. Great time.

Me: Divorced, have a regular fwb at home, I’m far from an approach machine and never really done the “x number of approaches”, and I’m 5’9”. Wearing my perfectly fitting jeans, cowboy boots, tight black button up shirt...fly even without a suit. Maybe next time.

While I have traveled solo for business, this weekend I finally took my first solo travel trip for the primary purpose of gaming and meeting up with forum guys. I like reading about these trips from other guys, so I’ll try to summarize my experience with the hope it encourages other guys to finally grow a pair and get out there. This write-up is detailed on purpose, so guys who are thinking about doing can read it as sort of a step by step guide.

My goals: Travel solo, meet at least one RVF’er, approachapproachapproach. I had no “goal” of banging a chic because that’s not something I can control.

Itinerary: I took a bus for the first time from my city to there, stayed at an airbnb, then back home Sunday (this was a couple months ago).

There’s an interesting story behind the airbnb, but I won’t go into that here. Suffice to say I stayed with a really quiet, reserved, mousy (the best word to describe her) 38 yo divorced woman. Not ugly or fat, skinny and ok, but not somebody I’m gonna bang. The kinda woman who would bump up a point or two with a makeover and some confidence (yes I said it). Or maybe another way, her bad personality and lack of fashion-sense brings her down at least a point.

Friday:
Friday morning I get up and walk around the neighborhood. My neighborhood is an awesome place to stay in Chicago, a hipster-ish area ripe for my demographic. I check out the gym I’m where gonna work out and get a feel of the places.

It’s a beautiful day, sunny and ~50’F, so I decide to implement my only tentative agenda item with a visit to the Sears Tower, now Willis Tower. I just gotta get out, and if it takes doing a tourist thing to get me warmed up, fine. Before leaving I mention to my roommate if she wants to go…”sure, yeah that sounds fun”. I actually didn’t think she’d want to, but whatever, I’m always interested in getting to know someone, and this is an olive branch to the woman who I’m sharing living space with for the next three days.

We jump on the train downtown, get to the tower and find it’s a 2 hour wait. Shocking, I guess it is the day after Christmas and it’s nice out. Anyway, instead of seeing sights, my mousy roommate and I go to meet her old college friend (guy she wants) who manages a bar on the north end of Mag Mile. Sounds good, I’ll probably get a free cocktail. Plus, again, the weather is great and I’m invigorated by the hustle and bustle.

We finally made it to this bar-restaurant, she tracks down her old friend, and we end up at the bar, her chatting up old times with the manager of the bar, me sipping my free Bulleit Bourbon Manhattan, when...kiss-my-grits, a helpless lizard plops down next to me.

Same Day Lay:
Keep calm heavy, and game on...the Gods of opportunity and luck have smiled down upon me. I don’t even really have to approach, so no sweat, I can go on autopilot from the start. My spidey sense will tell me if she’s hot or cold, if she’s digging the ol’ heavy. And right now she just walked in *alone* to a busy bar downtown Chi-town. Sniff sniff, I smell an upset.

But who knows, so I’ll just chat her up. Quick assessment. She has a Galaxy S5 with broken screen…

“Nice broken screen, I had the same thing happen to my S3”...testing the waters.

She turns to me and starts chatting...a good sign.
“Oh you have this phone?”
“Well the S3, but yeah, I replaced it and use the broken one as a backup. Same thing as yours, shattered screen, but the ol’ girl still works fine.”
Convo about the frustration of owning a phone that works perfectly but has a cracked screen.
The occasional back of fingers touch to her arm. She’s touching back when sharing stories.
Mousy roommate is going home. I tell her I’ll be back at some point.
Long story short I spend all evening with the girl, bar hopping, back to my neighborhood, sushi, downstairs club, second chance store, then my place. Ya'll know what happened next.

Saturday:
Saturday morning she leaves before I want to get up. I sleep in, slow to get around, but eventually make it to the gym for a workout. Today will be forum meetup day. h3ltrsk3ltr wants to meet up, and I’m not letting a lizard get in the way of that like it did last night.

Gym, finish off a good cigar on my front stoop, shower, then 5 minute walk to meet up with h3ltrsk3ltr. Feelin good...

I ask the chic sitting next to us if she plays tetris (we’re at an arcade bar). Nope, she doesn’t. I cheers another girl next to us and after brief chat finds she’s with her boyfriend. Cool.

Does that count as an approach? Just cheers-ing a girl, or asking her a stupid question. Yes. It’s my way of avoiding approach anxiety, because who doesn’t want to cheers or answer a simple question.

The Napkin Game:
We finish a couple beers, bounce for some food, then bounce to a small bar nearby where I show him my napkin game. I’m sorta joking, as I told him it’s not really a game, just something I’ve used before to open and flirt with chics.

The napkin game consists of a napkin, a pen, and knowledge of the game tic-tac-toe. You get the idea. Incorporate little flirty notes and teases, have the bartender pass the napkin back and forth if you want, but that’s the basics.

The napkin game was working on a hottie, but we decided to bounce again to this pizza place / bar. h3ltrsk3ltr has some balls, just cold approached a group of girls. He blew through the opening awkwardness and we chatted them up, but they were waiting for a table and got buzzed to go eat. Good stuff. Dude has some solid presence and frame.

Downtown and end of the night:
We then bounced downtown to a bar I like...the Public House. We made some “approaches”, again, just chatting chics up in bars, bounced around, met up with Snowplow down in Old Town.

It was late by that time and we mostly just sat and chatted.

h3ltrsk3ltr is legit. Great guy, interesting story. Hung out with him all evening, we had a blast. If you can meet up with him do it.

Sunday headed home despite temptation to stay another day.

Post: #208

For any of you guys checking out Chicago doing the clubbing thing or hitting the bars. Got two great late night spots to grab some good food before hitting the afterhours spots and not a bad place to meet women as well.

My favorite is Nuevo Leon, it's in Pilsen, open til like 4am and its byob, you can bring hard liquor, beer, wine. Cash only. Great mexican food, recommend the quesadillas raul with verde and for a dinner tacos de sabinas 3 great ribeye tacos for like $8.

My other usual spot is white palace grill, is sort of over by a college so lots of college students and good late night crowd. They were featured on diners drive ins and dives.

Post: #209

(03-31-2015 10:28 PM)jamaicabound Wrote:  For any of you guys checking out Chicago doing the clubbing thing or hitting the bars. Got two great late night spots to grab some good food before hitting the afterhours spots and not a bad place to meet women as well.

My favorite is Nuevo Leon, it's in Pilsen, open til like 4am and its byob, you can bring hard liquor, beer, wine. Cash only. Great mexican food, recommend the quesadillas raul with verde and for a dinner tacos de sabinas 3 great ribeye tacos for like $8.

My other usual spot is white palace grill, is sort of over by a college so lots of college students and good late night crowd. They were featured on diners drive ins and dives.

What are the after hours spots? Are these places that serve alcohol after 4?

Post: #210

(03-31-2015 10:28 PM)jamaicabound Wrote:  For any of you guys checking out Chicago doing the clubbing thing or hitting the bars. Got two great late night spots to grab some good food before hitting the afterhours spots and not a bad place to meet women as well.

My favorite is Nuevo Leon, it's in Pilsen, open til like 4am and its byob, you can bring hard liquor, beer, wine. Cash only. Great mexican food, recommend the quesadillas raul with verde and for a dinner tacos de sabinas 3 great ribeye tacos for like $8.

My other usual spot is white palace grill, is sort of over by a college so lots of college students and good late night crowd. They were featured on diners drive ins and dives.

Pilsen is a good 20-25 minute cab ride from Lincoln Park/Lakeview/River North, depending on how far north you are. I would not recommend going all the way to Pilsen, there are plenty more spots to get food in Chicago, and unless you are really into Mexican girls I would skip Pilsen altogether at night. White Palace Grill is a bit closer, but still not close to much nightlife beyond UIC bars. 40-50 minutes in a cab round trip is a lot for a late night food trip.

Post: #211

(03-31-2015 10:36 PM)Hotline Wrote:  

(03-31-2015 10:28 PM)jamaicabound Wrote:  For any of you guys checking out Chicago doing the clubbing thing or hitting the bars. Got two great late night spots to grab some good food before hitting the afterhours spots and not a bad place to meet women as well.

My favorite is Nuevo Leon, it's in Pilsen, open til like 4am and its byob, you can bring hard liquor, beer, wine. Cash only. Great mexican food, recommend the quesadillas raul with verde and for a dinner tacos de sabinas 3 great ribeye tacos for like $8.

My other usual spot is white palace grill, is sort of over by a college so lots of college students and good late night crowd. They were featured on diners drive ins and dives.

What are the after hours spots? Are these places that serve alcohol after 4?

Yeah alot of the clubs will close anywhere from 2-4 and then you have some other clubs and bars open til like 7am maybe even 8am. There are some clubs though like soundbar that go all night, I think soundbar stays open til like 6am.

Chicago is a pretty cool city for late night, maybe not as good as NY but pretty good. Whether your clubbing and wanna dnace all night or even just a casual neighborhood bar we have some neighborhood bars that stay open til like 6am and even some that open up at 6 or 7am if your up really late and wanna keep the party going.

I've been out the club scene for a while and you know how quickly things turnover so I was just going to suggest Redno5 as a cool afterhours spot and did a quick google search and surprise surprise its closed lol.

Basically though our afterhours sports normally open up after 2am and stay open til at least 6.

Post: #212

(04-01-2015 07:34 PM)apoclater Wrote:  

(03-31-2015 10:28 PM)jamaicabound Wrote:  For any of you guys checking out Chicago doing the clubbing thing or hitting the bars. Got two great late night spots to grab some good food before hitting the afterhours spots and not a bad place to meet women as well.

My favorite is Nuevo Leon, it's in Pilsen, open til like 4am and its byob, you can bring hard liquor, beer, wine. Cash only. Great mexican food, recommend the quesadillas raul with verde and for a dinner tacos de sabinas 3 great ribeye tacos for like $8.

My other usual spot is white palace grill, is sort of over by a college so lots of college students and good late night crowd. They were featured on diners drive ins and dives.

Pilsen is a good 20-25 minute cab ride from Lincoln Park/Lakeview/River North, depending on how far north you are. I would not recommend going all the way to Pilsen, there are plenty more spots to get food in Chicago, and unless you are really into Mexican girls I would skip Pilsen altogether at night. White Palace Grill is a bit closer, but still not close to much nightlife beyond UIC bars. 40-50 minutes in a cab round trip is a lot for a late night food trip.

I'm normally not that far up North, if were going out it's normally river north or even south loop though sometimes I'm up by depaul or something. Most of my friends where I crash when I'm downtown I'm in river north so not that far of a hike to pilsen or white palace but yeah definately if your on the north side thats a ride.

I'm not up that way that much but I think the wiener circle is a popular late night spot up there.

Post: #213

(03-31-2015 10:36 PM)Hotline Wrote:  

(03-31-2015 10:28 PM)jamaicabound Wrote:  For any of you guys checking out Chicago doing the clubbing thing or hitting the bars. Got two great late night spots to grab some good food before hitting the afterhours spots and not a bad place to meet women as well.

My favorite is Nuevo Leon, it's in Pilsen, open til like 4am and its byob, you can bring hard liquor, beer, wine. Cash only. Great mexican food, recommend the quesadillas raul with verde and for a dinner tacos de sabinas 3 great ribeye tacos for like $8.

My other usual spot is white palace grill, is sort of over by a college so lots of college students and good late night crowd. They were featured on diners drive ins and dives.

What are the after hours spots? Are these places that serve alcohol after 4?

I don't know of any "after hours" but the hours depend on their liquor license. Legally most bars can serve till 2 sun-fri and 3 on Sat. If they are among the handful of bars that are grandfathered in they can serve till 4 sun-fri and 5 on Sat.

Below you will find a list. It's old but I don't think the venues really changed as they are grandfathered in for years (maybe a name change?). The bad thing about these is they are almost always total hole in the wall bars.

http://www.chibarproject.com/Features/La...Night.html

Post: #214

Beaumont LP

Post: #215

What about Little Village for Mexican food? I know they have Nuevo Leon restaurant there now too.

These are my spots in Chicago for Mexican food.

Post: #216

(04-02-2015 08:30 PM)MidWest Wrote:  What about Little Village for Mexican food? I know they have Nuevo Leon restaurant there now too.

These are my spots in Chicago for Mexican food.

Good finds, I gotta check out milagro, I always got their tortillas sitting on my counter never even thought to checkout the restaurant. Thats one great thing about living in chicago, whenever I travel everyone's tortillas are in plastic bags and it makes them taste like shit imho, I like the paper ones from el milagro. My girls family is mexican so shit everything we eat is on tortillas whether its hotdogs or lunchmeat lol.

I've tried L Patron, wasn't bad but wasn't super impressed either. There's another spot way out of the way in the far west burbs but if you wanna hit a casino take the train out from chciago lets you off right by the casino and a bunch of bars and its like a $5 cab ride to a great mexican spot called Pancho's I think its in Aurora. They got a lot of great taco spots as that city is like all Mexican, lots of people go out there and do taco crawls and stuff hit like a dozen taco spots.

Post: #217

Bump again. I'm rolling in on Thursday afternoon (tomorrow), staying thru Sunday. Shoot me a pm if ya wanna meet up.

Post: #218

If you are flying in, might want to check flight status. Tomorrow's some nasty weather

Post: #219

Finally met up with heavy and h3ltrsk3ltr last night and hit the town. Both great cool guys everyone should meet. They both deserve more reps.

Game analysis coming for you guys if you'd like.

We also met up with Hotline later and almost met Gio too.

Great night!

Post: #220

I'm considering a position in Chicago that would require me to move there in the next couple weeks. Any recommendations from locals for apartments in the city that are fair priced, safe, access to a train to Evanston, fun area, etc?

Post: #221

(06-19-2015 12:29 PM)Slacker101 Wrote:  I'm considering a position in Chicago that would require me to move there in the next couple weeks. Any recommendations from locals for apartments in the city that are fair priced, safe, access to a train to Evanston, fun area, etc?

As a local, my best recommendation would be to look for places close to a Metra Station on the North Line or near an el (cta for you tourists) station on the redline. Both can get you to Evanston with ease and there are many areas on the north side of the city that are fairly priced. Let me be the first to welcome you to Chicago, great time tp arrive as summer is by far the best season here...though the weather this summer has been pretty much dog shit.

Post: #222

(06-19-2015 12:57 PM)Troutslayer Wrote:  

(06-19-2015 12:29 PM)Slacker101 Wrote:  I'm considering a position in Chicago that would require me to move there in the next couple weeks. Any recommendations from locals for apartments in the city that are fair priced, safe, access to a train to Evanston, fun area, etc?

As a local, my best recommendation would be to look for places close to a Metra Station on the North Line or near an el (cta for you tourists) station on the redline. Both can get you to Evanston with ease and there are many areas on the north side of the city that are fairly priced. Let me be the first to welcome you to Chicago, great time tp arrive as summer is by far the best season here...though the weather this summer has been pretty much dog shit.

Thank you for the welcome! I've visited twice in the past and honestly loved it. Yeah, a member of the firm who lives downtown actually said he prefers the metra (I believe) as it was faster than the el to get to the office. Do you recommend any particular resource for apartment listings in Chicago? I know in my past cities (which where quite a bit smaller) certain sources/listings were very hit or miss. Suppose that might not be the case with how large Chicago is.

Post: #223

(06-19-2015 01:21 PM)Slacker101 Wrote:  

(06-19-2015 12:57 PM)Troutslayer Wrote:  

(06-19-2015 12:29 PM)Slacker101 Wrote:  I'm considering a position in Chicago that would require me to move there in the next couple weeks. Any recommendations from locals for apartments in the city that are fair priced, safe, access to a train to Evanston, fun area, etc?

As a local, my best recommendation would be to look for places close to a Metra Station on the North Line or near an el (cta for you tourists) station on the redline. Both can get you to Evanston with ease and there are many areas on the north side of the city that are fairly priced. Let me be the first to welcome you to Chicago, great time tp arrive as summer is by far the best season here...though the weather this summer has been pretty much dog shit.

Thank you for the welcome! I've visited twice in the past and honestly loved it. Yeah, a member of the firm who lives downtown actually said he prefers the metra (I believe) as it was faster than the el to get to the office. Do you recommend any particular resource for apartment listings in Chicago? I know in my past cities (which where quite a bit smaller) certain sources/listings were very hit or miss. Suppose that might not be the case with how large Chicago is.

Wish I could give you advice but I've gotten all of my places through friends/room mate switches. Where are you coming from/what field do you work in?

Post: #224

River North.

Post: #225

(06-19-2015 04:36 PM)Troutslayer Wrote:  

(06-19-2015 01:21 PM)Slacker101 Wrote:  

(06-19-2015 12:57 PM)Troutslayer Wrote:  

(06-19-2015 12:29 PM)Slacker101 Wrote:  I'm considering a position in Chicago that would require me to move there in the next couple weeks. Any recommendations from locals for apartments in the city that are fair priced, safe, access to a train to Evanston, fun area, etc?

As a local, my best recommendation would be to look for places close to a Metra Station on the North Line or near an el (cta for you tourists) station on the redline. Both can get you to Evanston with ease and there are many areas on the north side of the city that are fairly priced. Let me be the first to welcome you to Chicago, great time tp arrive as summer is by far the best season here...though the weather this summer has been pretty much dog shit.

Thank you for the welcome! I've visited twice in the past and honestly loved it. Yeah, a member of the firm who lives downtown actually said he prefers the metra (I believe) as it was faster than the el to get to the office. Do you recommend any particular resource for apartment listings in Chicago? I know in my past cities (which where quite a bit smaller) certain sources/listings were very hit or miss. Suppose that might not be the case with how large Chicago is.

Wish I could give you advice but I've gotten all of my places through friends/room mate switches. Where are you coming from/what field do you work in?

It's an Associate Consultant position for a company that does data analytics for pharmaceutical companies. I'm coming from Cleveland Ohio.