Friday Mystery Dinner

A couple days ago Tina, myself, and Karen planned to do dinner this fine evening.  By plan it was basically a quick exchange between me and Tina of "hey what you doing this week? Let's do dinner. Ok." I'm really not much of a planner outside of that. I think I am of the mindset that when I plan things more than that they never works out. Karen on the other hand loves plans with details. I may or may not drive her insane with my spontaneity. With that being said, Karen asked me what we were doing for dinner tonight to which I stated "No clue as I haven't thought about it and haven't heard from Tina." Karen was going to text Tina for thoughts/ideas but I was like "Nah it should be a surprise." And that was the extent of my social planning. To her credit Karen did not freak out. KUDOS TO YOU KAREN!  

Food/restaurant planning I'm a completely different person. I take this stuff seriously when it comes to finding a new joint to try with the squad. I'll eat whatever with no problem, Karen is a picky eater, Lily can be hit or miss, and Tina for the mostly open but has some strong opinions at times.  But honestly I might research food related items like I was studying for final exams in college. I'll look for restaurants in whatever area we will in online. I'll look them up for ranking(s) and see what catches my attention. Then I'll go into their page review on a site like tripadvisor.com and breakdown the place by a couple categories: 

• how easily to get to the place 
• most recent review(s)
• the reviews with the lowest  scores
• food pictures
• if they have a website.   

If they have a website I actually go check that out to see how they present themselves and their menu. I'll read over their description (if they have one) and then try to match that to what Karen, Lily, and Tina's particular tastes are. I'll keep the ones that seem to pass open and move on to the next one. From there I narrow it down to a couple of choices based on recent meals we have had and/or question(s) of "what don't you feel like eating?" to all.  I will pause here so you can go WTF??? or OMG! and re-evaluate if Reef is cool or not....Need more time? Here's an extra pause for you...

Now in case you're like "I thought you said you were spontaneous", don't worry I actually am when it comes flying solo. I legit will be driving by somewhere and think that place seems like it has potential and will just go in and check it out. As Tina would say #YOLO. I think the difference in mindset is that I want other folks with me to enjoy their food/have a good time so I put more thought into it than if I am by myself.  I am fairly certain Tina and Karen would both tell you that I can pick out items they would like and/or just order for them. I think the spontaneous nature was fulfilled on this trip because the only criteria given from a conversation/text between Karen and Tina was that we should go to a new place. With all the research and considerations I picked Little Pops Pizzeria in Naperville. (http://www.littlepopspizzeria.com/)

Little Pops Pizzeria is a New York style pizza joint near 75th St and Wehrli Rd for you familiar with the area. Now I'm not sure if New York style is kosher for my Chicago folks but really you have to switch up your style and be open to new adventures. I had done my research and a bunch of items stood out to me. I think my  suspicions of excellence was furthered confirmed by the decor inside of the place. Most notably the fake brick wallpaper:

OMG that's not real?

I mean you can't go wrong with a dive atmosphere in my opinion as 7 out of 10 put out good food. I mean if you went 6 out of 10 that's still winning. Luckily the food did not fail the way that wallpaper did. For an appetizer I chose Garlic Knots. Those are made out of pizza dough that is tied into knots,  baked, and then dipped/brushed with garlic, oil, spices, and parmesan cheese.

Garlic Knots w/ side of marinara sauce

I thought they were really good but I mean I highly love garlic on/in everything so I'm highly biased. Definitely freshly made and not frozen so the taste was on point. I do think Karen won the appetizer round by selecting the fried ravioli. Not sure if they were homemade or not but regardless they were pretty tasty. Highly recommend ordering them if you decide to visit Little Pops. 

Fried Ravioli w/ marinara sauce

Now pizza wise a specialty pizza had caught Karen's eye and seemed intriguing to me- Lasagna Pizza. Per the description it consisted of meatballs, sausage, and seasoned ricotta. Little Pops is pretty cool actually as they offer pizza by the slice- including specialty pizza. The only catch is that they have to have that pizza already made/available at that time in order to get just one slice. They did not have that one so we ended up having  to order a whole pizza of it.

Lasagna Pizza

Karen was not a big fan of this pizza. Mostly due to the sauce which was surprisingly way more sweeter than marinara. Also she was not a fan of the sausage (insert Tina legit saying "THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID" here). I didn't think it was bad at all- probably would have added red pepper flakes and some parmesan to counter the sweetness. Karen tried to be a champ and just continue on but she she might have been egged on by a couple of trolls. Funny enough (not to her as she was embarrassed) as she admitted to not liking it the chef had come out to walk around and heard her. In 100% customer service win fashion, the chef actually offered and brought out another slice of pizza to make her happy. 

White Pizza

Karen's pick was the White Pizza- which definitely fit the criteria for a Karen pizza. It is described as seasoned ricotta blend blotted on mozzarella with little garlic oil drizzled on top. Tried a small bite of that and that was not too shabby at all. She was pleased with that outcome especially since she was traumatized from complaining. Poor poor Karen. 

Lily went out of the box and got a sausage pizza instead of cheese. Guess she was feeling adventurous tonight. She ended up loving her slice of pizza. Funny enough it looked like a slice of pizza you see in a cartoon to me.

Sausage Pizza

Tina got a slice of Bruschetta Pizza to go with her beverage of choice:

Brooklyn Lager

Tina loved both her drink and her Bruschetta pizza. Per the description of her pizza, it consisted of their homemade bruschetta sauce, mozzarella, basil, and balsamic reduction. That was a pretty tasty pizza  in all of our opinions- well except for the red onions in it for Karen but she's been shamed enough so leave her alone.  

Bruschetta Pizza

Out of the slices of specialty pizza available I went with the Bacon Chicken Ranch pizza. The title pretty much describes it. I thought it was fantastic and I think everyone enjoyed it when they tried it. This here is a squad that's into sharing which fulfills my foodie adventuring needs. So if you're ever out at a place eating with me rest assure I will be trying your food. I might politely ask as a formality but it will happen unless of course we ordered the same thing. And no worries I enjoy sharing my food- its a 50/50 shot of me asking you if you want to try vs. just handing you some to try. 

Bacon Chicken Ranch

Since we mostly likely had blown our daily calories on the appetizers alone, we figured we might as well hit up some desserts. Karen's choice was their homemade Tiramisu. I myself am not a fan of tiramisu at all. Per Tina's questioning, I was made aware that Tiramisu is made with coffee. That might be a big factor as I don't like/drink coffee at all. Never acquired that taste or as some folks might insist "became an adult". I did not try it but per their reactions and devouring of it- mostly by Lily- I have to assume it was delicious.

Homemade Tiramisu

My selection for dessert was Fried Dough Stuffed w/ Cannoli Filling & Drizzled with Chocolate Sauce. I suppose they couldn't come up with something shorter like Stuffed Fried Dough or Fried Cannoli Dough. Still when I ordered this  I was think it that would be possibly the size of say a deep fried Twinke. NOPE. This thing was huge. I dare say the size of a giant burrito (length wise). I don't know if this picture does it much justice.

Fried Dough Stuffed w/ Cannoli Filling

As the waiter was carrying it out I uttered "holy cow" which everyone else agreed upon once it was set on the table. I think we spent a minute or two discussing how it giant of a dessert it was.  To his credit the waiter was like "oh I'm pretty sure you folks will finish it as I have yet to see anyone take it home as leftovers." Not sure if he was fat shaming us or just highly confident in its quality.  Maybe a little bit of A and a little bit of B? Like his prediction that was put before us, we polished that thing and left no trace of it. That was delicious but way too much for a single person to eat...unless of course you're a professional eater, on some weird diet, or just don't care.

Special thanks to Tina for picking up the bill on this foodie adventure. I would like to be officially documented here that I did not make the process difficult or combat her on picking up the tab. There were no trust falls or credit cards stolen/thrown. It was a shenanigan free zone...although I think she paid so I had to blog about it instead of herself...YOU WIN THIS ROUND TINA! Just kidding. Truly appreciated. Overall a great time and way to end a work week. 

#squadgoals & #bearclaw,

Reef