I live in downtown Chicago and am surrounded by amazing restaurants featuring menus from every corner of the world. I know my "other half" doesn't particularly like going out (see his previous post), so I typically will reserve those nights out with my girls. I love trying new places and I really enjoy food. He, on the other hand, eats to survive, not to enjoy. I think that also plays a part in what one may think about going out for dinners and spending money on restaurants, etc. However, we've had some pretty amazing home-cooked meals that have topped their "counterparts" in restaurants!
My wife and I commute quite a ways to our work (38 miles i think it is) Our boys go to school very close to where we teach so we often eat out instead of waiting to get home to cook, especially during the winter with our boys busy sports practice and game schedule and our coaching schedules. We eat out at least 2-3 times a week during the school year. During the summer, we hardly ever eat out... except for when we are down on the lake boating. We have a few nice restuarants on lake CDA where we moore our boat. Beautiful scenery and great food there. We hit that about 2 times a month during the summer but mostly drive the 2 miles back to the home to eat Elk, Whitetail based dishes along with fresh vegetables out of our garden and fruits from our orchard trees, we have a berry patch too..and we are going to add to that this summer...we eat a lot of fresh fish that we catch in the summers, we fish a ton living so close to the lake. We tend to eat much lighter meals though in the summer while we are on summer vacation. Which is always good for me, since I am getting ready for archery elk come Sept. My wife and I try to go out on a date at least 1 time a month during our school year.. 2-3 times during the summer months. These almost always include dining out.
I travel a lot for work, so I get to eat out quite a bit on the company. I enjoy eating out, and love high end food..........but it's not terribly important to my wife. I'm able to get it out of my system when I travel and on the company, so when I'm at home we choose to spend the $$$ on other things (like our house). When we do go out together, my wife isn't terribly picky and is just as happy at a chain restaurant as she is at a high end place as long as the margaritas are good. We maybe go out together 2x a month. And yes.......Chicago has amazing food. Up until January I managed our midwest territory for work, and spent a lot of time in Chicago traveling.
You would hate to live around here, nothing but chains and little diners. Food is good but nothing exotic. We go out maybe twice a month.
