Gibsons, Ostra, and Flying Flat on a One Hour Flight: AA Transcon Airbus 321 BOS-JFK

[yflyer]

A steak like that had to be eaten with a suitable knife...



I simply had no space for desserts after that, but I did ask to look at the dessert menu...



The folks at the tables around me did manage dessert, and even they seemed surprised when massive slices of cake and "pie" showed up at their tables. One dessert portion could probably feed 4 people...

Quite a few folks were celebrating their birthday there, with many desserts coming out of the kitchen with a lit candle, and the waiters crowding round to sing a unique version of the happy birthday song.

A great dinner, and a place I would return to if I ever had a craving for steak!

[yflyer]

Gibsons seems to follow the same format as other great American steakhouses, although the vibe there is a little more raw, perhaps even more authentically local, with more Chicago flavour, than that other iconic steakhouse, Mortons.

The menu has a nice selection of typical steakhouse starters, but is dominated by large slabs of meat.







Your meal starts with a menu presentation, including a display of some of the cuts of meat on on the menu that day. Again not unlike the elaborate menu presentation that Mortons does, but less fussily delivered.



Some of the cuts of meat looked quite amazing.



I placed an order for a steak, and began my meal with an ice cold martini...



Massive portion of bread (And butter...)...



My appetite was (is...) not big, but I was keen to have something as a starter. I noticed that the menu offered shrimp and oysters individually...

Would they mind if I ordered just one of each to try? "Sure!" my waiter replied. The waiters here were all exceptionally warm and friendly in a very informal, boisterous and loud way.



One shrimp and one oyster duly arrived on a bed of ice...



Good! An ice cold prelude to what was to come: a beautifully charred steak, a 13 oz New York Sirloin...



And this was one of the smaller cuts...

A wonderful steak, done a perfect medium rare...



I could not resist ordering a baked potato to accompany the steak. Not unexpectedly, the potato was gargantuan as well.

[yflyer]

This TR starts at ORD. (To skip ahead to the AA BOS-JFK flight, click here.)

I was just there for a one day, and spent the night at the Aloft Chicago O'Hare before flying out to Boston the next day. Not a lot to say about the Aloft -- the brand is so consistent, each Aloft is almost like any other (In North America, at least.). And being an airport hotel, it was in the middle of nowhere.

Nowhere? Well, not exactly true. The Aloft was next to O'Hare airport, in an area with shopping, factory outlets, restaurants, a cinema, and a convention centre. And there was a branch of Gibsons Steakhouse, which HUGE AL had previously recommended.

But knowing the size of steaks in Chicago, I had to burn off a few calories before dinner, and so I decided to head out for a run first. Where to go? I opened Google Maps and did a quick terrain analysis. To the west, the airport...to the right, Catherine Chevalier Woods...and were those trails on the map? It looked very promising, and quite straightforward.

It was already getting dark when I headed out. I headed out onto the sidewalk and jogged slowly eastwards, and headed along the edge of the forested area, trying to find a way into the woods.

Hmmm...fences, no paths, signs or any bridge across the river into the woods themselves. No clear path that I could find from anywhere near either the Donald Stephenson Convention centre, or even the Hyatt, as I ran northwards towards the Kennedy Expressway.

The woods were dark and a little forbidding. But there must be trails in there somewhere...or some sort of path or entrance. I am typically not averse to a little "bashing" through bushes or forest to get to a trail, and I stepped off the asphalt behind the Hyatt and stepped into the forested area to try and find a trail into the woods.

But I stopped cold when I saw the dark silhouette of a large animal about 10 meters ahead. Now that I did not expect. Was that a deer up ahead? Sure looked like one! And by then the sun had set, and it was quite dark. I ran along the edge of the woods to look for another way in. I headed south along the edge of the woods towards W Lawrence Avenue, eventually running out of pavement, and running along a narrow dirt strip, with cars whizzing by. But no way into the forest, and no trails either on the enter western length of the woods. This was not working.

No...I would have to abort the plan. A run through the Catherine Chevalier Woods would have to wait for another time. I spent the rest of the run clocking mileage along the pavements of the commercial lots in the area. Boring as hell, although at least it was after hours, with the streets quite deserted. My route below, starting and ending at the Aloft. Just over 6km, with the deer sighting probably at the 1.5km mark.



Conclusion? An exceedingly boring run, a strong challenger to a recent one in CDG, for title of dullest run ever...

I made a mental note to return another time to do another run (In daylight!) through the woods, with proper route planning next time. Some times just winging it and heading for an open-ended run without planning a route works. But not always, and not that day.

A quick shower back into the hotel, and then I headed out for a short walk to Gibsons Steak House, just down the street from the Aloft.

[yflyer]

Last October, I spent a week in Chicago, Boston and New York, spending just a day or so in each city (I got to the USA on Finnair via Helsinki, previously covered here.).

Apart from several interesting meals, including dinner at Gibsons in Chicago and Ostra in Boston, and an ORD airport run, I got to check out AA's transcon configured A321, which must be one of the most pleasant A321's to fly in anywhere in the world.

I flew AA's three-class transcontinental A321 from BOS to JFK. This busy route has 15 or so nonstop flights a day, operated by AA as well as JetBlue and Delta. This sector has a scheduled time of around 1 hr 25 min. The flight time is less than an hour, making it quite similar to SIN-KUL in profile. In fact the flight distance between BOS-JFK and SIN-KUL are almost identical at about 186 miles / 300km, although the scheduled time for SIN-KUL is a shorter 55 min, possibly due to greater airport/airspace congestion, or differences in routing, on the BOS/JFK route.

Of course, being yflyer, my ticket was an economy ticket. How did I end up flying flat? Read on to find out!