Hanna's Bretzel: the new Cosi

I went to Hanna's Bretzel on Washington across from Rock Records with my dear friend Heather. It was good; I had an Alsacean-themed ham-and swiss with mustard on Bretzel bread. (Not sure why it's Bretzel and not pretzel, but they've been in business[the chain] since 1455 per the sign). It was good, but not great. It came with exceptionally bland chips, and the only carry teas and microbrew sodas. I like the convos Heather and I have because I don't believe she ever bullshits me.

It's like Cosi in that it's nothing to write home about, but you'll leave hungry if you don't drop $10. I might try their breakfast or just a pretzel sometime. They also have a shload (and I'm paraphrasing) of european candy bars if that's your thing. (For my money, you can't beat Hershey's chocolate, though.) Other than that, I don't expect to go back. That's a pic of Heather and I from Taste of Chicago (or Waste of Chicago, as my Father calls it) taken by Hans Holsen. Trip & Mount was a bit we used to do regarding relationship ice breakers.

I stole that "Shload, and I'm paraphrasing" from someone at a high school or college speech tourament. My wife was ranked 7th in the nation in After Dinner Speaking (read: a humorous speech on a serious topic), so I've been to a few speech tournaments. That's the only thing I really remember from any of them except for Kiki's speech on Binary Thinking. Binary thinking is best exemplified in American Political rhetoric; you're either a long-haired libreral idiot that would abort a late-term fetus and feed it to hungry stray kitties or a suit-clad, power-haircutted conservative who regularly attends church in his massive gas-guzzling SUV.
The real illusion is that you get any real difference between the two.
I find myself believing more and more that the answer is invariable in the middle, even from my point of view.