Thanks to the folks from Chicago
 

My wife and I spent New Years in Chicago and a couple of people suggested the ChopHouse as a place to eat. I must say that the meal was unreal. Thank you so much for the tip on where to eat.

Also, we saw the musical Wicked. And it was fantastic. Probably the best musical I have ever saw.

On the way home, I noticed an OTB off of I94, is this the OTB where the Chicago people go to?

Again, thanks so much for the advice. It truly was a great weekend.

If I ever get around to it, 'Wicked' is a book I'd like to read.

You were right by the State Street OTB, that is some old school stuff there. The OTB thing that you saw was actually Arlington Park I think. Arlington Park also has an OTB on-sight, called Trackside....

Wicked was awesome. However, I really did not like the ending. But I won't say anything since you want to read the book.

You should have went to Balmoral Parl for NYE, i turned on TVG last night and they were running, I couldn't believe it

No, this was near like 135th street heading to Indiana. This place was east or southeast of Chicago. I thought to myself, maybe I should ask the wife if we could stop in, then I decided against that.

Oh now that is amazing. Our hotel was packed with Packers fans. And boy, they were partying all night. We made it to 2am and these people were still going strong. Only one thing made me mad on the trip and that was our Hotel (Sheraton Towers) didnt offer free internet. You had to pay $11.99 per 24 hour period. Even Super 8's offer free internet.

You stayed downtown right? If so, you were near the State Street OTB

Arlington is in the NW Burbs

I doubt if any of the people that post on here go to that OTB. I believe the one you're talking about is on I94 as you head out of town going south. I don't know what that one is called and I have never been there.


Scav's,
The only way he would have seen Arlington Park is if he was on 53, which I highly doubt since he was coming up from the south.

We stayed on Congress. But his place was like 25-30 minutes from downtown.

You are exactly correct. The place was packed and it says OTB on the side facing the highway. It looks like an old barn/farm house.

State St. OTB is on Lake/State, right next to Chicago Theatre ......

AJ...Arlington has a sign on 94 near Willow Road, which makes no sense because it is a pain in the ass to get from willow road to Arlington, when I worked in Vernon Hills I would always seen the friggin sign and think why it was there

No that isnt the one I saw. But that was real close to where I was. I had a few hours of free time on Saturday. I should have found my way to that one.

It has to be a Hawthorne OTB...

AJ, you ever been to the OTB on Weed Street?

That is where Mera hangs out

It is either the Jackson OTB or the 111th OTB....Jackson one is ok area but the 111th isn't the best of areas

I looked it up, its called the Corliss OTB, you reach it a little before Calumet City when you head out of town. There is always a lot of cars there.
Based on the part of town its in I wouldn't recommend it.


scavs, never been to weed street. remember i live like 3 minutes from trackside arlington.

Weed Street sucks but it is a good 'get away' place if you don't want to be seen at Trackside. Before the net, I always wanted to wager up there at Trackside but I had this thing that my dad was always there, he didn't want me there, had to cruise down to Weed Street and go nuts. it is also good when you go out with your friends to Joes and it sucks, just cruise RIGHT ACROSS the street to trackside and play some Los Al and then go back and try to get some 'tang'

I was at Trackside Saturday night, it wasn't a good thing, like 11:30pm, stopped on my way from from my friends house. The Jamican crew, the hot walkers and all the Balmoral players were still there, it was quite comedy

Thats a funny and dead-on description of a late Saturday night over there.
I can picture the exact faces of each of these groups.:D

I don't know anybody who's ever been to the OTB by 135th. There's quite a few OTBs in the Chicago area. Nowadays, I usually bet from home and don't bother going to the OTBs.

I don't either, mostly home for me but I was 'in the area' and had to visit. It is pretty amazing what they did to trackside given the fact what it used to be. Thank you Niles for pushing their ass....

Scav-

I haven't been to Trackside in a few months.....what did they do? Niles is decent, or WILL be, once they get the situation re: smoke straightened out.

I think he was talking about the re-modeling they did, new furniture, TV's, etc.

TV's AJ? You can see some of the new TV's from the moon. They got out of control. I have heard that it was close to a half million on renovations. Pretty insane if you ask me, the restaurant looks like Nasa now, BIGGEST TV's ever on the walls, compared to the 27"ers they had up there