<p>Unalove,</p>
<p>Lou’s started on the North Shore, the first one opened up in Lincolnwood and then Evanston was a close second, it’s been around here for a long time. But I’m really sorry if no one has taken you out to Dave’s Italian Kitchen, Merle’s Ribs, Hecky’s BBQ, Buff Joe’s, Pomegranate, Dixie’s Southern Kitchen, JK Sweets, Peep’s, and the list goes on. Evanston is home to all of these Chicagoland famous restaurants which is why Evanston is given the name “the dining capital of the North Shore.”</p>
<p>I know Ithaca is a very cute town, I’ve been there many times with my dad and I’ve been taken to diners he used to love back when he was a student there. It is very nice little town, but a little town is what it is. Some people just need one rustic, vintage style diner to make their own and would much rather enjoy the large quads and surrounding nature of Ithaca. Some people like being close to a city, having the option of taking a 25 minute train ride into Wrigleyville or New Chinatown on Argyle or take an extra 15 minutes into downtown to watch Wicked (for which I got tickets for THIS weekend by the way ;)), go ice skating in Millennium Park, spend Halloween on Navy Pier, etc. It’s really all relative. The good thing about Northwestern, though, is that it isn’t like NYU, it’s not flat out in the city, so there isn’t the overwhelming factor of realizing you can’t escape. Some weekends we will go do some fun things downtown, and then we’ll ride the El back up to campus and go grab some coffee and chocolate chip pancakes at Clarke’s and then walk back to our dorms at 3 in the morning without feeling the need to be particularly careful. It’s a good mix, for me at the very least. </p>
<p>Edit: and for the record, from what I remember the Gap at Pyramid Mall in Ithaca is bigger than the one in Evanston. If you were a student here, you’d know that the Gap here carries only half of each season’s selection which is why students don’t bother going there and travel to either Old Orchard mall in Skokie, which is a different suburb, or just take an El ride down to Chicago to do their shopping one weekend.</p>