The Bar at the Fairmont Hotel, Chicago...

This chameleon-like operation changes throughout the day. One minute it's a coffee shop and the next it's a bar. Located in the lobby of the Fairmont Hotel, a big 'corporate' affair, it's a pretty good place.

Tasty, tasty, very, very tasty, it's very tasty

I'd arrived early and needed some breakfast so I checked out the menu and got stuck in. In fact I'd go as far as to say that I enjoyed a really decent mug of tea – which makes a change – and then I had a choice: a Breakfast Piglet (smoked honey ham, fried egg, Wisconsin cheddar, bacon, onion, jam and roasted garlic) OR a sun-dried tomato and basil panini with a side order of strawberries and blueberries. The Breakfast Piglet was also a panini, although, really they were both toasted sandwiches, which I suppose is what a panini is, but in my book they were both toasted, crusty bread sandwiches.

I opted for the healthier of the two options, the sun-dried tomato and basil sandwich – and besides, that name, the Breakfast Piglet, sounded a bit unsavoury – and it arrived in one of those takeaway containers (odd when you consider that they'd offered me the choice of a paper or china mug for my tea – and I chose the latter – but gave me the takeaway container for my food order). It didn't matter and now I'm wondering whether that C in the word 'china' should be capitalised, although I'm not talking about the country but the material the cup is made from. Hey ho! Bill Bryson would know the answer, I'm sure.

The sandwich was tremendous. Very tasty. I could have eaten another one. The tea was the best I'd experienced on this trip to Chicago, so top marks to the The Bar at the Fairmont Hotel, although where I got that name from I don't know, probably the receipt. The bill, incidentally, was $11.60 and the sandwich set me back $8.00. The tea was $2.60.