Quick rec. for lunch w/ wife today?

Just looking for 'top-of-mind' suggestions to shake up my standard list.

Parameters

Geography: Anywhere between Loop and Rogers Park, and anywhere from the lake to the Brown Line (we're CTA dependent).

Food: Almost anything. Wife is not a huge meat eater, so the great Smith & W. burger or corned beef hash and its friends and family are out.

Price: Nice, but not a splurge; say $35 for two-ish (or less).

Where would you go, if you suddenly had time to take the wife out to lunch with no rushing back to the office constraints?

12:30 decision deadline; 1:15 lunch.

I'd take her to Semiramis on Kedzie, mere steps from the Brown Line and very non-meat eater friendly.

Thinking of CTA-connected places: Semiramis is an excellent suggestion. What's the name of the station that's right by it? Kedzie, presumably?

TAC Quick would be a good choice. Just around the corner from, what is it, Sheridan on the Red line?

It's a bit dowdy, but Mirabell is kind of fun for lunch. You'll feel so young, looking at the other patrons! (It's pretty meat-oriented, though.) In this case, you're a block or two east of the Blue line, Addison stop.

Corosh, on Milwaukee near Division, has one of the better outdoor gardens in the city, very rustic. Food is slightly above average bar food, but on a nice enough day (or is it getting too hot already?) it can be a very agreeable choice. Actually, you're only a couple of blocks' walk from the same Division Blue Line stop to Rudy's Taste.

Another great place right off the el is Taquria Moran. Great salsas, good tortas and tacos...

2226 N. California, Chicago (California blue line stop)

I'm trying to talk Denise into going to TAC today, that's what I would recommend. The Hoy Tod looks amazing.

Mark, how often do you go to Thai Avenue. It's right near by, and who would not want a nice walk on a day like today.

What about Naha? I've never been, but the Trib sez they have a top-top burger. You can get that and the wife can get something yuppie. Seems romantic.

A few weeks ago, my wife and I had a really nice lunch at Rosebud on Taylor. I meant to write it up, but there's a lot of meant to write it up buried in my brain. You could easily get there by transfering to the blue line downtown and then walking from Morgan. They have a very nice outdoor seating area, outstanding seafood salad, and other food that tastes better than it should.

Finally, in the same blue line vein, what about greektown. Athena has a very nice outdoor area too, even if their food is not quite as good as Greek Islands, Parth or Santorini.

Rob

PS
Do report back!

We took the first suggestion of Semiramis and ran with it. (We go to TAC Quick pretty often, and don't get to Thai Avenue much because wife and son have a thing for Thai Pastry -- I know, I know, and I don't want to talk about it.) I don't ever get west to that great strip on Kedzie, so that seemed extra-appealing.

Thoroughly delightful it was. More than that, the perfect thing for the moment, the people and the weather.

We got there later than planned (2:45), so there was only one other table. Mrs. B. got there ahead of me and, therefore, so did the dish of glistening small green olives and pickled turnip slices. Delicious. Turnips seemed to have a faint horseradishy air about them which was very stimulating.

We both had lemonade which was very fresh tasting and not too sweet.

Then, fries and green beans w/ tom. and garlic to start.

The beans: Yum. (Both in the Thai, and the colloquial American senses.)

The fries: all I could say, bite after bite, was, "Oh, my God!" Even now, I can barely say much more. They arrived directly out of the fryer - absolutely glistening and practically still sizzling in their basket, speckled with sumac and perfectly salted. I could easily make a meal of a basket of those fries and some good beer.

We then shared a vegetarian plate (hummos, baba, grape leaves, felafel, tabouleh), and chicken shawerma on a bed of fatoush.

The shawerma was terrific, nicely sauced and the salad underneath was crisp and fresh and nicely dressed.

Both the baba and the humos were excellent. The baba had just the right amount of smoky, char. to it without becoming bitter or acrid tasting. The hummos was nicely lemony. The felafel were very well fried and a beautiful green inside. I only had a small bite because Mrs. B. prefers felafel to grape leaves, so I took those.

Service was very friendly and efficient. Seeing that we loved the olives and pickles the waitress offered us another round. The pita basket was also refreshed in a timely fashion.

We were quite full and so had no dessert, but took home some baklava which I will have with my morning coffee.

On the way out, while waiting for Mrs. B. to refresh herself in 'the ladies' I was privy to a heart-warming cross-cultural chow moment. A young latino man came in and asked if they did take-out. Then he asked if anyone spoke Spanish. The owner didn't, but the young white guy behind the counter volunteered, displaying a core vocabulary that betrayed a youth misspent in several Chicago restaurant kitchens.

The 2 guys worked together - alternating rudimentary English and Spanish - to craft a meal that translated what the customer wanted into a reasonable Lebanese facsimile. He ended up with beef/lamb shawerma on pita and when he asked, somewhat unhopefully, if they had any chiles in the kitchen, and was told that they certainly did, his face lit up as if he'd just received a letter from home as they threw some sliced jalapenos in with his order. I tipped him off to the excellence of the fries on my way out.

We then wandered into the Fruit Ranch a block up and came home with a box of mangos (10lbs.) for $6.99 along with some other fruit salad fixings for tomorrow, to mix with the excellent cherries we got on Thurs. at the farmer's market.

This place was interesting in that they clearly deal with several of the same purveyors as my old friend, Devon Market. Lot's of central European packaged goods and jarred things. Croation and Romanian wines. In addition, the butcher counter looks pretty serious with an incredible sale on good looking skirt steak and prepared cecina (salted sliced round in oil). On top of that, they had a very attractive fish section which included both baby octopus and the Jules Verne variety along with several types of fish I was unfamiliar with, all very cleanly and tidily displayed.

Altogether, a lovely and lip-smackin' afternoon.