Day 26: Chicago IL
Welcome
Yesterday we entered the state of Illinois and crossed back into our final timezone of the tour, Central Standard Time.
Our day started as Robert was on final approach into Chicago, braving the wild driving on the i90 to get us into the neighbourhood of Wrigleyville where Metro Theatre is located.
After a fair bit of research we decided on a local Venezuelan restaurant for breakfast. Bolivar & Lincoln (4.9 stars from 301 reviews) produced for me a delightful meal called Pabellon Criollo containing juicy shredded beef, black beans topped with Queso Palmita, white rice, fried plantains, and avocado.
The lovely staff at Bolivar and Lincoln were insistent that Liz have a great day.
Our breakfast walk took us past famous Chicago landmarks the Wrigley Field, and the L Train.
At 4pm on the dot we smashed through a quick load-in with the help of a huge team of Metro venue staff. This was followed by a soundcheck throughout which Will extolled the virtues of Metro’s brand new PA system, a D&B Audio A Series.
The backstage bathroom at Metro featured an incredible cold water tap/drinking fountain combination accompanied by a recessed soap dispenser that sadly was out of operation when I tried it. This faucet was manufactured by the Chicago Faucet Company - established in 1901 and famous for it’s Quaturn cartridge which was was revolutionary in its ability to turn water flow off from full flow with one-quarter turn of the handle. I found the handle to be a joy to operate and as promised it initiated a complete water shutoff with barely a flick of the fingers.
The famous Quaturn cartridge.
The Chicago crowd were a treat to perform to and we had one of our funnest shows of the tour. I was unable to capture any photos of our performance but I did manage to steal a couple from instagram member parallelicopter. Parallelicopter - sorry, and thanks for taking these excellent shots. If you have any disputes please contact me at: breakfastandtravelupdates@breakfastandtravelupdates.com
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