The Ragas Report

Tales of adventure from the exciting lives of Matt and Traci Ragas
About Me

Matt, Traci, and Clark Ragas live in Chicago.

Matt is a native of New Orleans, Louisiana, though he called the Sunshine State home for over a decade before moving to Chicago. Traci hails from St. Petersburg, Florida and has never lived more than 45 minutes from the Gulf of Mexico.

Clark originally hails from - well, we aren't totally sure. We're just blessed to have him in our family. He's a "rescue dog" as we say. :)

Here is where you can learn all about our new life in the big city.

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June 2010

 

Anthony Bourdain at Harold Washington Library

A few weeks ago, Traci and I checked out the mammoth Harold Washington Library for the first time. As part of our poking around, we wandered into the Cindy Pritzker Auditorium, and made a mental note to check out an author reading there sometime.

Yesterday we had our chance. We attended a reading by Anthony Bourdain of No Reservations and Kitchen Confidential fame. Bourdain's new book is called Medium Raw. The auditorium was already packed about an hour before the event started.

Bourdain was raw and entertaining as expected. One serious comment he made about his success did stick with me: "Two rules: I show up on time each day and I do the best that I can." He admitted this was pretty simple, but most people don't do it. 

Posted by Matt Ragas 
 

Ribfest and Lit Fest

We went for a double dose of festival action this weekend, spending part of the day on Saturday at Ribfest in North Center (after lots of hard work sampling ribs, our favorites were Corner 41 Bar & Grill and Mrs. Murphy & Sons Irish Bistro), and a little while this afternoon at the Lit Fest in Printer's Row.

We knew what to expect at the book fair, but the rib fest was a nice surprise (if this is any indication, this city knows how to grill!).

p.s. We just saw on the Irish Bistro's Facebook page that they were named "best ribs" for this year. I guess we weren't the only ones!

Posted by Matt Ragas 
 

Tour on the Chicago River and Lake Michigan (plus Billy Goat Tavern)

Matt and I did some touristy stuff today and took a boat ride on Lake Michigan and the Chicago River. Beautiful sights. We live in a gorgeous city. 

 
P.S.  We also had lunch at the Billy Goat Tavern ("Cheezborger, Cheezborger, Cheezborger, No Pepsi...Coke"). In the 1940's, the Billy Goat Tavern owner was asked to leave a Cubs game, because his pet goat bothered other fans.  He said, "Them Cubs, they ain't going to win no more." People took that to mean the Cubs would never win another World Series at Wrigley Field. Sure enough, they haven't. The Billy Goat Tavern also inspired a Saturday Night Live sketch with John Belushi. A place with burgers, chips and Coke is my kinda place. (Plus the burgers were delicious!). 

Posted by Traci Ragas