Help with Chicago food itinerary please...

[Civil Bear]

Hi Folks-

Wife and I will be pasing through Chicago for a few days on a week long road trip and could use some help vetting our food itinerary. We will be coming from San Francisco by way of Milwaukee with a goal to sample local eats and institutions. We will be staying at a B&B in Wicker Park,will have a car but would prefer to us public transportation when practical, and love hitting up hole-in the-walls as well as the occasional more upscale establishments.

Mon 9/10
Drive to Chicago from Milwaukee
Dinner at Lou Malnati’s for a sample of authentic deep dish pizza

Tue 9/11
Sandwich crawl with intermingled site seeing (Untouchable’s TourJH Skydeck, etc.):
-Pamozzo’s Market
-Al’s Beef
-Portillo’s Hot Dogs
-Grahamwhich
Dinner at Fontera Grill (got my res for 8:30. Anyone know what the wait would be like at Xoco around that time?)

Wed 9/12
Lunch at Turkish Festival
Site seeing: Mini-Bus & Boat Tour, Navy Pier
Dinner at Gene & Georgetti (changed from Harry Caray's Stakehouse)

Thu 9/13
Drive to Cleveland
Hit Uncle John’s BBQ for rib tips and sausage on the way out of town

[nsxtasy]

The one thing that sticks out at me is Gene & Georgetti. If you're going there because it's a longtime local institution and you want to soak up the atmosphere, then okay. But if you want a really great steak, you'd be better off going to David Burke's Primehouse or Chicago Cut Steakhouse.

[Civil Bear]

Thanks. I'm looking more for Chicago old school, as I think it would be easier to match the more contemporary steakhouses in the SF Bay Area. Was originally looking at Harry Carry's as it appears they do offer a dry-aged cut, but figured I may as well go with a Chicago institution while I'm there.