Chiu on This

Can I give you some feedback?

This is a quick post to thank Mike Auzenne and Mark Horstman, the great minds and hearts behind Manager Tools. I was at their training in Chicago last week and learned a huge amount.* I highly recommend their free (yes, free!) podcasts and super-cheap Premium Membership to anyone who wants or needs help with management, or wants to learn about it. The training is also fantastic not only b/c you're forced to practice, practice, practice and not only b/c you get to interact with (or be acted upon by) Mike and Mark but also b/c you get to meet some pretty cool folks.

I received several friendly inquiries into Chiu on This after I referenced it in my introduction, and a couple of people passed on suggestions that I definitely want to follow up on.  John from NYC recommended getting Italian beef sandwiches delivered from Portillos.  Stacey and Randy from Vancouver gave two thumbs up to Mala on Maui, but I'm hoping that I hear from them about where in Chicago I can get the Bucket o' Bacon.  The CEO and his successor who attended the training together highly recommended a Wicker Park restaurant, Schwa, recently featured in the New York Times - the restaurant only serves 32 people a night, so I suppose I better put in a reservation now for 2009.  I was tipped off to RUB BBQ in Chelsea after complaining to the Champaign-Urbana manager who travels frequently to NYC about my city's lack of good Texas BBQ.  And thanks to Sue from Toronto for commenting on my blog and giving me even more reasons to visit Pittsburgh.  Lastly, the food - at the sit-down meals and during the breaks - at the Westin O'Hare was quite good, so I'm now thinking of starting a new category for hotel food (catering and restaurants).

Anyhow, thanks again to Mark and Mike and the MT team for putting together a great training and providing the opportunities for participants to get to know one another.

* And put my training into practice right away - four instances of positive feedback on Thursday; five on Friday. Total elapsed time: 2 minutes! To bring in a food-related aphorism to training, the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

Prime time

Just about one year ago, I was dining at Lawry's The Prime Rib in Chicago with a number of participants from the Youth Justice Learning Group.  It was freezing outside, so most participants wound up eating here, scurrying across the street from our restaurant-less hotel to this ornate eatery.  Our crew included my fabulous colleagues Paragini, Claire, and Clinton; Roscoe "when the rubber hits the road" Wilson; the incredible Juan Gomez and David True of Santa Cruz County's YCORP; and Tshaka Barrows, conspiracy theorist and powerhouse.

The food was as good as the company.  I can still remember the luscious prime rib, wheeled over in a contraption that looked like a larger, more somber version of R2D2, and carved tableside.  I got the English cut, a smaller portion than the regular Lawry cut but still quite filling.  The sides, too, were excellent - I got the classic creamed spinach, a juicy and toothy mix of mushrooms, and Yorkshire pudding.  I have zero recollection of whether we had dessert.  At that point, I was probably midway into a blissful food coma.  If we did, I'm sure large amounts of whipped cream were involved.

If you're a meat eater, go to Lawry's and wear loose pants.  It also helps if you stay nearby, so you can easily stagger back to your hotel in a blissful food coma.  [Lawry's is at 100 East  Ontario, (312) 787-5000.] 

Dogged pursuits

Midway Airport on the South Side of Chicago has an outpost of Gold Coast Dogs, as I found out happily this September.  As far as I know, you can't get a good Chicago-style dog in NYC, and I've done a fair bit of research with my co-workers who hail from the Chicagoland area.  So in three trips to Chicago this year, I've tried to pick up a dog at the airport on either the inbound or outbound leg of the trip, if not both.  Recommendation: get a hot dog, take it over to one of the many bars in the food court, and savor it over a pint (or two or three) of Honkers Ale from Goose Island Beer Company.  It'll make the trip back home a whole lot easier.

Don't know what a Chicago hot dog is?  Check out the recipe at the Vienna Beef site and an explanation/tribute from a Chicago Tribune article (click on the link and scroll down the page to get reviews of other hot dog stands in the city):

"Not much in this world is perfect.

The Chicago hot dog is perfect.

Boiled or steamed, not grilled, it lies regally in a lightly steamed poppy-seed bun and is annointed with:

• Diced onion
• Tomato wedges
• Pickle relish the color of Kryptonite
• Yellow mustard
• A few sport peppers
• A dill pickle spear
• A shake of celery salt

There's your classic Chicago style dog, a perfect teaming of tastes and colors and textures. Also there's a bonus, the "snap" as your teeth sink through the casing -- like Chicagoans themselves, a little resistant at first, and then so welcoming.

We don't have to mention, no ketchup! None! Ever! Do we?"