Malört is a brand of bäsk, a Swedish liqueur that's distilled from wormwood and flavored with anise. The word malört is Swedish for "wormwood", and bäsk means "bitter". Malört is known for its extremely bitter taste, and some have described it as "infamous" and "the worst booze ever". Others have compared its flavor to pencil shavings, old battery rust, citrus zest, and ear wax, or even Werther's Originals that have been in an old man's mouth.
For me however, Malört brings me to a much different place. One filled with deep dish pizza, sunset boat rides, and a love that so deeply contradicts with that old mans mouth. Two shots of Malört and a moscow mule in I had finally worked up the courage to tell this girl I loved her. As the sun went down over Chicago and my now girlfriend and I sat on a rickety old tourist boat the Malört forced an honest and raw confession out of me which lead me to whisper the words, "I love you."
Life is good.
Love is good.
Malört is good.
Okay, that's enough sappy for now. Back to the regular scheduled programming. Chicago is a city that I also fell in love with; okay maybe we're still in the sappy. But seriously, this place was amazing. From the only Filipino Michelin star restaurant (https://www.kasamachicago.com/reservations-dinner) in the US to the dirtiest little chicago hot dog (https://www.portillos.com/index.html), a food tour through this city was phenomenal.
I started my tour at the St. Regis, where a friend of mine was able to put me up and provide me with one of the best luxury services I've ever received in my life. We had a butler, a fucking butler.... Working from home, we used this friends work stipend to order deep dish pizza, breakfast from Dome, and a million and ten other things. As my friend went to work I spoiled myself with deep dish pizza, the in-unit bathtub, and a robe made of a million micro-threads. We drank, we jet-skied, and unfortunately for my bank account, we gambled.
I ended my tour at the craziest hotel of my life. The hotel St. Clair. Very, very different from the St. Regis. Here, my girlfriend and I set up home base, yapped on our work calls and left to take on the city. We started at the beautiful rooftop: London House. Absolutely stunning. Then, on to the next. We headed downstairs where we sat by the river and drank wine while talking about a million and ten things. The yap was insane. We then headed to dinner at the Girl & the Goat which was phenomenal, the best carrot hummus I've ever had, plus we grabbed some other things.
Honestly, this might be the longest blog you've ever done so I'm capping it here lol. There are a million and ten other things I want to write about but I'm tired now. I will say the following though:
If you go to Chicago, check out the Wendell sunset boat cruise and ask for Malört - could be lifechanging.
The bean at night is spooky. Would highly recommend going.
Chicago airport security are a bunch of jerks.
Don't stay at the hotel St. Clair unless you hate housekeeping.
Go to the 3 arts club cafe. Afterwards, take a stroll around the store. It's a furniture store with things we'll probably never be able to afford but it is nice to see.
Okay that's all. Ciao for now.