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Nov. 15th, 2008 01:46 pm
A gem on the roadside
I really didn't want to go anywhere last night, but it was ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cuore_felice34's birthday and he wanted everyone to gather for dinner at Adobo Grill. Now this is a restaurant I like (even though Mixteco Grill pummels it senseless), but he had chosen the inconvenient Ukrainian Village location at the inconvenient time of 8:30 p.m.
The major flaw in Chicago's public transport grid is that it's overwhelmingly oriented towards getting people downtown; crosstown transit is another thing altogether. As a result, West Town is an area I barely visited even when I lived in Lincoln Park and every subsequent move has made it less and less accessible. Rather than succumb to the tyranny of CTA planners and go east in order to go west, I decided to do the reverse and try an alternative route down Western. As it happened, things went swimmingly along this stretch--it was waiting for the Devon bus that killed. Forty minutes at Clark street, and of course three came along bunched together--the same three, in fact, that we'd all seen bunched together and heading east twenty minutes earlier. Another forty minutes or so and I was at the southwest corner of Clemente Park, Western and Division.
As I strolled east past the modernist tower of the St Mary of Nazareth Medical Center, I began glancing about for the anticipated associated church. I thought I spotted it about a half block off the thoroughfare until I realised I was looking at an onion dome. Even though I was horribly late for the party, I couldn't resist a detour; for my inconstancy, I was rewarded with a glimpse of the last Louis Sullivan-designed house of worship in existence: Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox (OCA) Cathedral. Apparently, this modest structure has just undergone renovation; there's still scaffolding outside and some alarming-looking cracks in the walls.
Further east, I found a neighbourhood which has only gotten more trendy since I was last there (having gelato at a little café just across the street from Adobo after drinks at the Blue Line Club Car). One ofcuore_felice42's friends, a snarling Jersey princess, said it was the only neighbourhood in the city that reminded her of New York. When I told her I'd have to come back and explore it in the daylight, she said, "It's mostly pricey boutiques." Actually, I meant the architecture. (According to their website, Holy Trinity offers tours on Saturday afternoons.)
cuore_felice34's birthday and he wanted everyone to gather for dinner at Adobo Grill. Now this is a restaurant I like (even though Mixteco Grill pummels it senseless), but he had chosen the inconvenient Ukrainian Village location at the inconvenient time of 8:30 p.m.The major flaw in Chicago's public transport grid is that it's overwhelmingly oriented towards getting people downtown; crosstown transit is another thing altogether. As a result, West Town is an area I barely visited even when I lived in Lincoln Park and every subsequent move has made it less and less accessible. Rather than succumb to the tyranny of CTA planners and go east in order to go west, I decided to do the reverse and try an alternative route down Western. As it happened, things went swimmingly along this stretch--it was waiting for the Devon bus that killed. Forty minutes at Clark street, and of course three came along bunched together--the same three, in fact, that we'd all seen bunched together and heading east twenty minutes earlier. Another forty minutes or so and I was at the southwest corner of Clemente Park, Western and Division.
As I strolled east past the modernist tower of the St Mary of Nazareth Medical Center, I began glancing about for the anticipated associated church. I thought I spotted it about a half block off the thoroughfare until I realised I was looking at an onion dome. Even though I was horribly late for the party, I couldn't resist a detour; for my inconstancy, I was rewarded with a glimpse of the last Louis Sullivan-designed house of worship in existence: Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox (OCA) Cathedral. Apparently, this modest structure has just undergone renovation; there's still scaffolding outside and some alarming-looking cracks in the walls.
Further east, I found a neighbourhood which has only gotten more trendy since I was last there (having gelato at a little café just across the street from Adobo after drinks at the Blue Line Club Car). One of
cuore_felice42's friends, a snarling Jersey princess, said it was the only neighbourhood in the city that reminded her of New York. When I told her I'd have to come back and explore it in the daylight, she said, "It's mostly pricey boutiques." Actually, I meant the architecture. (According to their website, Holy Trinity offers tours on Saturday afternoons.)