DRUNK ON FROG N SNAIL

This past Sunday I had a very special brunch date with my darling Laurz.  She is much better than I am at finding good eats so of course I left it up to her to find our brunch spot.  And man, did she deliver!  I decided to clean out my purse before I left.  I always end up with so many balled up receipts and random junk and am usually really bad at cleaning out my bags.  Most of them have random items still sitting inside.  I left The Hubster at home to enjoy his football.  Our Sundays have been spent apart since I have zero interest in football.  I was glad to have a brunch date to get away from the sounds of penalties and touchdowns.  

Poor Wrigley.  He always knows when I'm about to leave and starts whimpering in my face.

I went and picked up Laurz and a few minutes later we arrived at...

The best part is that this place is in our hood!  

There is a frog and snail to watch over you.  Adorbs!

We spent a good 15 minutes staring at the menu.  This is on top of the hour I spent at home the night before trying to decide what to order.  The entire menu looks so amazing and everything sounds incredibly delicious.  After staring for so long, Laurz and I both admitted that we wished we brought more people with us so that we could try more dishes.  Hahaha.  I call that the "dim sum" strategy.  You never want to go to dim sum with less than 4 people.  Good thing this place is so close because I will definitely be back to try the rest of the brunch menu.  And if this brunch menu is anything like their dinner menu, I'll be back for that too!

They have this thing called Mimosa Bottle Service.  Those three words never sounded so good!  You get a bottle of champagne and three types of mixers to play with along with the classic OJ.  We went with grapefruit, blueberry, and pumpkin.  I must say, champagne with OJ and blueberry syrup is a fantastic combo.  Daytime drinking has never been so fancy and never been so gooooood.  It was a fun and playful experience.  Utterly genius.

Laurz adding some pumpkin into her mimosa.

This, my dear friends, is the Lyonnaise salad.  As soon as I read "frisee" I knew I had to try it.

The Lyonnaise has frisee, frites, lardon, radish, haricot verts, and beets tossed in a truffle vinaigrette and topped with a perfectly made poached egg.  Putting little french fries in a salad has got to be the best idea eva!  This salad is light and perfect.  The dressing wasn't too heavy so you could really taste the freshness of the greens.  I would have preferred it more drenched in dressing but that's just my inner fat kid talking.  I appreciate when restaurants actually make sure that I taste my veggies and not just the dressing.  It was a perfect starter for us to share.  Laurz allowed me the honor of poking the poached egg and letting the yolk ooze all over.  Nothing is better than watching an egg yolk ooze all over a plate.  Nam sayin'?

Hello Mr. Egg.  You were a pleasure to demolish.

Laurz did get her chance to poke her own poached egg.  Did that sound dirty?  Hmmmmmmm... no.  Okay, maybe a little.  Here is the duck hash.  There is something extremely special about this hash.  There is a surprise on the bottom.  And that surprise would be... banana bread.  It's got that perfect blend of savory and sweet on one plate.  But if that's not your kind of thing, then skip this one... also... you are weird.

This is the Shrimp N Grits.  Holy crap this one was good.  The shrimp, corn and mushrooms were soaked in what I could only describe to be a buttery pool of heaven.  Also, have you noticed a recurring theme here?  There seems to be a poached egg on everything!  I love that!  Even our server said, when you want to make a dish even more fantastic, "put an egg on it."  And I couldn't agree more.  Now I am going to try to poach an egg.  Wish me luck!  Laurz says there is some sort of tornado method that is supposed to help.  Already, I am scared.  Maybe Chef Dale Levitski will teach me how to poach an egg one day.  Chef, if you read this, that was a real request.  Can a girl get a egg poaching lesson please?!  Also, amazing job on the restaurant.  Love the decor, love the food, love the location, and love the mimosas!  Digi high five!

Always a fab time with this lady =)

Everyone go check out Frog N Snail and brunch it up!

You can make reservations via Open Table

3124 North Broadway  |  Chicago, IL 60657

www.frognsnail.com

xoxo,

DOS

woof!

What a beautiful Saturday it was!  

We took our pup to the vet for his annual shots.  Just like his momma, Wrigley was a champ when it came to his shots.  Here was his adventure at the vet.

Just waiting patiently to be called.

Getting a tad impatient.

Irritation drives him to madness and he picks a fight with a fluffy poodle who looked at him funny in the waiting room.  That guy had it coming.  With that super poofy hair-do and rocking that fancy leash.  Wrigley was not amused.

Finally!  Now he can focus on his shots and the chunks of treats that come with it.  I mean look at that Zen-like concentration.

Dadda and Momma were probably more nervous than he was.

All done!  My boy did so well.  The people at Compassionate Veterinary Care in Lakeview always take good care of us.

I'm just keeping it casual today.  I may have looked funny wearing these furry boots in the middle of summer but seriously, they cannot hold up to winter because the bottom is basically cloth, fall and spring rains and puddles seep through, so what choice do I have but to wear them in the summer!

Akiko top, denim shorts from PacSun, Chloe Marcie large purse, Oliver Peoples Apollonia Sunglasses, Pom Pom booties from American Eagle (a gift from my darling little sis)

After the vet I headed over to meet one of my favorite people, Laurz, at Cedar Hotel in the Gold Coast for some drinks and all around good times on their patio.  This patio always gets packed and crazy during a nice day so we were lucky to have found an open table.  Got to meet her sweetie, J, and a couple of their pals.  One of which made me take a shot at 5 in the afternoon.  But hey, that's happy hour time right?

Had a blast catching up and Laurz showing off her awesome shorts tan.  She refused to let me post a picture of her because she was not liking her highlights and promised to let me once they are fixed.  Hahaha!  I am nice and always ask permission before I post someone's picture here.  She did get addicted to my old Canon SLR.  The burst shot mode definitely kept her entertained.  Here are some of the shots she took today for me.

Do you guys like my bracelet?  I've been wearing it so much lately.  I got it from Cram in Boystown here in Chi-city.  I like the color of the beads and it's funsies for the summer.

And here's Wrigley begging for scraps.  So hard to say no to that face!

Thanks again for an awesome time Laurz.  Wrigley misses you already.  Maybe because you gave him a gigantic slab of fish from my taco.  I always have a great time with her and she has some amazing talents like spotting that guy from a season of the Bachelorette over in the next table.  We must get together more this summer.  Want to help me stalk Derrick Rose?

On the way home I strolled down my old stomping grounds around Oak Street.  I used to live in that neighborhood and I do miss being so close to Barneys and Intermix.  Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately for my wallet), all the stores were closed but I did see a killer frock in the Barneys display window.  Ooh la la.  Me wants.

-DOS