One of the reasons we decided to drive to Florida this year was to create a reason to go to Nashville. While I don’t necessarily envision Nashville as a final destination, stopping over for the night was something I was really looking forward to. Provided you don’t stay at the Ramada by the airport, it’s a really good time… but that’s another story.
Crema is a totally rad coffee shop a little off the beaten path from the big flashy bars and touristy country music stores. I’ll always love my Starbucks, but this place is special. We met up with a friend who swears by their Cuban coffee. Since she’s marrying a Cuban guy you can be sure she’s a reliable source. A had the cortado, which is essentially a really, really strong latte. I wish I hadn’t eaten a crappy waffle at the Ramada, because I would have loved to try the house-made quiche, or a breakfast “cremarito”. On a chilly Sunday morning it was easy to find a cozy corner to chat or read a book, but from what I hear the place can get packed pretty easily. People don’t mind the wait, and after trying Crema once, I wouldn’t mind it either.
Using the Nashville filter in Nashville… naturally
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Crema is located at 15 Hermitage Ave. in Nashville, TN. Store hours are MON – FRI 7AM – 7PM // SAT 8AM – 6PM // SUN 9AM – 4PM. Follow them on twitter @cremacrema
Ah, how I love a road trip. I’m not going to say that I rely on road trips to fill out my collection of Starbucks site visits, but it sure doesn’t hurt.
Leaving this winter wonderland behind wasn’t too hard…
… to spend the holiday vacationing in Florida. Along the way we came across rising temps and a nice little Starbucks outside of Atlanta. Apparently you aren’t supposed to drive through Atlanta, though I can neither confirm nor deny the horrendous traffic that is rumored to be there. After a couple hundred miles with not a green siren in site, this was a misto I’d been waiting for (which might explain the weird look on my face… or maybe I was in the middle of sentence. Either way…)
Blogging is not something anyone does to make bank, but it does have its perks.
I was recently contacted by Vimbly to promote the new Chicago branch of their event booking company. Sort of like Amazon for events, Vimbly partners with companies to provide a storefront for all sorts of fun things to do around Chicago. They asked if I would try out one of the events, and I had originally booked a walking tour in Millennium Park. If I’m honest with you, I wasn’t that sad when Vimbly contacted me to let me know the event had been cancelled. In exchange they offered me my choice of other events as a replacement, plus an additional voucher.
So, you mean, instead of parking downtown and walking around the bean in the cold I get to stay on the North Side and tour the (indoor) KOVAL Distillery (and you’re giving me money to do another event too)!? Ask me if I was disappointed…
The KOVAL Distiller (currently trying its hand at gin)
The KOVAL tour is something I’ve been wanting to check out for awhile. You know me… I’m into that local sustainable thing, and everything at this Chicago-based whiskey distillery is done locally, and by hand. The only thing they don’t do on site is grow the grain that becomes their whiskey. Oat, wheat, barley and rye, along with all the ingredients needed for flavored liqueurs and brandies are from Illinois or its surrounding states (except the coffee liqueur, because coffee doesn’t grow in Iowa).
A tour of the original distillery – which now appears to be purely for show while operations are out of a bigger facility elsewhere – lasts about an hour, including a generous number of tastings. The story of this family business is a fascinating one, as is the process of making fields of grain into bottles of spirits. Each step is thoroughly explained with tastes along the way, and for the beverage enthusiast this is a not-to-be-missed afternoon for North Side Chicagoans. While you’re at it, you might as well walk up to the Fireside and grab a hot apple cider too (maybe sneaking in a little of the apple brandy you just bought at the distillery…).
My only concern for KOVAL is growth. It’s so good that everyone’s going to want some. I’ve been on a couple of similar brewery tours of craft beers that started as small, family-oriented, DIY businesses and are now huge empires run by machines. For now, everything at KOVAL l is done by hand, but how long can they keep that up? The fact that a guy stands in front of the bottler and pours whiskey into bottles all day long is part of what makes me want to buy it. I want to support that guy. With growth and expansion (and there’s been a lot of that for KOVAL over their five years of existence) comes the inevitable replacement of that guy for a more efficient method. When machines start taking over I start losing interest, but fortunately that’s not the case yet.
So, cheers!
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Koval Distillery is located at 5121 N. Ravenswood in Chicago. $10 Tours + tastings take place each Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday, and can be booked in advance online through Vimbly.com.
Let me preface this by saying that I’m always up for a good deal. Always. But recreating a tackle football game with a bunch of fellow stuffed Americans in the name of a bargain just isn’t my idea of a good time. So I’m going to go ahead and put it out there that I’m having a better Black Friday than those people, and for a few reasons:
1) I Turkey Trotted.
I’ve always wanted to do one of these really smart pre-gluttony 5K runs, and yesterday it finally happened! The best part? In lieu of a registration fee, the Hillstriders Running Club accepted donations for the Crystal Lake Food Pantry and volunteers filled up a huge trailer with non-perishable items. To say we crushed that cold (cold!) 5K would be an understatement. This lady is not a runner, but an easy 33:41 later I had wiped away any guilt of the upcoming bucket of creamed corn that would eventually make it’s way to my face.
2) Just because I don’t like Wal-Mart doesn’t mean I don’t like a deal.
Here are a few you might want to know about: The Joffrey Ballet is having a Black Friday special on opening night Nutcracker tickets.The Nutcracker isn’t something to be scared of, and now that it’s 25% off (using the code FRIDAY) there’s no reason not to go. Oh, and while you’re at it, work off your pumpkin pie at SixPax down in the South Loop. They’re great people, and also super chiseled, and you want to look like them. Plus, they’re having a sale today on Pilates lessons and group classes.
3) I’m going to the gym, and I might be the only one there.
Though I hope the best for the American obesity crisis, I have to admit I like going to the gym and knowing that no one else will be there. The day after Thanksgiving, in the middle of the afternoon, I’m banking on having the place to myself while the rest of suburbia feasts on leftovers and takes naps. I could probably ride on the whole Turkey Trot thing as being enough to justify doing the same, but I have a high stakes event tonight that involves fishnet tights and seeing people from high school. This makes me anxious, so I want to burn as much of that creamed corn as possible before seeing anyone who knew me before the turn of the century.
It was a lofty goal to try and blog every day for twenty days, and I got half way through without wavering. An uncommonly busy Monday (and Tuesday, apparently) threw me off course and so this is me making up for lost time.
I mean, who wants to listen to me yammer on every day anyway?
Hopefully you forgive my negligence, and will accept this little list of some of my very favorite posts as an apology:
I’m so excited to be a part of this all-star event, the final “Moving Dialogs” of the season. As the featured writer, here is my pre-reflection on Monday’s event!
As a dancer-in-training I only ever did two lifts. Playing the part of the Maid in The Nutcracker, I had one lift at the end of the party scene in which Uncle Drosselmeyer gave a boost to my final Italian pas de chat before dashing off stage left. The other time was during a summer workshop rendition of Rodeo, in which the boy (the one boy at our studio, who was significantly scrawnier than me) hoisted me into a split jump – or at least, that was the goal. In the middle of rehearsal…
You might have thought I already covered this, but let’s make one thing clear: coffee stole my heart long before anyone else.
More than one person has asked me if my tattoo of a teapot was the result of a drunken escapade. Not so – as a matter of fact I have a deep affinity for hot beverages. But it’s not just how coffee tastes – the thing that I’m really drawn to is the gathering of people together that accompanies a pot of joe. Communing this way is a quality of nearly every culture of the world, and many of our differences could perhaps be worked on by sharing a cup.
Visiting a coffee roaster in Pluma Hidalgo, Mexico
More than just a caffeine fix, coffee is something that reminds me to slow down and connect with people, share ideas, and explore our differences.
Lauren Warnecke 
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