a spontaneous road trip

Q: What happens when you spend your Friday night on the couch, in front of the TV, watching Check, Please! on PBS on the Chicago channel? 

A: You take a spontaneous trip to Chicago on a Saturday afternoon to go seek out a restaurant that was featured in the program! You go optimistic; hoping for, but not guaranteed a table.

We walked into GT Fish & Oyster shortly after they opened at 4:30pm CT. The hostess mentioned that with no reservation, their first open table would only be available at 10:45pm! But if we wanted to sit at the bar, we could do that right away. So we found ourselves two seats, got our drinks, placed our orders for oysters and six other little tapas-style dishes.

We had:

six oysters to begin with ...

then tuna poke with mango, cucumber, and black sesame ...

crab cake with red bell pepper aioli, and pickled vegetables ...

fish and chips ...

lobster roll with pickled vegetables, and a side of fried onions ...

seared scallops with charred tomatoes and watercress ...

and ended the feasting with mussels in a tomato basil sauce and a side of ciabatta ...

By the time we were ready to leave, the place was teeming with people waiting for our seats. It made me nervous enough we decided we would skip dessert (not that I still had space left in my belly or anything like that!) and start heading home. I love spontaneous road trips.