We start off night with dinner at Ada Street. If this is your first time here, the first thing you’ll notice about the restaurant is not the relaxed atmosphere, cool space, or the smell of meat roasting on their open grill. No, the first thing you’ll be wondering is, “where the hell am I?”

Well, you’ll be in the middle of Chicago, but just in this weird void between Bucktown and Lincoln Park that’s just blocks after blocks of factories and warehouses. To be exact, you’ll be right off Elston Avenue — also known as the Elston Industrial Corridor, but probably better known as the street with the huge Morton Salt Warehouse that famously buried a few cars under several tons of salt last winter.

The restaurant is located right in the middle of this void, and it’s housed in an inconspicuous brick building with the only signage being the words “Ada St.” printed on the door.

This isn’t a place that’s easy to walk to, so there is little to no foot traffic around. It’s so quiet in the surrounding area that when you walk up to the restaurant during its operating hours, you’ll probably wonder whether it’s even open — but trust that it is and make your way in.

THE FOOD

So the reason why we’re here. It’s all about the food. Their menu has a list of several different small plates to share that are all between $10 – $20 for the most part. About 2-3 plates per person should be plenty to fill you up.

Every dish we had was delicious, but I’ll let the pictures and captions below do most of the talking.

OTHER NOTES

Upon first impression, Ada Street seems like a fancy/high-end restaurant, but you’ll quickly realize that it’s much more low key and relaxed. The super cool staff, stiff drinks, and a patio with a ping pong table help make that so.

We’re not done with the night yet. After dinner, we’re going to grab a few more drinks just down the street at this neighborhood bar called the Hideout. The bar is perfectly named, because it’s a neighborhood bar in a place that is lacking a neighborhood or any actual residents nearby. But it seems to work, because you definitely get the vibe that everyone kind of knows each other, and they’ve been going there for years. Its relaxed and friendly atmosphere makes the place easy to get hooked to from the get-go.

The outside of the bar looks like a house with picnic benches providing plenty of outdoor seating. The bars provides a nice contrast with the stodgy industrial buildings surrounding it. The bartenders and staff manning the doors were relaxed and super chill, which makes this a great spot to unwind.

Another big plus is that they usually have a live show going on each night. In the back of the bar is stage that hosts a variety of musical acts with some comedy shows sprinkled in here and there.