Stuff to do in Evanston

Submitted by Wendyk5 on

I know that someone will post a thread asking about stuff to do in Evanston this weekend, so I thought I'd be proactive since I've lived here for 17 years. If you have some time, check out campus, especially the east side on the lake. There's a fantastic new football practice facility, and if you walk the path south, you get a great view of downtown Chicago. You could rent a Divvy bike and ride this path around the entire campus. There's a rental outpost near the stadium on Harrison St. and Green Bay Rd. 

A handful of new restaurants have opened around town. Kinship is in downtown Evanston and has a great burger. It's a nice though not fancy restaurant. If you want something nicer, with a good (but not downtown Chicago good) steak, The Barn on Church St is pretty popular. Bangers and Lace on Grove St is good -- food is sausage focused, alcohol is pub focused. Whiskey Thief Tavern is another new place that I've heard good things about. That's on Davis. My favorite food is at Union, a wood-burning pizzeria. That's a bit of a walk from campus, but an easy L ride to the Dempster stop. Also there is Union Squared, an offshoot of Union with big slabs of Detroit style pizza with better than average toppings. Edzo's, as always, has great burgers. If you like poke (raw fish in bowls of rice with assorted vegetables), a new place just opened on Chicago Ave called Pono Ono. I ate there last week and loved it. Across from there is La Cocinita, a little place with Venezuelan and Mexican food. Really good and fast.  There are also a handful of Asian places - Joy Yee, Cafe 527, Red Hot Chili Pepper, and Shang among others. 

Mistrpeabody

September 24th, 2018 at 2:24 PM ^

I thank you for this!!! My group of three will be staying at the Hyatt O'Hare this weekend, and will be looking for something to do pregame. We will appreciate the hell out of this. Go Blue!

SailingNomad

September 24th, 2018 at 2:33 PM ^

Sad and crazy that of all the places you mentioned, only Joy Yee's was around when I was on campus.  Edzo's arrived after I left, but I've been back to try it and I highly recommend it.  Definitely get the truffle fries.

Chitown Kev

September 24th, 2018 at 3:02 PM ^

Joy Yee's has been there, like, forever....love their food but the menu is a little overpowering...if it's Thai that you happen to want...well, usually when I want ''Asian'' food, I want Thai... I would recommend Cozy Noodles on Davis...Edzo's is good, too...and if it's before the game that you want to eat, Golden Olympic is a great diner.

Space Bat

September 24th, 2018 at 2:56 PM ^

Bat 17 or World of Beer for bars in downtown Evanston. Food is pretty epic size-wise at Bat and they always have a lot of awesome beers on tap. If you're visiting from out of town definitely get something by 3 Floyds since they're only readily available in the Chicagoland area and Indiana. 

Yinka Double Dare

September 24th, 2018 at 3:25 PM ^

They have one of those tapwall systems where you get a card, then pour beer yourself and pay by the ounce. 30-ish taps. Usually 10-15 taken by Midnight Pig beers (their brewery and brewpub is in Plainfield, but Pete Miller's is owned by the same company), with the rest mostly being local/regional stuff. Oh, and a tap or two of macro. 

They just won a gold at GABF for their barleywine, it'll most likely be on tap there. Won gold at World Beer Cup this year for their Vienna lager (Hook & Hatchet), and won I think a GABF bronze medal a couple years back for their doppelbock. Kookie Monster (barrel aged stout on oreo cookies) is damn tasty. So they make some good stuff. I thought the food was good too.

Other breweries in Evanston near the L: Sketchbook (no food, but I like their beers), Smylie (just won a GABF medal again for their fruited wheat Purple Line, two or three in a row for that beer now) has BBQ. Temperance is also in town, but not near transit. Bangers & Lace and World of Beer are probably your best bets for other beer bars. B&L's menu is mainly sausages (as you might expect from the name) but they are tasty. 

Yinka Double Dare

September 24th, 2018 at 4:38 PM ^

Eh, if you're incompetent at pouring, sure. The ones I've been to have all been pretty good about helping you out, and if there's foam problems, comping for what you should have gotten. 

They aren't great if you plan on drinking pints of the same beer the whole time; they're great if you want a bunch of 5 ounce pours to try a bunch of stuff. Most bars won't even do it; the breweries that do them almost always charge you way more per ounce for the smaller pour (I don't blame them for it, it's still glassware they have to wash, pours they have to do, etc) except for Haymarket, which charges the exact same per ounce no matter what size you get. 

crom80

September 24th, 2018 at 3:06 PM ^

If you want unlimited Korean BBQ for a moderate fee, go to Woori Village, 8526 W Golf Rd, Niles, IL 60714

22 min drive from Evanston.

 

I used to go there at least once a month when I lived in Milwaukee.

Wendyk5

September 24th, 2018 at 3:12 PM ^

I forgot about Tacos Diablo, Lulu’s and Five and Dime. They’re all in the same location on Davis St. Five and Dime is the rooftop bar, Lulu’s is Asian and Tacos Diablo is self-explanatory. Also good Is La Principal on Main St. very similar to Tacos Diablo. Right off the Main St L stop.

B1G Winning

September 24th, 2018 at 3:55 PM ^

I'm actually really excited for this game/weekend.

Try to go to an away game every year, this just so happens to be the year we get to go to Evanston for the first time.  Looking forward to a weekend long party with approx 20,000 other Michigan fans!

WindyCityBlues

September 24th, 2018 at 6:01 PM ^

Our group will be staying at the Rosemont Embassy suits....They have great bars and a really nice bowling alley. If your near there or at the Hotel...Drinks on me!!

 

GO BLUE

You Only Live Twice

September 24th, 2018 at 9:05 PM ^

Fun post, and comments! 

This game has been on my to-do list forever and was almost Chicago bound this weekend, stuff happens and can't make it.  

Next time, I hope.  My high school French teacher used to rhapsodize about how Evanston was pretty much the center of civilization.  He didn't think Ann Arbor half compared.  He was such a great teacher although I was never able to appreciate why he was endlessly enamored of Evanston.  I'm sure he's gone now, his opinions on the matter have stayed in memory.  I will think of him one day finally visiting there.

Wendyk5

September 24th, 2018 at 11:46 PM ^

I think Ann Arbor's better on a lot of fronts. But Evanston has Lake Michigan, which is awesome if you like going to the beach and water sports. Evanston was dead for a lot of years, but the past two or three have brought a lot of new restaurants, which is great for us. I still prefer going to downtown Chicago for restaurants, maybe just for a change of scene, but Evanston offers more than any other suburb. 

Ann Harbaugh

September 24th, 2018 at 9:35 PM ^

Thanks for that, are there any clubs that my friends and I could visit? We are looking to go out after the game and were wondering if there is anything in Evanston or if we have to go to another suburb for that.

EGD

September 24th, 2018 at 10:30 PM ^

Thanks for the recommendations.  I'm so glad this game is back on the schedule.  I really wish the Big Ten would put IU in the West and move Northwestern to the East so we could play there every other year.

Yinka Double Dare

September 25th, 2018 at 1:34 PM ^

Oh, if you have a car and are looking for Chicago pan pizza, go to Burt's in Morton Grove - basically, drive west from Evanston down Dempster and you'll get close. Burt himself passed away, but the guys who took it over are ones he personally trained for quite a while, and it's still outstanding, and you don't have to call a day in advance anymore. They're the perfected version of Pequod's (Burt created Pequod's recipe back in the day), with the caramelized cheese on the crust, etc. Get sausage and bell peppers on it at the very least. 

Mabel Pines

September 25th, 2018 at 6:41 PM ^

Hi Wendy!  Not sure if you check back on this thread ....We are staying at the Hampton Inn Skokie- we were going to leave our car there and take a cab to Ryan Field. (I've never used Uber. Lol)  Are all the places you mentioned within walking distance of Ryan?  Chicago Ave?   Thx.  Also, do you know where the book store is?  Son is applying to NW and we need a T-shirt! (Not if we lose.  We'll all be mad then.)

Yinka Double Dare

September 26th, 2018 at 12:59 PM ^

You're looking at about a mile and a half to 2 miles walking from Ryan to the area where most of the stuff is. It's a pleasant town to walk through though. If that's too much walking, it's less than a half mile to the L, purple line. $2.50 a person, take it a few stops south to Davis.

I assume postgame cabs will be impossible and Uber/Lyft will be on surge pricing.