Book of Mormon, the El, + Deep-Dish 'Za

On the El train

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of visiting The Windy City to see The Book of Mormon. In the cab on the way to the show, the driver suggested that we take the El* instead of a cab, which was very kind. It saved us money and time since the ride was going to be about an hour and a hour downtown in rush-hour traffic. We made sure to give him a generous tip, so he wasn't being too slighted by offering the suggestion. Plus, it was a special treat for me because I'd never ridden the El before.

For dinner, we stopped at Trattoria No. 10. We had the baby spinach salad with crispy pancetta, radicchio, pears, goat cheese, pistachio, and goat cheese vinaigrette and black--hooray for squid ink--tagliatelle with scallops, shrimp, calamari in a tomato-fennel saffron sauce.

At the Bank of America Theatre

After the show, we grabbed a drink at a nearby bar and ordered a deep-dish sausage and mushroom pizza from Pizano's. (You have to allow 30 minutes for them to make that style.) I usually prefer thin crust for taste and health reasons, but theirs was incredible. Even though it was a substantial slice, the crust was still light and crisp. As a treat, they gave us a deep-dish chocolate chip cookie, of which I had one bite since I was stuffed from the pizza.

*Interesting. According to the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), L is the correct usage. El is a generic abbreviation of elevated and wouldn't quite by accurate because only parts of the system are elevated. Time Out Chicago prefers El, while the Chicago Tribune uses L. In case anyone cares.... ;) I still prefer El.