Je ne sais Duke's

I like to consider myself an astute observer of the present; as a result, I tend to quickly forget the past. So when I was yelling at Chittlins for his inadequacies at dinner last night, I had already forgotten all the little moments that had led up to my unasked-for intervention. Here’s a guy that waited outside the bar for me while I finished my most recent faceplant off the wagon. He picks me up, boosts my self-esteem, and even laughs at my jokes.

This begs the question, how can I be so insensitive to Chittlins’ uniqueness? Our relationship is complicated. For the reader that needs a visual representation, imaging a tree, one “which moves some to tears of joy [and yet] is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way.” In this tree is a nest, and in the nest is an egg. This egg is the consummation of our friendship. So basically, our friendship went out back and had an egg together. Do you see now? So is all forgiven? (Maybe we should make another egg? – A Makeup Egg)

Speaking of egg, Chittlins and I met up with Huggy Bear and Hole-in-my-Sock for dinner at Duke’s (2616 N Clark St) last night. We hadn’t doubled before, but as Chittlins likes to say to his first dates, “if it hurts, just bite down on this pencil” (is that too obscene?). Fortunately, we didn’t need any pencils, besides my obnoxicity, the evening was generally mirthful. If I were to measure the dinner’s success by the number of tater tots my partner picked off my plate as we ate, last night was a resounding hit. For vegetarians, the menu is exhausting, especially if you’re used to only one or two options. Whatever you order, make sure you get it with a side of tater tots. It took some self-control to not dip them in ketchup and throw them across the restaurant. (Middle school hurt, and I have closure issues.)

Hole-in-my-Sock, my vegetarian counterpart, ordered the veggie chili to start followed with a Wahoo Burger. I ordered a PBR to start with a Garbage Burger chaser. I recommend either combination. Huggy Bear and Chittlins went halvesies on their burgers, Breakfast (egg, bacon, je ne sais quois) and Baha. Every burger combo could be made vegetarian (Boca, Mushroom), or you could get it with Beef, Chicken, Pulled Pork and/or something else.

The evening concluded on Huggy Bear’s couch with whiskey and football. When I finally left to go home it was 9pm, all the drinks caught up to me on the bus and I slept from 11th Street all the way to Hyde Park. I will leave you with a final thought, this time from Hayden Carruth (studied at UofC).

“Scrambled eggs and whiskey in the false-dawn light. Chicago, a sweet town, bleak, God knows, but sweet. Sometimes. And weren’t we fine tonight?“