Publico and Tony Desare

My friend T, whom I met on my Grand Canyon trip, came to town recently for dinner and a concert with S and me.

We met for eats at Publico, a tapas-style place in the Loop.  We had the half-chicken, an open-faced quesadilla, and the avocado arapes, as well as flan for dessert.  They were all tasty, but I will say that some of them (the chicken and the quesadilla) were difficult to divide between the three diners.  For a place that is designed for sharing, that should be thought through a little more thoroughly!  I had a couple of cocktails off their specialty menu as well, which were good but not the best I've had.

Then we were off to the Sheldon for the Tony Desare concert.  I didn't know much about him before I saw him on the Sheldon's concert calendar, but when the concert is titled, "From Sinatra to Prince," it gets my attention.  And that's really what the show was: a jazzy review of popular music from the 1920s to the present.  Tony plays the piano, and he was accompanied by a 7-string guitarist, as well as a stand-up bass player (apparently a local guy he met that day at the cabaret festival which brought him to town).  He has a lovely singing voice, as one would expect from such a character, and a corny and slightly geeky stage presence.  The show was a ton of fun, with a fair amount of audience interaction, and we all really enjoyed it.

Tony puts a lot of his stuff up on YouTube, in case you're interested.