Pocohantis and Smith

   22 December-Direct flight from Tulsa to O'Hare.  Left at noon, were on the ground with bags collected by 1400.   I would have booked the flight first thing in the morning, but then we would have had to wade through all of the business travellers and probably had a 2 hr layover.  Kudos to Pocohantis on that one.

  Took the Blue line all the way in to Jackson exit, then cab to the Seneca.  Could have gotten of on State and been about 4 blocks away, but it worked out just fine.  The Seneca is  a older, upper mid-level hotel immediately to the east of the Hancock building.  It turned out to be perfect for us.  Pocohantis, again, had the good sense to upgrade our reservation to a suite (sweet) for $20 more a night and we wound up with appartment(!) with a separate bedroom and a full size kitchen.  Two TV's, whirlpool tub, and enough closet space for a platoon of travelling tuba players.  Staff was friendly and efficient and the lobby ajoined a decent bar (which always comes in handy) and a Steakhouse ("Saloon" I believe) which we didn't hit but heard good things about.  If your going to be in the Gold Coast area you can probably spend more money, but I don't know if you'll do much better.

   By the time we got settled, it was dinner-ish, so we hit the ground running and headed over to Rush st. After a couple of Goose Islands at the Cactus Bar we took a lap around, tried the Colonial but couldn't fade the wait. Wound up a Hugo Frogs.  Good decision.   Were off the street, in the door, at our table with a warm basket of bread before we had a chance to shake off the cold. 

    Now, you either like this type of place or you don't.  It's big and it's noisy and there's not much for the "intimate table for two" crowd, but the food is spot on, if pricey.  Everything is a la carte, but the portions are quite good.  When they say the sides are big enough to share, they're not kidding. We got enough creamed spinach to feed a battalion.  I had the seared yellowfin with wasabi and pickled ginger (not the most original choice, but good piece of fish).  She had the crab cakes and spicy mayo.  I've had crab cakes in  Baltimore, in season, and I don't know that they were any better than these.  In fact, I'm sure they weren't.  These are good crab cakes.