Anniversary over-nighter

Jeff and I celebrated our ninth wedding anniversary with an overnight excursion downtown. We have done this for several years now, to walk around where I lived when we were dating and to stop in the church where we had our wedding. We even walked in our reception place, which is now a jewelry close-out store. That awesome cigar-bar Club Macanudo closed down only months after our wedding when humidores passed out of mode.

The biggest highlight of our day today was our first visit to Xoco for lunch. It is Rick Bayless' and Deann Groen Bayless' (yes Deann is cousin to Jeff's dad) new Mexican street-food restaurant. We waited in a long line,mostly indoors, but the whole time we could watch the food preparation. Here's a photo of the wood-burning oven where they make their special tortas.
And a photo of a woman with a very tedious job, peeling the skins off roasted poblanos.
We watched them making the sandwiches, and another team was mixing up batches of chocolate hazelnut cookies, there were bags and bags of special torta loaves being unloaded from a Labriola box. They had signs up where we waited of all their food sources: a few we recognized were of course Labriola bread from Alsip, Three Floyds beer from Munster in the beverage case, and flour from New Rinkel mill which is not too far away in Indiana.

We ordered two tortas and shared each. These were the best sandwiches we have eaten maybe ever? The bread was perfectly crispy and soft at the same time.
That must be why they use a wood-burning stove. And we shared one of those chocolate hazelnut cookies. A perfect lunch. I was tempted to dance out of the door and sing out to all the waiting people, "Yes, it is so worth your wait!"

Another highlight of my day happened in the Apple store on Michigan Ave. It is quite an experience to just be in that building and play with their latest models of Macs, iPhones and iPods. But I'm less into computerized toys than Jeff so after a few minutes I was waiting till he was finished browsing, standing in the middle of the store looking around at people and the space and thinking all this whiteness and glass and vaulted glass ceiling makes this a modern sort of cathedral.
I heard clapping and music upstairs, so went upstairs to see what was drawing the crowds to the second floor demo/teaching auditorium. As I was going up the glassy staircase I heard these words from part of a later verse of the Christmas carol O Holy Night:

. . . And in his name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
Let all within us praise his holy name.

Christ is the Lord! O praise his name forever.
His power and glory evermore proclaim. . . .

This is the Apple store and I'm hearing angels singing upstairs. Well actually it was a rock trio called the Barlow Girls doing a free concert on the little stage near the Genius Bar. I shouldn't be surprised, it is Christmas time, but it was a treat to experience how gospel announcing keeps happening these days, even inside a place built to the honor and glory of a digital screen nestled within a slim white case.

The third treat was touring the new food market that opened a few days ago in the Ogilvie transportation center right across the street from Jeff's work building. We sampled wine, truffles, gelato, empanadas and a raw or unbaked lemon bar.