Day 14: Gene and Jude's and Hala Kahiki

As I mentioned in my last post, I took a trip to Ikea on Day 14, but I didn't mention that I also met some former coworkers at Gene and Jude's for hot dogs and then Hala Kahiki tiki lounge for drinks afterwards. We'd gone to the tiki bar for drinks on the second to last day I had at my previous job and stumbled over to Gene and Jude's afterwards. This time, I thought it'd be sensible to eat something before I started drinking so I started the evening with hot dogs.

There are only two menu items at Gene and Jude's, a single or a double, the latter has two hot dogs in one bun. A dog with everything falls just a few ingredients shy of a traditional Chicago dog with onions, relish, mustard and sport peppers, but is still just as amazing. Every order comes with fries and they roll dog and fries together -- I prefer to eat the dog and fries separately but I wonder if anyone just eats them both at the same time.

Dog with fries rolled onto it.

Dog without fries on top.

Ketchup is demonized at Gene and Jude's so if you ever go there, do not ask for it! The food gets packaged up quickly and people either take it to go or eat at the counters. They have a lot of staff preparing food but there was a small bottleneck at the register.

The line!

Gene and Jude's is a two-minute walk from Hala Kahiki, which is the largest and only tiki bar to which I've ever been. It even has a gift shop. 

The main entrance to the bar.

The tropical drink menu is extensive and the bar has a front seating area, at least three very large rooms on the inside, a gift shop, and a large outdoor area. We sat outside, natch. 

The outdoor seating area.

The drinks I've experienced there include: the scorpion, strawberry daiquiri, apricot daiquiri, peach daiquiri (which came with some canned peaches inside), and some other drink that had "passion juices" and pineapple juice. The traditional tiki drinks like the scorpion and zombie have a lot of alcohol in them while the daiquiris are pretty mild. They give you a basket of pretzels when you sit down but otherwise don't serve any food and don't allow you to bring in any outside food. There are tiki lights and torches in the outdoor area and some pretty impressive looking tiki heads.

Isn't it awesome?

Once I start my new job I won't be able to make it out for the once a month "Tiki Thursdays" so this time was likely my last. 

After having a few drinks we went inside to check out the gift shop. It was kitschy and basically what I expected except for the woman who ran the shop. She would not stop talking. She followed us all around the shop and basically gave us a blow-by-blow description of everything we passed and didn't even stop talking when we'd each bought a shirt. It was seriously overbearing and it made me want to stab myself in the ears. If you go there, look out or bring your own super-talkative friend to use as a deflection.