Chicago and Riot Fest Day 1

This past September, four of us went to Chicago for Riot Fest. If you aren’t familiar, Riot Fest is a 3-day music festival which also includes a carnival and plenty of other cool things to do, see and buy.

We arrived in Chicago the evening before Riot Fest was set to start. We checked into our Airbnb in Chinatown and settled in. It turned out that there were a couple of others in the house that were also going to Riot Fest. After we put our things away, we decided to try real deep dish pizza for the first time.

Oh, also, we decided to rent a small car for the trip. When we picked it up, they only had a convertible Mustang, so they upgraded us for free. Thanks, Enterprise!

Someone from Twitter actually suggested Lou Malnati’s to me, so we decided to see what that was all about. If you ever decided to go to this restaurant, you should go ahead and assume that there will be a wait. They do allow you do go ahead and place your order before you are seated, so that you will not have to wait as long after you take your seats.

Everyone wanted to get the Malnati Chicago Classic, which consists of sausage, mozzarella cheese, vine-ripened tomato sauce and buttercrust. Since I am not a fan of sausage, I tried one of their individual sized thin crust pizzas.

The pizza was undeniably good. I’ve never had any sauce that tasted that good, and the crust was amazing. I even tried some of the deep dish and it had a very unique and amazing flavor.

The next morning we woke up and went to a coffee shop nearby for breakfast called Bridgeport Coffee House.

A little later for lunch, we stopped by a stand called Maxwell Street Depot. They had great prices, and I am told really great hot dogs (something else I don’t eat 🙂 )

Riot Fest opened every day at around 11:00am and the headliner that day ended their show at around 10:00pm.

On the first day, I saw (some for only a few minutes): Radar State, the Buzzcocks, Action Bronson, Ministry, New Order and Nine Inch Nails.

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My personal favorites of that day being New Order and Nine Inch Nails. New Order played “Love Will Tear us Apart,” by Joy Division and it was really amazing to witness. The lady in front of us was dancing her heart out and having the best day of her life (sorry, no photo!) Nine Inch Nails sounded also great, and they of course played some crowd favorites. 

After a very long day, I was much more tired than I expected I would be. I’m not sure how I didn’t anticipate this. Getting a ride out of Douglas Park was also no easy task. With thousands of people waiting for cabs, Lyfts and Ubers, you might as well be prepared to wait for a little while. We were tired and hungry, with no idea what to eat in Chicago at 10pm.

Lou Malnati’s once more, to the rescue.

-Haley