Chicago has to be one of the greatest cities. Excellent food, great shopping (apparently), and the Mafia. Yes, I'm in Chicago (again) for a conference which ended tonight. Me and a few coworkers ended the night with drinks and cigars at the bar, which was fun and low key. Last night however was much more adventurous. You see, I have to set the story up: last year when I was here, I went to a local Chicago Italian restaurant with my boss. As we sat there eating our lunch, we noticed this place was authentic, down to the table of "the family" in the back smoking cigars and talking about how "business" was going (not necessarily at the food business). Anyway, the longer we stayed the more "family" showed up and pretty soon we were the only customers in the restaurant. The waiter was very nice to us, but was subtly suggesting we leave as he showed the men arriving into a private room off to the side. All that said, it was quite the experience and we figured we should leave while we could. So, back to the present, we told our sales team about this place and they decided they wanted to go check it out. So last night, 10 of us went there for dinner. All was going well until our CEO decided to make the hilarious comment to one of the owners, "We came to see the Mafia!" Our jaws dropped and our lives flashed before our eyes is disbelief at his comment. Also, the owner was not amused by his comment and got this look in his eye like, "Eat up - it's you last meal". So, for the rest of the night we feared any special invitations to "come see the kitchen" or "take a tour of the city, ending at the lake".
Lesson learned: Don't make Mafia jokes when the Mafia is standing right there.
4 comments:
My mom grew up around corrupt IL politics. Coming from a family with history in that area, I have to ask...haven't any of you people ever watched "The Untouchables" or heck, even a History Channel special on the MOB?!! Yeesh. I could make a stereotypical, smart-alecky, snarky comment about male intelligence here but I'm going to take the proverbial high road and refrain from doing so. ;-) j/k
You know reading your blog is a very enlightening experience. Are you a cigar snob? Just curious. ;-)
I wouldn't call myself a snob about anything, mostly because nothing's THAT important. I do like a good cigar - but I won't even pretend to speak knowledgably about them.
You do know I was kidding about the snob thing??
Ruth, Ruth, Ruth. No need to apologize - it's pretty hard to offend me and if you do I'll tell you. Even if you do think I'm a snob, I'll let it go:)
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