Machine: Engineered Dining & Drink
1846 W. Division Street
Chicago, IL

For our first foray into 2023, we ventured to Wicker Park for an instagram-worthy drink spot with small plates and tableside floral arrangements. Say what? You heard me right – instead of table side guacamole, it was table side florals. 

First off, one always knows that Wicker Park is notorious for no parking – so even though Stefi was 15 minutes early, she ended up being 5 minutes late because she sucks at both city and parallel parking. But I digress…

Upon entering, you can tell that everything is set up to be instagram friendly. The bar was particularly spectacular, and even though they tried to sit us in the back, we muscled our way to a front table. 

The drink selections were superb – Stefi drank out of a bird’s butt (The Firebird), while Missy’s Caged Old Fashioned came with a hammer to break the sugar dome. The best was the shared cocktail of Breakfast at Tiffany’s – a beautiful and delicious concoction of gin, watermelon, blackberry, blueberry, lemon and pink rose. It was refreshing and delightful. 

The small plates were great – duck gnocchi, machine mussels with nduja sausage (spicy hot!), and a very unique Salsa Macha Sweet Potatoes with Parmesan Gelato. Yeah, I thought that was weird too, but it worked!

While waiting for the large plates to arrive, an in-house florist meandered to our table with an array of interesting and colorful flowers. It was all very fancy. And while you did have to pay per stem, it was all about the atmosphere, so we all got to create our own bouquets. A fun add-on if you get past the ‘how much did that cost’ sticker shock. But hey, all for supper club, right? 

Now the large plates left us feeling…meh about the whole thing. The short ribs were okayyyy, nothing to write home about. The Buttermilk Half Roasted Chicken that had an instagram-worthy photo on the menu…meh. Loaded Potato Croquettes sounded good, but honestly felt like a mushy potato ball. The burger and mediterranean bowl (with add-on shrimp) was just an ‘eh’ with Missy and Liz, but nothing was would-risk-Wicker-Park parking-to-try-this-again mind-blowing. 

All in all, a solid 6 on the supper club scale (yes out of 10) –  because while the drinks and apps were fantastic, the larger plates left us unsatisfied. 

Overall: 6️⃣
Drinks: 🔥
Food: 🤷🏻‍♀️
Flowers: 🥀
Ambiance: 📸
Service: 👍
Price: 😐

Food consumed:
Duck Gnocchi 👍
Machine Mussels 👍
Salsa Mocha Sweet Potatoes with Parmesan Gelato ♥️
Short Rib 😐
Buttermilk Half Roasted Chicken 😐
Engineered Cheeseburger w/Fried Egg 😐
Mediterranean Bowl w/Shrimp 😐
Loaded Potato Croquettes 👎

Drinks Drunk:
The Firebird 👍
Beautiful Little Fool 👍
Caged Old Fashioned 👍
Dressed to Kill 👍
Breakfast at Tiffanys ♥️