Kevin Visits Chicago: Pandora Video Shoot at Buddy Guy’s Legends


My friend Kevin (who I last saw when visiting San Francisco) was in town today, doing a cool thing for his cool job: setting up shop at Buddy Guy’s Legends to do a video shoot for Pandora’s Podcast (he is, incidentally, the host).

They’re doing a few video shoots, focusing primarily on specific venues across the US. How cool a job is that?


I tried heading over mid-afternoon, as well as right after work… but I wasn’t able to catch any “behind the scenes” shots (the guys had everything broken down by the time I arrived). In addition to the normal format of these podcasts, they also did a few interviews as well. My hope was that I could catch a glimpse of Kevin at work. Ah well, guess I get to see the video online when it comes out.


It’s pretty dark inside Buddy Guy’s, so I kept the flashy flash down to a minimum. Here’s the one non-blurry shot I have of Kevin.

I got to chat with some of the other guys from Pandora throughout the evening: Xifer, who is Kevin’s bandmate and Roger, who was handling most of the video (and post production). Cool guys, and I got into some neat conversations with them.

Interesting sidenote: as a freelance video guy, Roger also works on documentaries. When I mentioned liking The Bridge, he said he knew the guy who directed it. Small world!


After a bit, Dave and Kevin’s friend Stuart joined us for the evening. We all headed down the street for some dinner to a place that Ben had recommended: Eleven City Diner.

Actually, he had never eaten here before – but passed by it on several occassions. But he said that it did, from the outside, “look like a good place.”

I’m happy to report that it was, indeed, a good place.


The inside was really roomy, with some super high ceilings. We got to sit in the adjoining room, basically right next to the kitchen and the place where the waitstaff picked up their orders.


Random shot of the “Mountain of Onion Rings” appetizer.

Since I saw it on the menu, I pretty much had to get the pastrami sandwich. I’m a huge fan of pastrami, but rarely get to eat it as I haven’t been going out all that much lately. While the sandwich I got wasn’t a huge sandwich, it was still a very generous (and very good) one.

The prices are a bit high here, but the atmosphere is great and the waitstaff are incredibly friendly and talkative. Our waitress had just moved back to Chicago after being in San Fracisco… and had a lot to talk about with the Pandora folks. In fact, I believe that Xifer and the waitress exchanged contact information, as she used to live maybe two blocks or so away from him.

It was great to see Kevin again, after almost a year. I’m bummed I didn’t get to catch him “at work,” but I had a good time talking with his coworkers, and generally having a fun time hanging out over dinner.

This Post Has 0 Comments

Leave A Reply