Christkindlmarket Chicago and Cochon Volant
Every year we have a Chicago Christkindlmarket Date Day and every year we freeze our butts off. To make matters worse, by the time we visit, they’re usually out of the year’s commentative wine mugs. Today was finally different! It was almost 50 degrees, the spiced wine was flowing into heart shaped mugs and we spread Christmas cheer by singing loud for all to hear.
The Market
Chicago’s Christkindlmarket was started in 1996 and has been going strong ever since. According to some reports, it’s the largest Christmas Market in the US. Whether or not that’s true doesn’t really matter. It’s pretty big and a great place to spend a couple hours.
We arrived just before lunchtime and a made a beeline for the Glühwein stand. The line was short, and we quickly made our first purchase of the day. Armed with mugs of hot spiced wine, we made our way around the market.
One of us doesn’t much like to shop, whilst the other doesn’t much like anything else. Luckily there are enough vendors for even the angriest of elves to find something interesting. We wandered around for an hour, enjoying the jewelry, wooden handicrafts, nutcrackers and clocks until we finished our wine.
As the wine kicked in, we made our way towards the indoor shops to pick out much-needed new ornaments – we only have about a zillion at home. On the way, we managed to track down Krampus and get a nice photo with the legendary punisher of naughty children. As usual, we talked about regretting that we didn’t introduce Krampus to our kids when they were young and influenceable. Oh, the missed opportunities!
Ornaments, Ornaments, Ornaments and Cookies
There are three large, and very warm, indoor shops featuring Christmas Ornaments and decorations. Since there is a fair amount of redundancy, you could probably stop at two of them and see pretty much everything. Being the troopers we are, we waited in line for all three.
Lions and tigers and bears. Planes, trains and automobiles. Candy, candy canes, candy corns and syrup. Hardrock, Coco and Joe. Pick your favorite combination and they are sure to have it. It’s the ultimate cornucopia of fancy, glass Christmas ornaments. There are so many it’s impossible to take time to see them all. They are, however, fairly expensive at $12 – $40 each.
We made our way through the stores, putting a serious dent in Nate’s college fund along the way. At least, we rationalized, he’ll have a legacy of nice ornaments to look back upon as he’s churning away at trade school.
As we were leaving the final ornament store, we realized that we still hadn’t been to the cookie and chocolate shop. One final stop was between us and lunch! And oh, what a stop it was. Cookies, candies and chocolates – almost all from Germany. Sorry Nate, but trade school is out. Time to think about DeVry.
We finally exited our last store and were ready for lunch. Deciding to bypass the array of German foods available at the market, we started Yelping for a local watering hole. There at position fifteen it was. Son of a nutcracker! How have we not come across Cochon Volant before? We set our trusty navigation systems to Monroe and Clark and headed off on the three-block walk.
Cochon Volant
We love French bistros / brasseries and aren’t sure how we’ve missed this one for the last 3 years. Cochon Volant (flying pig) is, in a single word, awesome. Its located at the corner of Monroe and Clark and worth a trip downtown on its own.
When you walk int the door, it’s almost like entering a bistro in Paris. The tables are close together, the noise level is high and the pace is frenetic. It’s great. They have a restaurant section, a bar section and a bakery section. All serve the full lunch menu.
We waited less than 5 minutes and were seated in the bakery. It’s a little more quiet and less hectic and we had a perfect able in the corner. We ordered our drinks; French chardonnay for Theresa and a Negroni for Tom and studied the menu.
All our favorites are represented. French Onion Soup, Escargot, Mussels and Foie Gras are found in the appetizer section and the rest of the menu has salads, sandwiches and entrees that any Francophile would appreciate.
Theresa had the Shrimp and Avocado Niçoise salad and Tom had t eh Croque Monsieur. The salad had marinated tomatoes, green beans, olives and potatoes. All with a light sherry vinaigrette. The sandwich was piled high with ham and gruyere and feature homemade bread.
The salad and sandwich were both very good, but the fries that came with the sandwich stole the show. They we hot, salty and crisp and served with a side of mayo. Just the way we like them. We will definitely be back – soon.
December 2018
Christkindlmarket
Daley Plaza, Chicago, IL 60603
Free Admission
2 Hours
$18 through ParkWhiz
Cochon Volant
100 W Monroe St, Chicago, IL 60603
1.5 Hours
$75 (including drinks)
