So, life in Chicago. Yes, I'm still here. It hasn't been the happiest of times.
This is NOT the city for me.
Now, there are many reasons for this, reasons that I don't want to get into. But the fact remains. NOT the city for me.
I miss New York of my youth. I miss the canal in Paris. I miss the ocean. I miss artists, weirdos, quirky ones, multiracial streets, music blaring, street vendors... etc. etc. etc. Who woulda thunk it wouldn't be here?
Sigh.
But i love Mike, so here I sit.
On to better things... Finally, the weather has improved. We had a gloriously sunny, blue-sky weekend. Wow, it does wonders for the psyche.
Yesterday, we took full advantage of the lovely outdoor space we have (a deck, a patio, and a shared yard, with lotsa grass). Sat on the deck in the morning, in the sun, with the guy, breakfast, squirrels, birds. Nice.
Then we moved to the lawn, our two lawn chairs in the afternoon sun. Our fabulous neighbors, an extended family originally from Mexico, suddenly made an appearance in their (very nice) yard. There's a great-grandma, the patriarch and his wife, their son and daughter, and their daughter's daughter. Oh, and a little dog.
Patriarch, great-grandma, little girl all come out in the yard with tons of plants and potting soil and he starts digging things up and dumping and recycling dirt and the ladies are potting plants in lotsa pots all over the garden, and it's all very quick and efficient.
Mike and I are lying in the sun in our lawnchairs, watching in awe, listening to our vinyl. It was country day yesterday: Nashville Skyline (an amazing Bob Dylan album, if you didn't know), then Johnny Cash, then Patsy Cline. Ahhhhhh.
Patriarch is whistling and singing along. We chat a bit. Suddenly, their garden is transformed: flowers, seed plants, herbs, vegetables, it's gorgeous. He mows the lawn, turns on the sprinkler, and they all go inside.
Wow.
That's how you do a garden. I feel (slightly) inspired.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Saturday, June 14, 2008
The smoking and drinking curse
So pissed. Went out the other night, thought we'd have a cocktail outside, it was a beautiful night, and then we'd go home and grill and hang out. We felt a bit social.
So we headed to this really cool little neighborhood wine bar, Volo. It has an awesome outside patio in back, and we had seen ashtrays out there. And the wine by the glass is fantastic. And the snacks are very yummy. So off we went, optimistic and enthusiastic.
We walk in, they escort us back to the gorgeous little patio. There are little "booths," with wood panels around them, comfy little loveseats, it's really pretty. Mike asks for an ashtray.
The owner arrives. He explains that they've been written up twice. I point out that they're within their rights -- it's an outdoor space, for god's sake, and it's far away from any entrance or exit. The law is explicit. They meet all the requirements.
He says he just doesn't want to fight it. It's easier to not allow smoking.
Not only that, and it's true that I am telescoping two separate visits to Volo where the topic of smoking in the outdoor space came up, but this did happen... Not only that, but at a later date when I brought it up with the owner, he proceeded to pull the idiotic American wine snob silliness -- "I understand if someone has come in and ordered a 100 dollar bottle of wine, they don't want to breathe burning carbon," he sniffed at me. I almost choked and thought, "What an idiotic wine snob you are. You obviously know nothing. I lived in countries where people enjoy smoking hundred dollar cigars with their 800 dollar bottle of wine, you moron."
Ugh. That's the way to give American wine drinkers a bad name. In many countries, people just drink wine because... because it's lunch time, because it's dinner time, whatever. Or they stop in a cafe bar for a quick ballon de rouge. Or they order a spectacular 1985 Pomerol (if you can still find one, mmmmm) and enjoy a post prandial smoke. Really, way to go, Chicago U.S.A. moron. Way to go.
We leave. Of course. We walk to the next place, a place we like a lot, a place that has a very nice sidewalk space, a place where we've smoked before. Four Moons, it's called. We like the food, we like the bartender, we like the laid-back thing. We get there, and this bitchy waitress we've never seen before is removing the ashtray as she cleans our table. I ask her to leave it.
"Oh, you can't smoke here. And those smoking tables are reserved."
Can't smoke at the table from which she is removing the used ashtray? Really? And then the other tables where you can smoke are taken up with obnoxious families with small obnoxious children. Why are they not sitting at the tables where you can't smoke, so we can sit at the tables where you can smoke?
Hmmmm?
I wonder if it's because we live in this ridiculously yuppie family with many small children neighborhood here in Chicago. Roscoe Village. A place where there are a coupla bars we don't frequent because people bring their little kids to the bar. Yuck. What's that all about? Is that legal? Hmmmm. But smoking at outside tables is not.
The point is, smoking at outside tables, more than 15 feet from the entrance, IS legal. It's just that the bar owners are not only playing it safe, they're not at all worried about alienating their smoking customers. They make no effort to protect the smoking customers' rights at all.
If they were smart, they would be measuring outdoor spaces, marking off smoking areas and nonsmoking areas, very obviously marking them off, and signposting them. They would be banding together, neighborhood by neighborhood, even throughout the city, to protect their rights (so people complaining actually have no leg to stand on -- if it's marked, and it's following the letter of the law, there's nothing to complain about) and to protect smokers' rights.
Obviously they don't care about their smoking customers. That's too bad. Because we smokers are good customers, and we appreciate it when people actually try to keep a little legal space for us. And we go back, over and over. We become loyal regulars.
Personally speaking, I am a hefty champagne drinker and a goer-outer, partyer, happy pricey snacker, meet my friends at places I like and feel comfortable at. I practically lived at my neighborhood cafe in Paris. Coffee in the morning, lunch, cocktails after work. Often I would close the place down. I brought all my friends there. I was a loyal customer and a big tipper.
Hmmmm.
So, Volo and Four Moons, you have lost a potentially very good customer. I live in the hood. I love to go out. I love champagne. I love nice bars. I love yummy food. I love socializing.
But I won't be doing any of that at your establishments anymore, will I? And I won't be bringing my in-town or my out-of-town friends and family, all of whom love to go out and drink and eat with me, to your places. No, instead, we will stay home, where we can sit on our deck, or our patio, cook yummy food, hang with friends, drink our own champagne and smoke cigarettes.
You, bar owners of Chicago, have let smokers down. It really wouldn't be that difficult to take a stand on this, you know? You would be completely within your rights, adhering to the law. Instead, you've completely caved. But you clearly don't give a shit about these "smoking customers."
So we headed to this really cool little neighborhood wine bar, Volo. It has an awesome outside patio in back, and we had seen ashtrays out there. And the wine by the glass is fantastic. And the snacks are very yummy. So off we went, optimistic and enthusiastic.
We walk in, they escort us back to the gorgeous little patio. There are little "booths," with wood panels around them, comfy little loveseats, it's really pretty. Mike asks for an ashtray.
The owner arrives. He explains that they've been written up twice. I point out that they're within their rights -- it's an outdoor space, for god's sake, and it's far away from any entrance or exit. The law is explicit. They meet all the requirements.
He says he just doesn't want to fight it. It's easier to not allow smoking.
Not only that, and it's true that I am telescoping two separate visits to Volo where the topic of smoking in the outdoor space came up, but this did happen... Not only that, but at a later date when I brought it up with the owner, he proceeded to pull the idiotic American wine snob silliness -- "I understand if someone has come in and ordered a 100 dollar bottle of wine, they don't want to breathe burning carbon," he sniffed at me. I almost choked and thought, "What an idiotic wine snob you are. You obviously know nothing. I lived in countries where people enjoy smoking hundred dollar cigars with their 800 dollar bottle of wine, you moron."
Ugh. That's the way to give American wine drinkers a bad name. In many countries, people just drink wine because... because it's lunch time, because it's dinner time, whatever. Or they stop in a cafe bar for a quick ballon de rouge. Or they order a spectacular 1985 Pomerol (if you can still find one, mmmmm) and enjoy a post prandial smoke. Really, way to go, Chicago U.S.A. moron. Way to go.
We leave. Of course. We walk to the next place, a place we like a lot, a place that has a very nice sidewalk space, a place where we've smoked before. Four Moons, it's called. We like the food, we like the bartender, we like the laid-back thing. We get there, and this bitchy waitress we've never seen before is removing the ashtray as she cleans our table. I ask her to leave it.
"Oh, you can't smoke here. And those smoking tables are reserved."
Can't smoke at the table from which she is removing the used ashtray? Really? And then the other tables where you can smoke are taken up with obnoxious families with small obnoxious children. Why are they not sitting at the tables where you can't smoke, so we can sit at the tables where you can smoke?
Hmmmm?
I wonder if it's because we live in this ridiculously yuppie family with many small children neighborhood here in Chicago. Roscoe Village. A place where there are a coupla bars we don't frequent because people bring their little kids to the bar. Yuck. What's that all about? Is that legal? Hmmmm. But smoking at outside tables is not.
The point is, smoking at outside tables, more than 15 feet from the entrance, IS legal. It's just that the bar owners are not only playing it safe, they're not at all worried about alienating their smoking customers. They make no effort to protect the smoking customers' rights at all.
If they were smart, they would be measuring outdoor spaces, marking off smoking areas and nonsmoking areas, very obviously marking them off, and signposting them. They would be banding together, neighborhood by neighborhood, even throughout the city, to protect their rights (so people complaining actually have no leg to stand on -- if it's marked, and it's following the letter of the law, there's nothing to complain about) and to protect smokers' rights.
Obviously they don't care about their smoking customers. That's too bad. Because we smokers are good customers, and we appreciate it when people actually try to keep a little legal space for us. And we go back, over and over. We become loyal regulars.
Personally speaking, I am a hefty champagne drinker and a goer-outer, partyer, happy pricey snacker, meet my friends at places I like and feel comfortable at. I practically lived at my neighborhood cafe in Paris. Coffee in the morning, lunch, cocktails after work. Often I would close the place down. I brought all my friends there. I was a loyal customer and a big tipper.
Hmmmm.
So, Volo and Four Moons, you have lost a potentially very good customer. I live in the hood. I love to go out. I love champagne. I love nice bars. I love yummy food. I love socializing.
But I won't be doing any of that at your establishments anymore, will I? And I won't be bringing my in-town or my out-of-town friends and family, all of whom love to go out and drink and eat with me, to your places. No, instead, we will stay home, where we can sit on our deck, or our patio, cook yummy food, hang with friends, drink our own champagne and smoke cigarettes.
You, bar owners of Chicago, have let smokers down. It really wouldn't be that difficult to take a stand on this, you know? You would be completely within your rights, adhering to the law. Instead, you've completely caved. But you clearly don't give a shit about these "smoking customers."
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