July 15, 2026 • 21 mins
Sam is back from his vacation with his son Sammy, and he's got Chicago on the brain! He walks us through the deep dish versus tavern pizza debate, that hidden Billy Goat Tavern with its "cheeburger, cheeburger" fame, and the highlights from Wrigley Field to the Willis Tower ledge. Even our resident non-museum guy admits the Art Institute won him over.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Murphy, Sam and Choni After the Show podcast.
You can also follow us on YouTube if that's the
way you want to consume your podcast right exactly, And
so the good. This is our first after the show
podcast since we've been back from vacation, which is why
you haven't heard any after the show podcast because.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
We're I'm so excited to hear about your vacation, Sam
with your son Sammy in Chicago. So first time you
guys have taken a vacation together.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Yeah, and it's the first summer in a while, you
haven't done a solo Sam vacation.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
And we have talked to you in two weeks. We
haven't seen you, and you're downright chipper today and I'm
excited about that for you.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Yeah. Well it was nice. It was okay, v that's
great for real. No, it was a lot of great food.
It was a lot of stuff. There were a couple
of things that we tripped across that were like, oh,
I want to do this. Those are the best things,
aren't they? Yeah? Impromptu and the biggest one for me
was we had put our name in for an hour
(01:03):
wait at one of the pizza restaurants, one of the
Deep Dish restaurants, and so it was at the Wrigley Building.
So we were walking around outside. They're gonna call you
when it's your time. Is this a famous pizza place
for Luma Nadi's. Yeah, it's one of the two Deep
Dish places. One of the tourists, I'll.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Go to it sounds really good.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
We had gone to another one, Giordano's, but some of
these people are like, you really need to go to
all right, Fine, we'll do. And so while we're walking around,
I'll look over and I see at one of these
stairwells that goes down to the lower level of the street,
it says world famous Billy Goat Tavern. And I was like, Sammy,
we have got to stopped what he was doing. I
(01:41):
was like, let's go, and he goes, what are we doing?
I was like, we're going to the Billy Goat Tavern.
We go down there and he goes, is this famous?
What is this? I was like, chea Burger, Ti Burgerchia Burger.
Saturday Night Live. And of course, Sammy, no clue what
I'm talking about.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
That's so far back though a lot of people wouldn't know.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
If that is Yeah, and sure enough, outside they have
the sign up that says sheche burger, cheaburger, chea burger.
So we go in there and it kind of looks
just like they did on Saturday Night Live, really the
whole thing, and it's like that's where they got the idea.
When those guys Belushi and Acroyd used to be in
Second City in Chicago, they'd go eat there, and so
that's where they got the idea. Apparently back then that's
(02:18):
what it was. You could have a cheeseburger, a pepsi,
and chips and that was it. But there were options
this time. Because I was waiting for like, you're gonna
ask me and they didn't. But they had all the
fountain drinks. It's like, okay, I'll take a box, no
box pepsi, but it was barks and he did.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
You had cheeseburger, Yeah okay. But so you were waiting
for pizza while this happened.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Yeah, so I just came. When that pizza came up,
it was like no, thanks, we don't want Oh wow,
excuse me.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
So I was like I was a really little kid
when that SNL episode first aired. Do they actually have
like a marking or a plaque or something that says
what that is because the historical it's kind of important
to defind that because that was what like nineteen seventy eight,
sev seventy seven something like that.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Well, I mean they had that sign outside that says
chea burger, chee burger, No, no coke PEPSI. Oh, they
do have that, okay, but it's like they made the
sign and put it up there. And if you're not
looking for this place, you're not going to find this place, okay,
because it was part of where there's an upstairs roadway
and then then there's a downstairs roadway and you just
had a trip across.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
So that was a highlight for you. It is always
fun plan if you want to and must, but know
what lands in your lap is going to have a
different feel because you had no expectation for it. You
didn't know you were going to walk in there. And
how was the cheeseburger?
Speaker 3 (03:33):
It was a cheeseburger. I mean it was a joint,
you know, typical joint, and it was more for the
atmosphere than really the cheeseburger because you got to see
the people around you. First day we ate Al's Italian beef.
I wanted an Italian, a Chicago Italian beef. It was
all right. I mean it didn't live up for you.
It was If that's what it is, then that's what
(03:53):
it is. A roast beef. Po boy is so much
better to you. The whole thing with the Italian beef
is the dip it in after they make the sandwich,
they dip it in the gravy.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
And you know, yeah, that seems sort of messy.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Yeah, it was a little messy, and it wasn't okay.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Saying I know you're gonna tell us a lot about
food and other things that you did, But didn't you
guys stay in sort of like a hostel or not?
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Like what was that former hostel? I looked it up.
It was a speakeasy hotel back in the day. Yeah,
and when you walk in, it's got those speakeasy vibes,
the old hotel vibes.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
I like that.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
It was an old, old hotel built in the twenties.
It became a hostel at some point and then somebody
bought it and now they've turned it back into a hotel.
But it's it's just like cool old vibe and the
lobby and the bar area and all that.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
But you had your own room and he shared a room.
He had a sort of hostile style. Yeah, they still
have the.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Room set up sort of hostilely because Sammy got a
four bunk bedroom, but for himself, not to spend with
other people. You could get the four bunk bedroom for yourself.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
What did he do with the other three bunks?
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Nothing? Okay, he said. He used one bed to sleep
in and the other one of the other beds he
used like if he came in sweaty, he would lay
on that bed. Oh okay, since he had four to
choose from, got it. I got queen bad. And this
is one of those places where nothing in any room
matches the other rooms. Okay. It's one of those old
places where like, let's get a couple of lamps and
(05:22):
put them in here, and you like regular hotels all always,
you know, every totally different. And it was a good
character this place, like it and of course it saved
us like half the price of a hotel, so okay.
And it was right next door to Italy, which was
really kind of cool.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
We finally had to experience Italy wherever wherever that bad
place is. If you go to a city where there's
Italy enjoy it. It's just funny.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Because anytime you know, we mentioned that the others, you know,
they'll they'll say, yeah, that's you know, that's pretty touristic.
It's like, but yeah, but it's it's Italy. Not every
city has that. And it's a pretty cool set up.
And the food is really good food.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
I got a little slice of pizza, but the rest
of the store was just like, to me, everything you
can imagine.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Have a really good candy.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
They had an antrovy section. Murphy, Yeah, Jody and I.
So the last time Jody and I got to experience
that together was in Las Vegas. Our friend June lives
in Dallas and that's where Jody's been able to experience
that with. Yeah, they had they're more to Dallas Sandwich.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
I got news for you. They've got some bellinis too
that are delicious.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Tails bought me some candy. I made my own bag
of candy, and then over in the bread section, I
was like, oh, let me get a Ficasha for the
hotel room where I was at it. Yeah, Saturday was
all about the Cubs and Wrigley. We took a tour
Wrigley field.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Yeah, you got to do that, right, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Yeah, there's only a couple of parks in the country.
You got to take a tour of Fenway. And then
after that we hung around the Wrigleyville, which is the
whole area around it it because it's just there's this
stuff going on. It's almost like a festival every game day.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
He had never been there and you had never been there. Okay,
that's a very father son thing to do.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
There was a one hour delay because it was storming.
Game finally started about the sixth inning, there was a
fog delay. I've never seen this. The fog moved in. Yeah,
couldn't see what was going on the field, So the
oh called a twenty minute delay. And then because it
was July fourth, after the game, they had a fireworks show.
They don't do fireworks at Wrigley okay, but they did
(07:31):
a fireworks show for this and it was really kind
of cute because all the Cubs players and the families,
it was like their family day. So they all came
out of the dugout and they all sat on the
grass between the pitcher's mount and home plate to watch
the fireworks. OH team and we were all in the
stands and then you.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Really did that together.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
That was a you know, the tour was at two
o'clock in the afternoon. We got back to the hotel
about midnight. Oh, a long.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Day sports, you know, events are like that. I mean
it's always a commitment five hours or more.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
Yeah, and on the Chicago River you can take the
boat tours where they go up and down the river
and they you know, this is this architecture and this
is the Riginal Building, and that's the Trump Tower and
that's this. Yeah, we decided to go with a kayak tour. Oh,
there was about fifteen of us. Everybody gets a kayak
or you can get a tandem kayak, and there's a
(08:25):
guide and for two hours you're paddling the Chicago River.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
You did that.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
It was great.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
I mean you get wait.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
Wet, you get wet because the paddle is splashing and
every now and then a wave will hit you.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
You were with a bunch of people or just you
and Sammy, a bunch of us.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
It was okay, a dozen or so, twenty of us. Okay,
and he's like, can everybody keep together? And then we
paddle and he stops and he goes over here is
this and that, and so you're getting the tour, but
you're doing it in a kayak.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
That's cool.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
It was. That was just really cool just to be
able to see it that low down water is clear
too in Chicago River. It surprised me. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Yeah, so the heat way that we all were experiencing
in New York, was it just as hot in Chicago?
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Or first of that Friday when I left New York
to go to Chicago. It was sweltering that day, but
then the next few days it was like the eighs
in the eighties, lows in the sixties and seventies. Wow,
that's super good. It still felt a little humid. Yeah,
well you are right around the lakes. Yeah, so we
did the paddle and you know, the kayak and then
that's where we went up in the Sears slash Willis Tower. Yeah.
(09:27):
And it's more than if you ever do get a
chance to do it, I would do it, because it's
more than just get on the elevator go to the top.
It walks you through this whole display of everything Chicago
has to offer. In fact, it's a good thing. Sammy
even said this a good thing to hit that before
you start seeing Chicago because it's like, oh, yeah, they
got this in Chicago. Yeah, they got that in Chicago.
And then you take this elevator. I swear it was
(09:48):
like a ten second elevator ride to the one hundred
and third floor. What your ears are? Just yeah? And
then you get out and it's like Chicago so and
yeah we got on the left. That was fun. We
did a bike ride one day, the day that we
went to uh see the White Sox game. We that
(10:09):
day we went on a bike ride around Lake Michigan.
Oh wow, electric bikes. Oh, by the way, July fourth,
the Wrigley Day. I checked my phone. Nineteen thousand steps.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Oh, good for you, it was great.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Sam. How are your feet this past Sunday? Three hundred steps? Okay?
Speaker 2 (10:30):
How did your feet hold up?
Speaker 3 (10:31):
My feet were fine. My knees were a little shaky
by the end of this trip from getting on and
off of trains and walking up and down steps. My
knees were a little shaky.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
But well, it's a good thing you've been walking in
your life, like exercising.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
I was wondering if I was going to have to
be able to squeeze walking in and it's like walking.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
To so did you you didn't do any any of
the al Capone stuff?
Speaker 3 (10:52):
Huh? Or did you go We didn't do we didn't
do any of the uh.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Because isn't that isn't like the wall there in the
We're he was shot?
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Isn't that? Yeah? Is it the same Valentine's Day massa? Yeah,
something like that, right exactly. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Yeah, there's a lot of mob tour al Capone history
in the city of Chicago.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
Yeah. And that's the thing. It's like, we were there
five days and we did at least two things a day,
and you can't get it all in yeah, right, yeah.
But the bike ride along Lake Michigan. The weather that day,
sunshine had to be in the seventies or low eighties.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Oh perfect.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
And we got on at the Navy Pier and we
just rode all the way north and Sammy said, it
wound up being like sixteen miles that we went, and
we were so far up north. He goes, hey, isn't
Wrigley Field up here? And it's like we look at
the map and it was like two or three blocks over.
So it's so it's like, let's go. So we rode
over there on a non game day, so everything is deserted. Yeah,
(11:48):
it's just like wow. We had some doughnuts there and
rode back and then we got back, I turned my
bike in. Sammy wanted to swim in the lake, so
he ran back to the hotel.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Sammy like a triathlon person, right.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
Yeah, he got his bathing suit, went back out to
Lake Michigan and went swimming. Wow, for like twenty minutes.
And then you know, we had to go to the
uh the White Sox game, and that's where I had
probably the best, one of the best pizzas I've ever had.
It was this place called Veto and Nix oh Man,
and I had found this is like the place I
wanted to eat this whole trip. Oh, Veto and Knicks. Okay,
(12:24):
one of the one of the places that claims to
invent have invented the tavern pizza, which is which Chicago's
famous for the deep dish and also the tavern pizza,
which is like cracker thin. If you get a thin
crusted nominoes and all that, that's sort of like a
tavern pizza. But this thing, I swear it was paper thin,
(12:44):
yeah and crunchy. And I asked the lady, I said,
we're going to get a sausage because that's what you're
supposed to get. But she goes, oh, we got the special.
It's sausage and onion and bell pepper and mushrooms. Is
like delicious, sixteen inch pizza, the head to be eighteen
inches and the cousin's that paper thin, you know, you
can eat half the pizza. And the place, Murphy, it
(13:05):
was total joint vibe. Carpet on the walls, Whiting fixtures
didn't match. And you know, she said, what do you
want to drink? I said, a coke zero? And I'm
used to you know, we don't we have that. We
only do pepsi. And so she goes, well, we don't
have that. I said, all right, diet pepsi is good.
We don't have that. It's like, what do you have diet?
(13:27):
Right Cola? Their diet drink was a diet our Sea.
That's crazy, bring them over here. And I heard a
lady at a table a couple away from us, and uh,
she wanted a draft beer. And she goes, what do
you all have on draft? We have old style and paps,
blue ribbon, Wait, no bud, no miller, no cores, because
(13:49):
that's the kind of place. That's what it was. Only Yeah,
am in the place? Give you directions to go two
blocks down to the liquor store where there's an ATM.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Get your kind of place. It makes you wonder how
much longer. Hopefully the family or someone will just stay
true to that in the coming years. Yeah, you know,
because those places are special, but they're not modern and
they're not day no.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
I mean, And you can see when you're walking up
to it, the neon sign and the window Vedo and
Nick's pizza. Love it that and the pizza was just
so yours perfect.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
So tavern pizza is a favorite style of yours. How
talk to me about the thick I have never had
that kind of pizza. Deep sounds like I would like it.
It sounds delicious.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
I wasn't sure about it going in because a lot
of those deep dish ones you see the sauce on
the top, and I'm not like a heavy sauce person.
Deep dish pizza they make it a weird way. It's
like everything goes inside and the sauce and stuff will
be on top. Okay, So it was actually a very
friend Jeremy kind of described it as lasagna in a
(14:57):
pizza crusty almost what it's like, and two slices of
that You're done, no kidding.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
It sounds heavy.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
You can't eat it. That's the thickness of it. That
was a that's you know, oh wow, it looks like that.
It's a ten inch pizza and that fed both of
us and had pieces left over.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
So you you, you and Sammy are sound like good
tribal partners, like, you know, because some people would not
want pizza again, you know, it's just it sounds like
everything fine.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
I had sent him a list ahead of time, these
are the places I really want to try to get to,
and then he came up with a couple during the trip.
It's like, let's go eat breakfast here. Okay, great, that's wonderful.
And by the way, I don't know if you saw
my fourth of July shirt two hundred and fifty years
later a SpongeBob fought, oh that's awesome. And I had red,
white and blue shoes on.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
So very cute. Overall, are you presenting America?
Speaker 3 (15:47):
It was. It was a fun trip. I would take
take the two. I would recommend a tour at Wrigley
if you ever go up there, go to the tower.
I don't know, Murphy, how you to pull the tower off.
I know you wouldn't have gone on the ledge, but
even up the high looking out that probably would have
done you well.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
I enjoyed those things.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
I do so on that in the Yeah, at the top.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Loved it.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Both levels, the observation.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Deck of the Empire State Building, and then you can
take the you can go up ten more floors into
the I don't know, I don't remember what they call
that part. You think about the Empire State Building, and
I don't know if you felt that in the Chicago
Tower or not, but those buildings are designed to sway,
so I don't know if it was moving.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
I didn't fear up there. It said that the building
had a I can't remember how many feet they said
the sway was in the building, but they actually when
you get up there, I have a screen that tells
you you're at thirteen hundred feet temperature is this the
wind is out of the north at this. It's like
when you're up there doing that and the other thing.
I don't want to leave this out. I'm not a
(16:43):
museum person. I don't like museums. I saw King tut
when I was little, that was cool. But going to museums.
I went to one in DC and walking around it's
just like, yeah, okay, I don't get it. We went
to the Art Institute of Chicago. I know it sounds
like a school, but it was. I would do it
(17:03):
again in a heartbeat. That's great because it's pieces that
you know. There was Picasso, there was Monete, there was
Dega American Gothic. Yeah, and it's right. This was the
thing too. I told Samue I could touch it. It's like,
I know, I know, but it's like it's right there.
(17:26):
Some of the some of them had a thin piece
of glass over and painting. Others like the Sunday in
the Park when you could walk right up and just
touch it if you wanted to. And it was just
like this is this is uber nighthawks, which I didn't
know what nighthawks was. Do you know what nighthawks is?
Sammy kept saying nighthawks, nighthawks, nighthawks. So it's like, finally
(17:47):
we get there. I see nighthawks and nighthawks is that
painting of.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
The of course I know that the diner, the diner.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
With the people in the diner, James Oh yeah, no,
it's not James Dean. Those are the version.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
What's the real one? Like these old it's just people, just.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
Three people, it looks like but it's not right. But
it was like, hey, I know that one, and I
never knew I called that.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
I never was called that. It was it was just
and you were standing right there in front of Wow.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
It's like there's famous things. I get that. I get
a museum now. And we saw the big shiny bean too.
We stayed outside and played around the bean for like
thirty minutes because it's it's that reflective. Yeah, so wherever
you stand, you're giving a wacky picture.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
It's crazy on the side about you have a last there? Yeah,
who planned that sauce? You're not a museum person? Did
you go like kicking the sermon?
Speaker 3 (18:42):
Kind of wanted to do that, and I was like, sure,
let's go.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
What's fair to say that I got in.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
It's like, okay, we'll.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Get into it when we do our our after the
show podcast tomorrow about our time in New York with
our girls. Because I loved the Met and I love
the Met me too. I thought museums are not for everyone,
and I'm not sure that Taylor was as much about
the matt as doing other things, and that's fine, that's
pretty different.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
The thing about museums is, you know, different different things
resonate with different people. Some people, you know, museums are
not all things from three thousand and five thousand years
ago in Egyptian artifacts, which to me are quite fascinating.
I learned a lot actually about that, and I know
that we'll do that in the podcast. But so I
was really fascinated about things that either I didn't retain
(19:27):
from school or just weren't taught. I don't know which
of the two it was, but it's probably that I
didn't retain some of it. But you know, it depends
on what type of museum that you're going into. If
there's if it's more pop culture, if it's more twentieth century, yeh,
if it's more there, you know, the art museums, like
you're talking about sculpture. There's so many different there's so
(19:49):
many different aspects.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
Washington, d C.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
Has something that they call the Newseum, which is all
about television news and I did that one years ago
and it's fasci.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
That sounds like you. Yeah, yeah, it depends on who
you are, but yeah it can. If you don't know
any better, you can assume that you wouldn't enjoy it.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
The one I went to in d C, you know,
it was just like this is all modern ye stuff
and okay, I mean it's like play the hits.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Yeahs.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
You walk in and it's like I know that one,
I know that one, I know that one. And we
even did our own little uh American.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
American gothic.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
Cool.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
That's so fun. I'm so glad you had a really
really good trip.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
It was just right wow, right there in your face.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Well you can't touch it. Please remember that you made
me nervous, thrown out.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
Right.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Well, so tomorrow and the after the Show podcast and
Jody and I will give you the insight on our
New York trip and a subscription that I didn't expect
to a membership I don't even know. Jody knows that
I signed up for while it was there. So that'll
be tomorrow's after the show podcast. I'm glad you had
a good time in Chicago.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
It was a blast.
Welcome to Murphy, Sam and Choni After the Show podcast.
You can also follow us on YouTube if that's the
way you want to consume your podcast right exactly, And
so the good. This is our first after the show
podcast since we've been back from vacation, which is why
you haven't heard any after the show podcast because.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
We're I'm so excited to hear about your vacation, Sam
with your son Sammy in Chicago. So first time you
guys have taken a vacation together.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Yeah, and it's the first summer in a while, you
haven't done a solo Sam vacation.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
And we have talked to you in two weeks. We
haven't seen you, and you're downright chipper today and I'm
excited about that for you.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Yeah. Well it was nice. It was okay, v that's
great for real. No, it was a lot of great food.
It was a lot of stuff. There were a couple
of things that we tripped across that were like, oh,
I want to do this. Those are the best things,
aren't they? Yeah? Impromptu and the biggest one for me
was we had put our name in for an hour
(01:03):
wait at one of the pizza restaurants, one of the
Deep Dish restaurants, and so it was at the Wrigley Building.
So we were walking around outside. They're gonna call you
when it's your time. Is this a famous pizza place
for Luma Nadi's. Yeah, it's one of the two Deep
Dish places. One of the tourists, I'll.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Go to it sounds really good.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
We had gone to another one, Giordano's, but some of
these people are like, you really need to go to
all right, Fine, we'll do. And so while we're walking around,
I'll look over and I see at one of these
stairwells that goes down to the lower level of the street,
it says world famous Billy Goat Tavern. And I was like, Sammy,
we have got to stopped what he was doing. I
(01:41):
was like, let's go, and he goes, what are we doing?
I was like, we're going to the Billy Goat Tavern.
We go down there and he goes, is this famous?
What is this? I was like, chea Burger, Ti Burgerchia Burger.
Saturday Night Live. And of course, Sammy, no clue what
I'm talking about.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
That's so far back though a lot of people wouldn't know.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
If that is Yeah, and sure enough, outside they have
the sign up that says sheche burger, cheaburger, chea burger.
So we go in there and it kind of looks
just like they did on Saturday Night Live, really the
whole thing, and it's like that's where they got the idea.
When those guys Belushi and Acroyd used to be in
Second City in Chicago, they'd go eat there, and so
that's where they got the idea. Apparently back then that's
(02:18):
what it was. You could have a cheeseburger, a pepsi,
and chips and that was it. But there were options
this time. Because I was waiting for like, you're gonna
ask me and they didn't. But they had all the
fountain drinks. It's like, okay, I'll take a box, no
box pepsi, but it was barks and he did.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
You had cheeseburger, Yeah okay. But so you were waiting
for pizza while this happened.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Yeah, so I just came. When that pizza came up,
it was like no, thanks, we don't want Oh wow,
excuse me.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
So I was like I was a really little kid
when that SNL episode first aired. Do they actually have
like a marking or a plaque or something that says
what that is because the historical it's kind of important
to defind that because that was what like nineteen seventy eight,
sev seventy seven something like that.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Well, I mean they had that sign outside that says
chea burger, chee burger, No, no coke PEPSI. Oh, they
do have that, okay, but it's like they made the
sign and put it up there. And if you're not
looking for this place, you're not going to find this place, okay,
because it was part of where there's an upstairs roadway
and then then there's a downstairs roadway and you just
had a trip across.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
So that was a highlight for you. It is always
fun plan if you want to and must, but know
what lands in your lap is going to have a
different feel because you had no expectation for it. You
didn't know you were going to walk in there. And
how was the cheeseburger?
Speaker 3 (03:33):
It was a cheeseburger. I mean it was a joint,
you know, typical joint, and it was more for the
atmosphere than really the cheeseburger because you got to see
the people around you. First day we ate Al's Italian beef.
I wanted an Italian, a Chicago Italian beef. It was
all right. I mean it didn't live up for you.
It was If that's what it is, then that's what
(03:53):
it is. A roast beef. Po boy is so much
better to you. The whole thing with the Italian beef
is the dip it in after they make the sandwich,
they dip it in the gravy.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
And you know, yeah, that seems sort of messy.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Yeah, it was a little messy, and it wasn't okay.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Saying I know you're gonna tell us a lot about
food and other things that you did, But didn't you
guys stay in sort of like a hostel or not?
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Like what was that former hostel? I looked it up.
It was a speakeasy hotel back in the day. Yeah,
and when you walk in, it's got those speakeasy vibes,
the old hotel vibes.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
I like that.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
It was an old, old hotel built in the twenties.
It became a hostel at some point and then somebody
bought it and now they've turned it back into a hotel.
But it's it's just like cool old vibe and the
lobby and the bar area and all that.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
But you had your own room and he shared a room.
He had a sort of hostile style. Yeah, they still
have the.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Room set up sort of hostilely because Sammy got a
four bunk bedroom, but for himself, not to spend with
other people. You could get the four bunk bedroom for yourself.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
What did he do with the other three bunks?
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Nothing? Okay, he said. He used one bed to sleep
in and the other one of the other beds he
used like if he came in sweaty, he would lay
on that bed. Oh okay, since he had four to
choose from, got it. I got queen bad. And this
is one of those places where nothing in any room
matches the other rooms. Okay. It's one of those old
places where like, let's get a couple of lamps and
(05:22):
put them in here, and you like regular hotels all always,
you know, every totally different. And it was a good
character this place, like it and of course it saved
us like half the price of a hotel, so okay.
And it was right next door to Italy, which was
really kind of cool.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
We finally had to experience Italy wherever wherever that bad
place is. If you go to a city where there's
Italy enjoy it. It's just funny.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Because anytime you know, we mentioned that the others, you know,
they'll they'll say, yeah, that's you know, that's pretty touristic.
It's like, but yeah, but it's it's Italy. Not every
city has that. And it's a pretty cool set up.
And the food is really good food.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
I got a little slice of pizza, but the rest
of the store was just like, to me, everything you
can imagine.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Have a really good candy.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
They had an antrovy section. Murphy, Yeah, Jody and I.
So the last time Jody and I got to experience
that together was in Las Vegas. Our friend June lives
in Dallas and that's where Jody's been able to experience
that with. Yeah, they had they're more to Dallas Sandwich.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
I got news for you. They've got some bellinis too
that are delicious.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Tails bought me some candy. I made my own bag
of candy, and then over in the bread section, I
was like, oh, let me get a Ficasha for the
hotel room where I was at it. Yeah, Saturday was
all about the Cubs and Wrigley. We took a tour
Wrigley field.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Yeah, you got to do that, right, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Yeah, there's only a couple of parks in the country.
You got to take a tour of Fenway. And then
after that we hung around the Wrigleyville, which is the
whole area around it it because it's just there's this
stuff going on. It's almost like a festival every game day.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
He had never been there and you had never been there. Okay,
that's a very father son thing to do.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
There was a one hour delay because it was storming.
Game finally started about the sixth inning, there was a
fog delay. I've never seen this. The fog moved in. Yeah,
couldn't see what was going on the field, So the
oh called a twenty minute delay. And then because it
was July fourth, after the game, they had a fireworks show.
They don't do fireworks at Wrigley okay, but they did
(07:31):
a fireworks show for this and it was really kind
of cute because all the Cubs players and the families,
it was like their family day. So they all came
out of the dugout and they all sat on the
grass between the pitcher's mount and home plate to watch
the fireworks. OH team and we were all in the
stands and then you.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Really did that together.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
That was a you know, the tour was at two
o'clock in the afternoon. We got back to the hotel
about midnight. Oh, a long.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Day sports, you know, events are like that. I mean
it's always a commitment five hours or more.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
Yeah, and on the Chicago River you can take the
boat tours where they go up and down the river
and they you know, this is this architecture and this
is the Riginal Building, and that's the Trump Tower and
that's this. Yeah, we decided to go with a kayak tour. Oh,
there was about fifteen of us. Everybody gets a kayak
or you can get a tandem kayak, and there's a
(08:25):
guide and for two hours you're paddling the Chicago River.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
You did that.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
It was great.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
I mean you get wait.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
Wet, you get wet because the paddle is splashing and
every now and then a wave will hit you.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
You were with a bunch of people or just you
and Sammy, a bunch of us.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
It was okay, a dozen or so, twenty of us. Okay,
and he's like, can everybody keep together? And then we
paddle and he stops and he goes over here is
this and that, and so you're getting the tour, but
you're doing it in a kayak.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
That's cool.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
It was. That was just really cool just to be
able to see it that low down water is clear
too in Chicago River. It surprised me. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Yeah, so the heat way that we all were experiencing
in New York, was it just as hot in Chicago?
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Or first of that Friday when I left New York
to go to Chicago. It was sweltering that day, but
then the next few days it was like the eighs
in the eighties, lows in the sixties and seventies. Wow,
that's super good. It still felt a little humid. Yeah,
well you are right around the lakes. Yeah, so we
did the paddle and you know, the kayak and then
that's where we went up in the Sears slash Willis Tower. Yeah.
(09:27):
And it's more than if you ever do get a
chance to do it, I would do it, because it's
more than just get on the elevator go to the top.
It walks you through this whole display of everything Chicago
has to offer. In fact, it's a good thing. Sammy
even said this a good thing to hit that before
you start seeing Chicago because it's like, oh, yeah, they
got this in Chicago. Yeah, they got that in Chicago.
And then you take this elevator. I swear it was
(09:48):
like a ten second elevator ride to the one hundred
and third floor. What your ears are? Just yeah? And
then you get out and it's like Chicago so and
yeah we got on the left. That was fun. We
did a bike ride one day, the day that we
went to uh see the White Sox game. We that
(10:09):
day we went on a bike ride around Lake Michigan.
Oh wow, electric bikes. Oh, by the way, July fourth,
the Wrigley Day. I checked my phone. Nineteen thousand steps.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Oh, good for you, it was great.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Sam. How are your feet this past Sunday? Three hundred steps? Okay?
Speaker 2 (10:30):
How did your feet hold up?
Speaker 3 (10:31):
My feet were fine. My knees were a little shaky
by the end of this trip from getting on and
off of trains and walking up and down steps. My
knees were a little shaky.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
But well, it's a good thing you've been walking in
your life, like exercising.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
I was wondering if I was going to have to
be able to squeeze walking in and it's like walking.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
To so did you you didn't do any any of
the al Capone stuff?
Speaker 3 (10:52):
Huh? Or did you go We didn't do we didn't
do any of the uh.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Because isn't that isn't like the wall there in the
We're he was shot?
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Isn't that? Yeah? Is it the same Valentine's Day massa? Yeah,
something like that, right exactly. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Yeah, there's a lot of mob tour al Capone history
in the city of Chicago.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
Yeah. And that's the thing. It's like, we were there
five days and we did at least two things a day,
and you can't get it all in yeah, right, yeah.
But the bike ride along Lake Michigan. The weather that day,
sunshine had to be in the seventies or low eighties.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Oh perfect.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
And we got on at the Navy Pier and we
just rode all the way north and Sammy said, it
wound up being like sixteen miles that we went, and
we were so far up north. He goes, hey, isn't
Wrigley Field up here? And it's like we look at
the map and it was like two or three blocks over.
So it's so it's like, let's go. So we rode
over there on a non game day, so everything is deserted. Yeah,
(11:48):
it's just like wow. We had some doughnuts there and
rode back and then we got back, I turned my
bike in. Sammy wanted to swim in the lake, so
he ran back to the hotel.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Sammy like a triathlon person, right.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
Yeah, he got his bathing suit, went back out to
Lake Michigan and went swimming. Wow, for like twenty minutes.
And then you know, we had to go to the
uh the White Sox game, and that's where I had
probably the best, one of the best pizzas I've ever had.
It was this place called Veto and Nix oh Man,
and I had found this is like the place I
wanted to eat this whole trip. Oh, Veto and Knicks. Okay,
(12:24):
one of the one of the places that claims to
invent have invented the tavern pizza, which is which Chicago's
famous for the deep dish and also the tavern pizza,
which is like cracker thin. If you get a thin
crusted nominoes and all that, that's sort of like a
tavern pizza. But this thing, I swear it was paper thin,
(12:44):
yeah and crunchy. And I asked the lady, I said,
we're going to get a sausage because that's what you're
supposed to get. But she goes, oh, we got the special.
It's sausage and onion and bell pepper and mushrooms. Is
like delicious, sixteen inch pizza, the head to be eighteen
inches and the cousin's that paper thin, you know, you
can eat half the pizza. And the place, Murphy, it
(13:05):
was total joint vibe. Carpet on the walls, Whiting fixtures
didn't match. And you know, she said, what do you
want to drink? I said, a coke zero? And I'm
used to you know, we don't we have that. We
only do pepsi. And so she goes, well, we don't
have that. I said, all right, diet pepsi is good.
We don't have that. It's like, what do you have diet?
(13:27):
Right Cola? Their diet drink was a diet our Sea.
That's crazy, bring them over here. And I heard a
lady at a table a couple away from us, and uh,
she wanted a draft beer. And she goes, what do
you all have on draft? We have old style and paps,
blue ribbon, Wait, no bud, no miller, no cores, because
(13:49):
that's the kind of place. That's what it was. Only Yeah,
am in the place? Give you directions to go two
blocks down to the liquor store where there's an ATM.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Get your kind of place. It makes you wonder how
much longer. Hopefully the family or someone will just stay
true to that in the coming years. Yeah, you know,
because those places are special, but they're not modern and
they're not day no.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
I mean, And you can see when you're walking up
to it, the neon sign and the window Vedo and
Nick's pizza. Love it that and the pizza was just
so yours perfect.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
So tavern pizza is a favorite style of yours. How
talk to me about the thick I have never had
that kind of pizza. Deep sounds like I would like it.
It sounds delicious.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
I wasn't sure about it going in because a lot
of those deep dish ones you see the sauce on
the top, and I'm not like a heavy sauce person.
Deep dish pizza they make it a weird way. It's
like everything goes inside and the sauce and stuff will
be on top. Okay, So it was actually a very
friend Jeremy kind of described it as lasagna in a
(14:57):
pizza crusty almost what it's like, and two slices of
that You're done, no kidding.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
It sounds heavy.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
You can't eat it. That's the thickness of it. That
was a that's you know, oh wow, it looks like that.
It's a ten inch pizza and that fed both of
us and had pieces left over.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
So you you, you and Sammy are sound like good
tribal partners, like, you know, because some people would not
want pizza again, you know, it's just it sounds like
everything fine.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
I had sent him a list ahead of time, these
are the places I really want to try to get to,
and then he came up with a couple during the trip.
It's like, let's go eat breakfast here. Okay, great, that's wonderful.
And by the way, I don't know if you saw
my fourth of July shirt two hundred and fifty years
later a SpongeBob fought, oh that's awesome. And I had red,
white and blue shoes on.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
So very cute. Overall, are you presenting America?
Speaker 3 (15:47):
It was. It was a fun trip. I would take
take the two. I would recommend a tour at Wrigley
if you ever go up there, go to the tower.
I don't know, Murphy, how you to pull the tower off.
I know you wouldn't have gone on the ledge, but
even up the high looking out that probably would have
done you well.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
I enjoyed those things.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
I do so on that in the Yeah, at the top.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Loved it.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Both levels, the observation.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Deck of the Empire State Building, and then you can
take the you can go up ten more floors into
the I don't know, I don't remember what they call
that part. You think about the Empire State Building, and
I don't know if you felt that in the Chicago
Tower or not, but those buildings are designed to sway,
so I don't know if it was moving.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
I didn't fear up there. It said that the building
had a I can't remember how many feet they said
the sway was in the building, but they actually when
you get up there, I have a screen that tells
you you're at thirteen hundred feet temperature is this the
wind is out of the north at this. It's like
when you're up there doing that and the other thing.
I don't want to leave this out. I'm not a
(16:43):
museum person. I don't like museums. I saw King tut
when I was little, that was cool. But going to museums.
I went to one in DC and walking around it's
just like, yeah, okay, I don't get it. We went
to the Art Institute of Chicago. I know it sounds
like a school, but it was. I would do it
(17:03):
again in a heartbeat. That's great because it's pieces that
you know. There was Picasso, there was Monete, there was
Dega American Gothic. Yeah, and it's right. This was the
thing too. I told Samue I could touch it. It's like,
I know, I know, but it's like it's right there.
(17:26):
Some of the some of them had a thin piece
of glass over and painting. Others like the Sunday in
the Park when you could walk right up and just
touch it if you wanted to. And it was just
like this is this is uber nighthawks, which I didn't
know what nighthawks was. Do you know what nighthawks is?
Sammy kept saying nighthawks, nighthawks, nighthawks. So it's like, finally
(17:47):
we get there. I see nighthawks and nighthawks is that
painting of.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
The of course I know that the diner, the diner.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
With the people in the diner, James Oh yeah, no,
it's not James Dean. Those are the version.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
What's the real one? Like these old it's just people, just.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
Three people, it looks like but it's not right. But
it was like, hey, I know that one, and I
never knew I called that.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
I never was called that. It was it was just
and you were standing right there in front of Wow.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
It's like there's famous things. I get that. I get
a museum now. And we saw the big shiny bean too.
We stayed outside and played around the bean for like
thirty minutes because it's it's that reflective. Yeah, so wherever
you stand, you're giving a wacky picture.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
It's crazy on the side about you have a last there? Yeah,
who planned that sauce? You're not a museum person? Did
you go like kicking the sermon?
Speaker 3 (18:42):
Kind of wanted to do that, and I was like, sure,
let's go.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
What's fair to say that I got in.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
It's like, okay, we'll.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Get into it when we do our our after the
show podcast tomorrow about our time in New York with
our girls. Because I loved the Met and I love
the Met me too. I thought museums are not for everyone,
and I'm not sure that Taylor was as much about
the matt as doing other things, and that's fine, that's
pretty different.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
The thing about museums is, you know, different different things
resonate with different people. Some people, you know, museums are
not all things from three thousand and five thousand years
ago in Egyptian artifacts, which to me are quite fascinating.
I learned a lot actually about that, and I know
that we'll do that in the podcast. But so I
was really fascinated about things that either I didn't retain
(19:27):
from school or just weren't taught. I don't know which
of the two it was, but it's probably that I
didn't retain some of it. But you know, it depends
on what type of museum that you're going into. If
there's if it's more pop culture, if it's more twentieth century, yeh,
if it's more there, you know, the art museums, like
you're talking about sculpture. There's so many different there's so
(19:49):
many different aspects.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
Washington, d C.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
Has something that they call the Newseum, which is all
about television news and I did that one years ago
and it's fasci.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
That sounds like you. Yeah, yeah, it depends on who
you are, but yeah it can. If you don't know
any better, you can assume that you wouldn't enjoy it.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
The one I went to in d C, you know,
it was just like this is all modern ye stuff
and okay, I mean it's like play the hits.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Yeahs.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
You walk in and it's like I know that one,
I know that one, I know that one. And we
even did our own little uh American.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
American gothic.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
Cool.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
That's so fun. I'm so glad you had a really
really good trip.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
It was just right wow, right there in your face.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Well you can't touch it. Please remember that you made
me nervous, thrown out.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
Right.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Well, so tomorrow and the after the Show podcast and
Jody and I will give you the insight on our
New York trip and a subscription that I didn't expect
to a membership I don't even know. Jody knows that
I signed up for while it was there. So that'll
be tomorrow's after the show podcast. I'm glad you had
a good time in Chicago.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
It was a blast.
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