Charlie Trotter.........R.I.P.

11/7/2013 8:51:54 AM

I dined at Charlie Trotter's eponymous restaurant in Chicago just one single time. It was one of the better meals of my life, easily in the top ten.

The occasion was one of major culture shock for my date, a stripper from Arnie's Idle Hour in Harvey,IL (south Chicago). Arnie's was a major culture shock for me. It was the first time in my entire life that I had even had a conversation with a black lady let alone attempt the intimate physical acts that have made Arnie's VIP so notorious. I was a pathetic failure in Arnie's VIP but I enjoyed so much the conversation that I had with one of the dancers. I invited that dancer to have dinner with me after her shift. She accepted my invitation but the poor lady was horribly most uncomfortable in the restaurant, a dining experience that was totally outside of anything familiar to her.

What an idiot I was! The lady would have been much more pleased with a barrel of Juice's crispy KFC with all the 'fixins'.

23 comments

Latest

mikeya02

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11 years ago

And we all know what Juice's "fixins" are. Pretty hideous. I think she would have enjoyed Red Lobster more.

juiicebox69

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11 years ago

Luvin sum XXXtra KRIS-pay gangstaz!

motorhead

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11 years ago

Thank's for posting this Art.

When I noticed his obituary in the news the other day, I almost posted it, but wasn't sure how nationally known he was. His restaurant certainly was a Chicago icon.

He was still a relatively young man, yet had a cooking show years ago. He didn't seem to have the panache of today's celebrity TV chefs, so he really focused on technique.

RIP

deogol

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11 years ago

" He didn't seem to have the panache of today's celebrity TV chefs, so he really focused on technique. "

You mean he didn't yell and scream at his co-workers?

gawker

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11 years ago

I once brought my ATF to Lydia Shire's Scampo at The Liberty Hotel in Boston. The hotel is located in a former jail and the restaurant is a 5 star experience. She is a heroin addict who's idea of a classy restaurant is Olive Garden. I worried that she would feel like a fish out of water, but she is so beautiful, no one noticed that she didn't know where to put her napkin, or which fork to use. In fact I was the envy of the other old farts in the dining room.
She still talks of the wonderful food we ate and still laughs about spending the night in our "cell".

rockstar666

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11 years ago

I ate at Charlie Trotter's a couple times as I used to live in Lincoln Park. It was amazing...I had the 5 course thing and I remember it to this day. I didn't see wwhat the cause of death was but I was shocked when he closed the restaurant a few years ago. I think he was feeling his mortality then.

jester214

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11 years ago

Never had a chance to try it in Chicago. Did eat at Restaurant Charlie, his place in Vegas, twice in the couple of years it was open. Excellent food but I believe it was plagued with service issues and never really caught on.

Hate to hear he's dead.

SlickSpic

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11 years ago

Is Charlie's similar to Frank and Musso's out in LA?

farmerart

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11 years ago

I just read more about this story on a news website. Apparently Charlie Trotter had an inoperable brain aneurysm. Diagnosed a few years ago, that appears to be the reason that the successful restaurant (and all the other parts of his business empire) was closed. It seems that eliminating the stress of the business operations was not enough of a life style change for the poor man. Charlie Trotter was just 54.

My dinner in his restaurant was the multi-course chef's menu - a truly excellent dining experience. I will now be seeking out Charlie Trotter's cookbooks for purchase.

rockstar666

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11 years ago

I would love to have seen him compete on Iron Chef. He would have given them a run for the money!

ilbbaicnl

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11 years ago

Art, the only reason I can think a smart guy like you would say something so ignorant is that Black people are rarely offered enough money or have enough brain damage to live in Alberta, so you just don't know better.

SlickSpic

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11 years ago

@ILBBAICNL-Uncool crack on Art. Art was honest and earnest in his reply. He shared a story that he experienced with us that wasn't racist or mysoginistic.

motorhead

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11 years ago

"I would love to have seen him compete on Iron Chef. He would have given them a run for the money"

One article I read said he was self-taught and did not attend culinary school. But another article said he did attend a school in California.

DoctorPhil

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11 years ago

go fuck yourself ilbbaicnl. your bigoted â€œWhite Manâ€™s Burden/White Manâ€™s Guiltâ€ paternalism is disgusting, degrading and obviously colors your perception of all things as your reading comprehension clearly demonstrates.

farmerart said that Arnies was the first time he had conversed with a black woman. he did NOT say he took a black dancer to dinner. that was YOUR bigoted assumption. his point about dinner at Charlie Trotter's vs KFC was that the stripper, of unknown ethnicity you dumb fuck, was uncomfortably out of her element you dumb fuck.

despite being Canadian which makes him entirely irrelevant, farmerart is no racist and does not deserve to be smeared by a bigoted left wing POS like you.

ilbbaicnl

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11 years ago

OK then I guess Charlie Trotters serves frozen haggis shot out of a canon cause that's the only thing people from Alberta like.

Dougster

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11 years ago

Is ilbby being a bit of an alutard now? Feels guilty about the fact that the only interactions he has with females are paid ones with hookers and it's been like that for many decades now? Hence, he Quixotically charges at various windmills sanctioned by the left because he thinks he'll find some sympathy with them thinking he is still a good guy?

motorhead

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11 years ago

I still haven't figured out if ibbiwackicini is a male or female.

Doug-what is the clinical psychological term for a male that projects female attributes so strongly that it causes confusion

ime

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11 years ago

didn't he have a weird post about getting a stripper who wouldn't fuck him to hold a fleshlight between her legs instead? I always thought it was a guy

Dougster

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11 years ago

Motorhead: "what is the clinical psychological term for a male that projects female attributes so strongly that it causes confusion"

I believe it's "fag".

georgmicrodong

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11 years ago

^^^ How *did* I know you were gonna say that? :)

ilbbaicnl

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11 years ago

It's a female trait to dislike ignorant racial stereotypes?

I guess that's one of the nicer things said about women on this site.

motorhead

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11 years ago

For the record, only you took Art's comment as a racial insult. The rest of us knew he was referring to her socio-economic status.