A DDF DO Extravaganza In Chicago

25
DDMS IconNever Miss Another Deal - Follow DansDeals on Facebook

-Find more articles like this by clicking on the “Trip Notes” tab on top of the DansDeals banner at the top of this site.

—————————————————————————–
I’ve written extensively about a couple of these DOs including the United MegaDO+DDF DO last November and about the fun of some 2 dozen DDF guys attending the wedding of a fellow long-time DDF poster.

I’m a foodie. I’m a sports fan (If you read this article on my coolest use of miles or this one of the Hall of Fame trifecta trip you just may have figured that out already ;)). And I’ve got a boatload of Avios which make nonstop short-hops pretty much free and easy.

Every now and then I like to meet up with fellow community members who participate in the DansDeals Forums, also known as a “DO” (pronounced like the word due).  They’ve happened from LA to NYC to Jerusalem.

So last week I posted in the Chicago DDF DO thread:

This Sunday?
8:10am: AA3249
11am: Sushi at Shallot’s
1pm: Indians@White Sox
5pm: Milt’s
9:55pm: AA2868.

Am I nuts?

Apparently not completely, as 8 members, including several from outside of Chicago, expressed an interest in attending.

More on the DO after the jump…

While most DDF DOs have centered around a meal and last a couple of hours this was going to be the first whole-day affair.

Just 5 days after writing that post I was meeting up with other guys who were flying in from other cities (all thanks to dirt cheap BA Avios mileage rates with no last-minute booking fees) in the airport.

Unfortunately Shallot’s is not open for lunch on Sunday so there would be none of their world-class sushi for us, but no matter as Milt’s BBQ is the perfect place to grab a mouth-watering Milt’s Burger, bowl of brisket chili, or a smoked brisket sandwich.

After the 8 of us got to greet each other over a delicious lunch it was off to the ballpark.

One of the attendees turned out to be hooked up with the White Sox and scored 8 free Magellan Scout Seats directly behind home plate and front row parking passes for the group. These seats are the White Sox’ equivalent of the Legends Suites in Yankee Stadium which I blogged about here.
They are not sold individually and cost a whopping $22,000 per seat for the season!
He even got DansDeals up on the scoreboard!

The Magellan Scout Seats come with unlimited free food. Not quite as useful for Orthodox Jews as the full kosher catered affair in Legends Suites, but that didn’t matter for everyone in our group. 😀
Of course the rest of us enjoyed the free drink service, something that Legends Suites don’t provide. Let’s just say we did a nice amount of damage to their Blue Moon tap supply. As in they completely ran out of it by the end of the game!

During the game waiters come to take orders for free drinks and food.
The waiters even came around to spritz water on you if you want!

Masterson pitched his 3rd shutout of the year as the Indians completed a 4 game sweep to move into a 1st place tie with Detroit.

The game went by quickly so we called Steve’s Segway Tours and booked a last-minute tour of downtown Chicago.
Our guide, April, was phenomenal. She could tell that we wanted to ride around more than we wanted to be talked to. April brought us to same great places to ride around like the Bears’ Soldier Field and a place called the Playpen which was great to ride in. She kept a loose leash on the group which made for a great time for all.
The DDF member who recommended the tour had been with them before and got the owner to allow us to ride them in top speed mode. It’s a whole lot more fun when it’s not stuck in the lower modes that most tour places leave you in! In top speed mode it doesn’t push back when you want to accelerate, it just moves like you’d want it to.

Finally it was off to dinner at Milt’s once again. If you’ll recall from my Chicago seminar Trip Notes, I had missed out on Milt’s Smoked Ribs as they only serve them at dinnertime as they need to smoke all day.

We all had the Smoked Chicken and Vegetable Soup which was a delicious soup. The chili fries were excellent as well and I recommend that over the chili nachos as the nacho chips they use are exceptionally bland. They really ought to be home-fried chips or at least better tasting than they are.

I ordered a Caiparinha which was far from authentic. Boy do miss NYC’s Clubhouse Cafe…

We ordered up a slab of ribs without realizing just how huge they were, and they are massive. Only one of our NYC based attendees was actually able to finish it. The half slab of ribs would have been plenty. I thought the ribs were good, but they just couldn’t compete with the outrageously good items that I mentioned we had for lunch. They come with 3 sauces (KC BBQ, House BBQ, and Carolina Mustard) but you simply must ask for their Garlic Aioli which is phenomenal with just about everything they make. I wish they made it a standard sauce.

Now here’s the bizarre part. I brought home my leftover ribs and stuck them in the oven the next night and they were significantly improved. When I went to tell this to the other guys via email I saw that one guy had already written the same thing! When I concurred another member who was eating his ribs in NJ thirded our opinion, confirming that we weren’t nuts. Maybe they just need to smoke them longer or pop them into the oven afterward? Beats me as I’m no chef, just a critic 😀

For dessert we had a caramel topped chocolate mousse which is not on the menu-you’ll just have to ask for it. And trust me you’ll want to as it is awesome.

Milt’s isn’t located in a traditionally Jewish area and the clientele is quite the melting pot. The fact that it was opened by a guy who donated all profits to charity makes it that much cooler. If you go be sure to make reservations well in advance as this place consistently fills up.

And of course I couldn’t come home empty-handed without bringing some treats home for my wife and son. I brought along 2 Milt’s Burgers (they come loaded with brisket chili, crispy onions, and “bacon”), 2 chopped smoked brikset sandwiches, and 3 bowls of chili.

Now I don’t know what’s going on in the kitchen there, but something in my Milt’s bag triggered an explosives alarm and I got the most thorough pat-down of my life. The TSA agents were joking around with me though and wanted to know where I got such “explosive 3 alarm chili.” 🙂 It did smell really good and the TSA agents were making plans to try the place out.

And then it was back home to Cleveland again. Just another day on the job here at DansDeals 😀

IMAG0017a

Magellan Scout Seats Lounge

20130630_134004a

Welcome DansDeals Group!

IMAG0027a

Zoomed in

IMG_20130630_135158a

Getting spritzed!

20130630_143607a

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Close to the action.  So close that when you go out from the seats you’ll be directly on TV walking down the hallway.

 

IMG_20130630_144910a

Walking past the Indians luggage in the underground to get to the seats

20130630_173350a

Having fun in the sun!

IMG_5838a

Cup of Brisket Chili

IMG_5847a

Cup of Smoked Chicken and Vegetable Soup

IMG_5839a

Milt’s Burger with Smashed Potatoes

IMG_5842a

Chopped Smoked Brisket Sandwich with fries.

IMG_20130630_191757

Chili Fries

IMG_5848a

IMG_5850a

Slab of Ribs. But where’s the Flintstones mobile?

IMG_5856a

Assorted sides. Sweet potato fries are better than the disappointingly bland regular fries. If you get cornbread as a side be sure to ask for it to eat together with your chili appetizer.

IMG_5858a

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Caiparinha didn’t bring me back to Brazil.

IMG_5861a

An awesome Caramel topped Chocolate Mousse

IMG_5866b

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5.5x ‘Nuff Said 😀

Leave a Reply

25 Comments On "A DDF DO Extravaganza In Chicago"

All opinions expressed below are user generated and the opinions aren’t provided, reviewed or endorsed by any advertiser or DansDeals.

lostinCA

when r u coming to LA to see the sensation of MLB, yasiel puig?
love to go with to chavez ravine

EmceeME

great reading for july 4’th, makes us all envious. 🙂

Meshugener

no pics of cv?

Sam

Thanks for the report, it looks awesome.

SL2

WOW! I wish i could join in in such fun times!

dave

Dan, can u orginize a kosher mega DO it will be a big hit!!

Dan

@lostinCA:
The Indians don’t play there too often 😉

@Meshugener:
You’re welcome to ask for pics of the other guys on the forum but I’m not about to publish pictures of ’em.

@Sam:
It was. What can be better than hanging out all day with other people whose hobbies include collecting miles, traveling, sports, and good food 😀

@SL2:
Become a regular on DDF 🙂

@dave:
Nu, what’s the itinerary?

On DDF the guys want to do an Anarctica DO so we can all check off that elusive 7th continent from our bucket lists!

Wondering

Excuse my ignorance but what does DO mean?

HM

When is Mesh going to show up to one of these?

Dan

@Wondering:
Basically a get-together.

@HM:
Good question, though he did come to the NYC seminar.

Wondering

@Dan That was pretty self understood I was curious what the acronym means?

AJK

Fun times, fun times. Though our flight back was delayed until 11:45pm. Didn’t make it back until 3:30-4:00 am. Thanks for the ride, AB!

Tayar

I’ll have to spend some time in the Forums. Sorry that I missed your Chgo do

Jerry

So what does DO stand for?

Elaine

@Jerry:
@Wondering:
DO – Day Out/ Day Off

hooked newbie

T/Y for the literal translation. Where do I find explanations of other abbreviations? (e,g YMMV, BM, UR account, CDW, AU [gold?])

Elaine

@hooked newbie: Use the search button at the top of main page.

sara

Shallot’s is amazing!

hooked newbie

@chaim
Do I dare say I was SETE while I was reading over the acronyms list. Just what I was looking for!! THANK YOU! (smiling ear to ear)

HM

@sara: That is what I keep hearing.

D W

Do do a DO in LA. The Indians will be playing the Angels next month. Anaheim is a much nicer stadium than Dodger Stadium, and is close to Disneyland if you want to bring the family. Its about a 1 hr drive from Pico Robertson to the stadium. No kosher food options at Angel stadium

Dan from Cleveland Now Pittsburgh

I knew I saw you at Milt’s as you were the only other person wearing the black and white Indians cap besides me. I told my kids it was you, next time I will make sure to say Hello. We sat outside, as we couldn’t get a reservation, and my kids enjoyed the completed parade members walking by on the street, a real lesson for them. Loved the chili, but they basically make all of thee menu items with the smoked brisket chili, it was little repetitious. I was on a baseball trip with my family which included Detroit, the same white sox vs. Tribe game you saw, the Twins and Mall of America, Kansas City vs. Tribe (The Tribe won that game also), and then St. Louis, Louisville, and then back home to Pittsburgh. My kids loved Louisville, we saw a Louisville Bats vs. Indianapolis Indians game (Buccos AAA team. The Indians closer blew a 3-1 lead in the bottom of 9th and lost. We then saw the Louisville City Firework show from our Club Seats ($10 each) at the completion of the ball game. The best part of the trip for my kids, including my daughter was the Louisville Slugger Museum. I recommend it to anyway passing by or through. It was amazing. You get a full tour of the actual factory, you got to watch them making the bats for players like David Wright, Jose Altuve, Derek Jeter, and many others. We went in the vault and held Babe Ruth’s bat wearing special gloves,and got to take pictures swinging Jeter, Big Poppy, Joey Votto and Mickey Mantle’s bats. At the end we bought a custom made bat, with the wood and stain of our choice just like the major leaugers. It is a must see for a real baseball fan.

SoCal Dude

Yes, when are you coming to Los Angeles? If I still have the limo I’ll roll you & family to your hotel in a limo from LAX & then attend the “Mega Dan DO Extravaganza” here in LA. Let’s do this! I’ll even take a sacred vacation day from my 9-5 to attend!

Moishebatchy

“5.5x ‘Nuff Said :D”

Am I missing something here? (It IS after 1 AM, so pardon me if it should be obvious…)

wpDiscuz