When I learned the Harry Potter Shop Chicago was opening on April 10, I told Dad we should at least go and walk by it to see if it is not too crazy to visit since I knew we'd be in Chicago anyways as Grandma's 90th birthday was on April 9. On our way back to the condo, we drove by to see if people were already lining up. As there wasn't, we planned on heading over there at 8am and decide when we got there if we wanted to hang around or not.
Around 7am, Mom was watching the morning news and we saw the live shot of the line, which really was not long at all. Thus, we decided to head over as soon as we were ready, which was about 7:30am. The line was just reached the pointing of going around the corner of the block when I got in it while Dad got coffee at the Starbucks Reserve Roastery across the street.
Not long after I got in line an employee came down the line with a QR code to scan and join the virtual queue. They were also giving out free pins, which ended up looking even better than the Chicago store specific ones you could actually buy in the store. At that point, we could have left and waited for the text for our turn to go in and come back within an hour of the text.
As we really did not have anything else to do and the cold was not that bad, we decided to just stay in line, which most people did, too. They started slowly letting in people probably around 9:30am and we were actually in the store not long after 10am, which is the usual opening time for a Thursday. It ended up working out nicely as we were still in early enough that they had not gotten to capacity and even by the time we left around 11:15am it was not too bad in there full, but the line outside was longer than when we originally got in it.
After a stop at the bathroom, the first thing we did was go to the Butterbeer Bar, which was mainly what we wanted to check out and also where fewer people were.
At the Butterbeer Bar, I got a draft butterbeer.
I also got a Cauldron Cake, which is more of a brownie making it even better than I thought it would be.
Despite just coming inside from waiting outside for several hours in 40 degree weather, Dad had to try the Butterbeer ice cream. He thought it was just okay and was caramel, but it definitely was butterscotch. It was good, but nothing amazing.
They have cup washers to rinse out the butterbear souvenir glasses, so you do not have to worry about them getting other things sticky.
After finishing our at the Butterbeer Bar, we browsed the shop. One of the most interesting things was the Bertie Botts display, which had a button that would spin a wheel to land on one of the random flavors and light up the jelly bean different colors.
My favorite part of the decor were the books that were open and flapping like they were flying.
The wand area was also interesting with the video screens making it seem like you were in the wand shop.
There is also the Goblet of Fire as that is the main theme for this location.
Most of the Chicago store stuff was boring as it was black and white with not much to the designs. We did get a sticker for the truck, though, and the Chicago exclusive label for the bottled Butterbeer is cool. We got some to bring home for Nora and Mik.
My favorite decor was the Golden Egg from the second task of the Triwizard Tournament, which is right when you enter the store.
No comments:
Post a Comment