What to do with you when you come visit

I have struggled since I moved to the windy city on what the hell to do with friends when them came from out of town to come see me. Everyone always just wants to let me decide. "Oh, whatever you normally do is fine" "I want to see what you see every day" "You know this city better than I do"...these are the things I constantly hear from people.

Truthfully? What I normally do is sit around, probably in my pj's and chain smoke while I read and drink too much coffee. Or I watch really, really bad tv through my computer on Hulu. Then, if it's a day that ends in "Y" I go to the bar down the street from my house. And see the same 4 people I see every night. What I normally see is the inside of my book while I ride the train for 45 minutes to and 45 minutes home from work. Sometimes I see weird people preaching at me. Sometimes I see annoying teenagers (though mostly I just hear them). And finally, you knew me before I moved here. Was I especially adventurous then? What makes you think that I've drastically changed, and jumped into a much higher tax bracket, and therefore obviously know all the best clubs, restaurants, awesomest spots ever?

I'm the girl that once I find a sandwich on a menu I order only that for the rest of my life. Seriously, I've never had any other sub at Jimmy John's other than the #6 (which on a side note was also the veggie sub at Big Mikes, now possibly Milios back home and was also the only sub I ever ate there). I hone in on a pattern and rarely do I deviate. Is this great for my social life? No, of course not. Am I trying to change? Yes, but it apparently takes me more time than 4 years. Whatever, I'm working on it.

So when people come to town I often wrestle with what to do with them for the 24-72 hours they are living on my couch and I'm forever soliciting advice from friends who live here (which by the way if you've got any sure fire winners, please, please feel free to leave them in the comments!)

My one standard has been the Signature Room on the 95th. This is usually reserved for folks that come from towns where the highest building they've seen is between the 3-5 story range, unless it's a university building, then maybe 8-10. It's a crazy kind of fun night out with the ridiculous expensive drinks everyone expects to pay for in a metropolitan city and a view to die for. And weirdly, while I have it on standby and while I always know it's there - I haven't actually been in probably 2 years.

So obviously it is time for me to expand my default list. And I think I have just the thing to do it.

This past weekend I went on a brewery tour of Metropolitan Brewery and it was awesome. Located at around 5100 N. Ravenswood, it's a bit misleading as the door is actually on Winona, this little brew tour is a great find for a Saturday afternoon. I've never done a brewery tour so I have nothing to compare it to, but the 3 beers we got to taste were great, Doug and Tracy were personable, engaging, funny and really interesting. The whole thing took about an hour and it cost only $5 a person. It's a great way to support a local enterprise and all in all, it was just really, really fun.

Seriously, I'm doing this with everyone that comes to town. Also directly next door to Metropolitan is Koval Distillery that offers tours for $10. I hope to stop by there before the summer is out and I'll give you a review of how that one goes too.