Hot Doug's, Lou Malnati's, B.L.U.E.S and some much needed best friend hang time

Yesterday was a much needed day of awesome. Two of my best friends Bryce and Katie flew in from Boston Friday and yesterday we spent the whole day together. These two wonderful people will also be the Godparents of my daughter. :) For lunch I took them to Hot Doug's, they used to live here so they had been once before but in my opinion it has been too long since they've been back! My friend Ally who lives in the suburbs of Chicago also met us and had lunch being that Hot Doug's is one of her favorite places on earth. I ordered the Veal Saltimbocca Sausage that came with a sage mustard, hickory smoked swiss cheese and fried prosciutto, that was sooooo delicious!! That fried prosciutto was perfect on it, the sausage was very moist and soft as was the cheese so the crunch that the prosciutto gave was much needed and magical! I also ordered the Chardonnay and Jalapeno Rattlesnake Sausage with a roasted pepper aioli and Pere Joseph Cheese. This dog was no less extraordinary. Bryce also order the Rattlesnake along with the White Wine and Dijon Rabbit Sausage that came with a mustard aioli and creme de Brie cheese. I take his word that is was fabulous. Katie ordered the Cherry and Apple Pork sausage with creamy peach mustard and Cranberry-Cinnamon Goat Cheese, and Ally ordered the Brown Ale and Chipotle Buffalo Sausage with bacon garlic mayo and  Carragaline Farmhouse Cheese. I feel like neither one of them made a peep until after both were completely finished. None of us had a single complaint about anything we ordered or having to wait in the half hour line to get these delicious dogs. There are 5 selections I would recommend trying. Actually, just throw a dart at the board and try whatever it lands on, it will always be delicious! We then went back to my house, let my dogs play in the yard and hung out for a while and then decided for dinner we would do Lou Malnati's. We got "The Lou", it's a huge deep dish pizza covered in mushrooms, spinach, roasted tomato and sauteed onions. I feel like I don't even need to say how that was, but just in case... It was ridiculously good!! We all got filled up and all took a piece home. To finish off the night we decided some live music was needed. I suggested the bar B.L.U.E.S on Halsted, I've only been to it once before but when I did the show was just awesome. It's small and cramped and has the dive bar feel to it, but in my opinion almost no better way to listen to a Blues band. The band was awesome, the blonde monster who came and stood right in front of us to make out with her boyfriend didn't even put a damper on it! ;) Over all it was a wonderful day, I had tons of fun and got to spend time with people I adore and don't see nearly as much as I would like to. All the places we went are wonderful, if you haven't been you need to go check it out yourself! www.loumalnatis.com Hot Doug's  www.chicagobluesbar.com