The Official TheHermitDruid Travel & Food Guide for MagicCon Chicago 2024
Editor’s note: After years of working in the kitchen, Nathan Jones swears like a sailor. Please pardon my efforts to curb some of that in order to keep this friendly for our younger readers.
If you can read this, it means that I’ve taken over the PlayEDH website in order to get this article out in time for people who are traveling to MagicCon Chicago 2024. This is my official guide for providing travel advice for people who are flying out to Magic events for the first time, as well as a guide to all of the food that I’m planning to check out in Chicago during my time there. I’m also looking forward to meeting people and playing Magic, as well as recording episodes of The Druid’s Repository.
I’m all about respecting people’s time, so let’s get into this!
Save Money and Make Your Life Easier
First of all, I traveled through 24 different airports in 2023. I see all of these posts from people traveling to conventions getting stopped by the TSA and having their Magic cards and other expensive things opened up and screened and people getting upset that their cards are getting taken out and touched. Magic cards are expensive, so you should always take steps to protect your @#$%ing investments.
You’re going to want get your things ready to be searched when you go through security. Have your things in your backpack that you think are going to be taken out or looked at, because they may not want you to take all the things out of your backpack. If you’ve never traveled with a bunch of deck boxes, let me tell you something: they kind of look like a @#$%ing brick or a bomb on a TSA scan because of how thick they are when you have them sleeved. If you are putting your backpack through anyway and you have something like a Quiver, you can sometimes just take that out and put it beside it.
There’s no reason to put your @#$%ing expensive cardboard in harm’s way. I’m a white man with a customer service background so I know that I have some privilege and experience that helps me in these situations, but I want to pass this stuff on to you to make your life easier. If you don’t want your @#$% getting pulled out and roughed up, put it in the bin already on your own so it doesn’t look like you’re hiding anything. I promise that this works. I can hardly believe that people still leave their stuff in bags and invite these invasive searches.
Don’t be afraid to talk to them while they’re checking it out and say, “These are my Magic cards. They’re expensive. I’m on my way to a convention.”
Don’t try to bring too many things with you. There’s no way that you’re going to need 10 different Commander decks. I highly recommend the The Academic 133+ XL deck box by Gamegenic and Tolarian Community college because it can fit everything that you need and it’s designed to be easy to use while also keeping your stuff organized.
People make their own hotel arrangements and everyone does things differently, but I recommend spending some extra money to be within walking distance of the convention. It will cost more money, but you’ll wind up saving on things like Uber fees. I also highly recommend using public transportation when it’s available.
You can also save money by rooming with other people. I have Golden Retriever brain so I do these things for my friends and I’ve made great friends with people by splitting up hotel accommodations with people. Just make sure that you’re being safe if you’re meeting people that you’ve befriended online.
Where Am I Eating in Chicago?
The first thing that I’m going to do is head to Chinatown to eat at Qing Xiang Yuan Dumplings. This is my comfort food and I always try to begin any trip with something like this. I always want to get something @#$%ing good to eat when I get off the plane and Chinatown always feels like home. I’ll probably be checking out plenty of other places in Chinatown as well.
I wanted to talk about how content creators travel in order to bring joy and entertainment to people on Twitter or whatever and how you always want to find places that feel like home to you. It helps when you also meet friends in unexpected places. I was lucky enough to meet up with Geekbeardly in Philadelphia and share some great times that really helped me get through the grind, and other homies like Hobbes and Kurohitsuki have been there for me. Shout-out to all of my friends in content creation.
Editor’s note: At this time, I asked Nathan to make sure to get back on track.
I do these things for my friends, and I’m getting to live one of my lifelong dreams because of the people that have supported me. I’m primarily known for things like gardening and living a peasant lifestyle, but people also need to realize that I’m a 22-year career chef. I’m going to be dining at the Chef’s Table at Alinea in Chicago. This restaurant showcases modernist cuisine—not molecular gastronomy, since all cooking is molecular—pioneered by Grant Achatz, someone who has been a huge inspiration for my own cooking. You might even recognize this restaurant from Chef’s Table on Netflix.
I’m also looking forward to chowing down on some Chicago deep dish pizza. I don’t care whether or not you believe people like Jon Stewart who say that you shouldn’t enjoy this because it’s not pizza. I don’t care if you think that it’s a cheese casserole or whatever, it’s still @#$%ing delicious. I haven’t been to Chicago since I was a kid and I’m so @#$%ing excited to eat this @#$% again. You can’t get it anywhere else. I love local foods and adaptations and I’m definitely hitting up Lou Malnati’s for this one.
I honestly don’t care if you think it isn’t pizza. @#$% you. I’m gonna go eat the pie.
Editor’s note: As an Italian-American from New York City, I have a hard time reconciling Chicago deep dish as pizza myself, but it’s still delicious and you should still eat it if you’re in Chicago.
I also love hot dogs. Drake Sasser from Playing with Power put me on to Chicago hot dogs and Italian beef sandwiches. I’m going to be going to Portillo’s for the hot dogs and Al’s Beef for the Italian beef sandwich. Everyone knows about the hot dogs, but the Italian beef sandwich looks like something that deserves more attention and I plan to showcase it and all of the other stuff that I try in a vlog at the end of the month. Make sure that you check it out when it drops.
I’m very interested in Stan’s Donuts & Coffee. It’s going to be a long weekend, so things like this will help keep me going and those donuts look @#$%ing good. I’ve been known to burn a few trees, so I need to find stuff like this sometimes.
If I have time, I might also try to check out Madame ZuZu’s. I grew up listening to Pumpkins, so Billy Corgan’s take on a tea house and cafe interests me.
Finally, I’m also going to check out Cafecito for some delicious Cuban food one day for lunch. You can’t beat this @#$%! The coffee at Cuban places is always pretty good too.
For my Patrons and the people who care about what I do, I have a bunch of other stuff coming out soon too. I’ve got rough cuts of some content available on my Patreon, and I’ve got vlogs and other things from the entirety of 2023 dropping soon as well. My stuff in Chicago is all going to be better than ever as I continue to hone my craft. Make sure to find me for recording The Druid’s Repository on Friday the 23rd because you are the people who I want to hear from and showcase in this content. Peace!
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“This article is unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content Policy. Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. ©Wizards of the Coast LLC.”
