Early Birthday Celebration: Afternoon Arcade Games, Dinner at Daisies

March 8, 2024

I work half days on Fridays (a perk at Grubhub, where we all technically end the work week at 1PM on Fridays). Today, Liz took a half day to meet me downtown, and had an early birthday celebration for me planned.

I didn’t know what to expect, but hung out in the car as we drove our way to Logan Square. And parked on Milwaukee, alongside the two destinations (which were pretty close to one another).

First stop: Emporium Arcade Bar. We showed up soon after they opened, and the place was pretty deserted.

The games operated on a token system, which wasn’t great for the pocket book… but is, in my estimation, necessary. Because if it’s all free play, there’s no actual risk. I had this revelation while playing games at Nickel City Arcade, that if the games are all cheap or free… the absence of risk detracts from the experience. Because as a kid, risk was a big part of the process (something I didn’t realize until I was an adult).

Liz, waiting to get some game tokens out of the machine.

I didn’t notice until much later that this photo features an extremely naked man, on not one but two giant screens. I’m pretty sure they were playing movies from the 80’s, and this was a segment from An American Werewolf in London.

A view of the bar. I have to say, the service we got was… mediocre. But what was I expecting at an arcade bar?

They had a lot of top shelf whisky available, and Liz ended up ordering a single pour of the Signet (something we were surprised to see available).

Unfortunately, I didn’t watch the pour. And when Liz got her glass, it tasted nothing like what she was accustomed to.

So we were in this position of: what do we do, about an expensive, fancy drink that doesn’t taste right?

Ultimately, we just dealt with it. But it taught us a big lesson, in terms of ordering expensive whisky in unexpected places: trust but verify. And ask for a taste, before taking on the whole glass. I’m not saying they watered this bottle down, but it definitely did not taste like our bottle at home.

A few of the stand-up arcade games available. These games were… meh. Some staples, but nothing to write home about.

I was disappointed there wasn’t a Centipede game. They had a Smash TV game, but that to me is the poor man’s Robotron: 2084 (one of my favorite games).

These games were fine, in that they were the most basic of staples. I was just hoping for a few more exciting/rare games is all.

The pinball machines were much better. Had a chuckle to myself, when I saw they had Gorgar – a pinball game that I can’t help but see in a hyper-sexualized context.

Hard to believe that it’s been a decade since I helped Chris transport a few machines he had purchased.

They also had a few solid favorites of mine: FunHouse and Hurricane. Made me nostalgic for all the Pinball Expo events from so long ago. I wonder if I can still book a hotel room for this year’s event?

Nearby (should have taken some pics), they had The Machine: Bride of Pinbot and a Terminator 2 machine.

I’ve mentioned it here before, but the Bride of Pinbot game was something that lived in the main building of my dormitory quad, Freshman year of college. And I lost at least a half year’s tuition to this machine, during that time.

Of all the various tokens I spent this afternoon, easily half of them went into this game.

Shot a few rounds of billiards with Liz.

Fast forward a bit, and a few doors down… to Daisies. It’s a favorite place of ours, but harder to get into since they won a Michelin Green Star last year. I was surprised she was able to get us a table!

Sweet Onions: bone marrow, black garlic, served over sourdough bread.

Liz got the Stracci (which I got the last time we were here): Lamb sugo, soft herbs, pecorino.

Interesting note: Liz’s dish looks different from mine, from 2023.

I’m not a big ravioli fan, but the black truffle is what pulled me in. I got the Ravioli: black truffle ricotta, celery root, chicken skin.

For dessert, Liz got an affogato. I got the Apple Parsnip Cake: vanilla pudding, parsnip ice cream.

The parsnip ice cream was a bit of a gamble, but our server convinced me. And everything went really well with a lovely cup of coffee, to finish off the evening.

We had a very lovely, early night out. And I love that I got a pre-birthday celebration day.

It’s pretty funny that, with me turning 50 and getting a letter from the AARP… we had some super early dinner reservations today. The restaurant was pretty quiet, and not a lot of other people around. But that’s the kind of dangerous justification that leads to 4:30 PM dinner reservations.