Once I scraped myself off the floor from the flu on Saturday, I was enthusiastic to start anew on Sunday. I felt in good spirits, and it was my last chance to redeem my weekend so I was determined to make the best of it. Not to mention that we had our first Cubs game of the season on the rooftop.

As you know, we are bartering our garage for access to coveted rooftop games, so as they say…Sunday was payday and I was ready to indulge in rent…I mean, our All-You-Can-Eat-All-You-Can-Drink passes to rooftop heaven.

As I have mention, just cause we are on the rooftop, does NOT mean we are VIPs. The following is the sequence of steps that usually occurs to get on the rooftop:
1) We have to go to the bouncer at one of the Sheffield-Rooftop locations.
2) We say we know the owner and we are on the list.
3) Paying customers shoot us scathing looks and the bouncers are clueless.
4) The bouncer shoots us scathing look.
5) We explain that the owner parks his car in our garage.
6) Bouncers don’t believe us.
7) We describe the owner’s REALLY expensive car in detail as proof of our story.
8) They don’t believe us and ask us to call the owner.
9) We call him, he is pissed, talks to the bouncer and the bouncers says:” yes yes yes.
10) We get the “Game Day” passes and beat all the paying customers to the best seats on the roof.

Well, it turns out that we found a magic VIP pass that can circumvent all these steps: Be polite and nice to the rooftop owner’s mom.

We recognized one of the regular bouncers (actually, an assistant to the owner), and told him that we were scheduled to take in a game. An older woman that we had never seen before snapped: “who is this?” The Bouncer explained that the rooftop owner parks in our garage. With that, she quickly introduced herself as the rooftop owner’s Mom. Now, that is the ultimate VIP. I made some small talk and with that, she was nice enough to escort us up the stairs and to the VIP level suite.

If you are wondering, there is a real VIP level to the rooftops in addition to the already “VIP” feel to the entire experience. Behind the magic door, they serve bacon-wrapped scallops, prime rib (cut by a chef), and Eli’s Cheese Cake. It is gourmet, baseball heaven.

If you notice from the picture, I was not feeling 100% on Sunday. I had a fever relapse and decided that my best bet was to “feed” a cold with BBQ burgers, gourmet appetizers, and hot cocoa. Sure, I skipped the all-you-can-drink-beer but nothing gets you back on your feet like some hospitality from a rooftop “Mom” and a perfect bird’s eye view of the Cub’s victory over the Pirates.