Firecat Projects

Formerly the studio of artist Tony Fitzpatrick, Firecat is now a gallery founded by Fitzpatrick and Stan Klein, and recently celebrated its one-year anniversary. In addition to giving one-person shows to deserving local and emerging artists, Firecat has a rare business model in that the gallery takes no commission from sales.

Firecat Projects
2124 North Damen
(773)342-5381
firecatprojects.com

Audience choice:
Western Exhibitions
119 North Peoria
(312)480-8390
westernexhibitions.com

Best of Chicago 2011

Zara

More upscale than its fast-fashion peers, Zara’s higher price tags are worth it. There aren’t any frenetic fifteen-year-olds here, and they have a remarkably high ratio of “I’d totally wear that!” to “Oh my god, what were they thinking” pieces, while still managing to stay on-trend. Pick up their silk shirts and trousers, $40 ballet flats that won’t wear out any sooner than ones that cost twice as much, and whatever else you need this season—like sheer maxi skirts and color blocking accessories.

Zara
700 North Michigan
(312)255-8123
One West Randolph, Block 37
(312)368-6178
zara.com

Audience choice:
H&M
22 North State, (312)263-4436
840 North Michigan, (312)640-0060
hm.com

Best of Chicago 2011

Photo: Kristine Sherred

CorePower Yoga

Regardless of whatever misgivings you might have about supporting a corporate yoga company, there’s no denying the advantage of having seven—soon-to-be-eight—studios located throughout the city, each with almost a dozen classes each day. Regardless of where you plan to get your next drink, there’s somewhere nearby that gets you a yoga high and yoga bod beforehand—no excuses. But the CorePower mecca is the South Loop studio: As you search for a drishti (gazing point) in tree pose, you can choose to focus on an element of Chicago’s downtown skyline, which the fifth-floor studio showcases through its large windows.

CorePower Yoga
12 West Maple, (312)266-9642
1704 North Milwaukee, (773)227-9642
945 West George, (773)862-9642
corepoweryoga.com

 Audience choice: (tie)
Bikram Yoga Chicago
47 West Polk, (312)922-9642
1344 North Milwaukee, (773)395-9150
2736A North Clark, (773)348-9642
105f.com
and
CorePower Yoga

Best of Chicago 2011

WFMT

This week is the 60th anniversary of what many consider not only the most unique radio station in Chicago, but in the country, if not the world. When Bernard and Rita Jacobs went on the air at 3pm on December 13, 1951 for an eight-hour shift of classical music and fine arts programming until 11pm with Bernard as the engineer and Rita as the announcer, few could have predicted what a force this then-small station would become. Two years later, the programming had expanded to eighteen hours a day—24/7 by 1968—and in 1954, the station considerably broadened its broadcast range by moving down the dial from its original 105.9 to its current 98.7 FM setting. Generating its own unique programming was a signature element of WFMT from early on: early live programs included concerts by Pete Seeger and Big Bill Broonzy and a conversation between Carl Sandburg and Frank Lloyd Wright. WFMT was also an early innovator in broadcasting live concert and opera performances, including regular series broadcasts from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Lyric Opera that are still running. Other legendary WFMT programs include then University of Chicago student Mike Nichols creating the Saturday night folk music program “Midnight Special” in 1953, which is still on the air, before going on to his career as legendary stage and film director. Writer Studs Terkel began his WFMT show in 1953, which became a stalwart of the station until Terkel’s retirement over half a century later. WFMT has always made the highest possible audio broadcast standards a top priority, including some of the earliest stereo signal broadcasts and, in the early 1960s, the first regular broadcast series of stereo concerts by the Fine Arts Quartet. Voted in 1964 by Hi-Fi/Stereo Review readers as the highest-fidelity station in the nation, other innovations included broadcasting with Dolby Noise Reduction as early as 1969 and in quadraphonic sound in 1972. By 1979, WFMT became the first international “superstation,” not only broadcasting by satellite and across cable systems across the country but also becoming the first American station to become part of the European Broadcast Union as well as to have its prerecorded programs broadcast behind the Iron Curtain in the Soviet Union and China. In 1981, WFMT was chosen to be the first radio station in the world to broadcast music from a Compact Disc and the first programming of DAT (Digital Audio Tape) in the mid-1980s. For all of its cutting-edge technology and industry broadcast standards established by WFMT over the years, it remains in many ways the same “ma and pa” station that it was some sixty years ago in that then, as now, no prerecorded commercials are broadcast on the station. Instead, program and broadcast hosts continue to read advertiser copy with the same precise enunciation and alliteration that they give to carefully articulated foreign phrases and composer opus titles, which is just the way its devoted listeners want it.

98.7 FM

Audience choice:
WBEZ 91.5FM

Best of Chicago 2011

Smart Bar

Established in 1982, it may be older than most of its patrons and even house music itself, but Smart Bar puts the lie to the idea that club goers want flavor-of-the-minute nightspots with velvet ropes and bottle service. What they want is great music and a dance floor where people actually dance. This DJ-driven dance club will certainly give your ears a much needed rest from top-forty remixes since you’ll hear music—techno, dubstep and house—spun by Chicago’s, and the world’s, top DJs. The delightfully diverse crowd is always there to dance, not just to sway back and forth or, heaven help us, fist-pump, and at Smart Bar you actually have the room to do it. And, hopefully the funds too. If not, on Sundays, you can time travel for Dollar Disco with resident DJs Michael Serafini, Adulture and Kid Color. Featuring excellent house, nu disco and electronica, as well as old disco hits that never really get old, Smart Bar’s Dollar Disco is worth the lag in your Monday morning.

Smart Bar
3730 North Clark
(773)549-0203
smartbarchicago.com

Audience choice:
The Mid
306 North Halsted
(312)265-3990
themidchicago.com

Best of Chicago 2011

Warren Buffett

A newspaper delivery boy in his youth, Warren Buffett just nabbed the Omaha World-Herald. Just two years ago, Buffett said investing in newspapers is a bad idea—it looks like he’s doing this to support local reporting, not turn a quick profit. If he stays hands-off with the Omaha paper (which it looks like he will, as he’s no Murdoch), letting the Midwesterner edge a bit farther east might not be so bad. And what better billionaire to own our paper than one who wants higher taxes on himself, not the ninety-nine percent?

Audience choice: Mark Cuban

Best of Chicago 2011

Green Eye Lounge

With its rock-scene crowd, Thursday-night art shows and spillover from the neighboring Gorilla Tango Theatre, the Green Eye isn’t your dad’s sports bar, and it’s certainly a long way from the Cell. But Sox fans typically enjoy a particular strain of dark humor. And if anything can mitigate the drudgery of pulling the team through its post-Ozzie malaise, it’s the dry wisecracks of bartenders Eric, Chad, Turbo and company. The dirt-cheap shot-and-a-beer special doesn’t hurt, either.

Green Eye Lounge
2403 West Homer
(773)227-8851
greeneyelounge.com

 Audience choice:
(tie)

Market
1113 West Randolph
(312)929-4787
marketbarchicago.com
and
Green Eye Lounge

Best of Chicago 2011

Tom Thibodeau

It would be easy to say that the Derrick Rose we saw last year was a whole “new” Derrick Rose, therefore, his name should be here. But for anyone that knows the ins and outs of how this team worked, jelled and succeeded (despite the play of Carlos Boozer and Joakim Noah at times) last season, Coach Thibs is easily the best new Bull since, well, Rose was drafted.

Audience choice:
Jimmy Butler

Best of Chicago 2011

Anyone but Adam Dunn

Read the names: Jesse Crain, Deunte Heath, Osvaldo Martinez, Jason Frasor, Jhan Marinez, Charles Leesman, Zach Stewart, Phillip Humber, Will Ohman, Donnie Veal, Jose Quintana, etc. Anyone that came to the White Sox this year that wasn’t on the roster in 2010 and whose name isn’t Adam Troy Dunn—they are considered “best.” And yes, this is an indictment on how horrible Dunn was last season.

Audience choice:
Adam Dunn

Best of Chicago 2011

Next

Finally, award-winning Alinea chef Grant Achatz opened a more reasonably priced eatery where hipsters, young professionals and wealthy foodies could all break bread together. With its innovative ticketed reservation policy and a shifting multi-course menu every three months, Next struck a chord in the fickle food world. The first menu was April’s Paris, 1906–Escoffier at the Ritz replete with duck, gratin potatoes and edible flowers. A Thai menu and the current Childhood menu followed featuring food served in classic lunch boxes and interpretations of pb&j and s’mores. It’s no wonder when 20,000 people tried to obtain tickets for Childhood that Next’s website crashed.

Next
953 West Fulton Market
(312)226-0858
nextrestaurant.com

Audience choice:
Leopold
1450 West Chicago
(312)348-1028
leopoldchicago.com

Best of Chicago 2011