The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

How cool is the MacArthur Fellows Program, aka the “genius grant”? $500,000, no strings attached, awarded to twenty or thirty creators in the arts and sciences each and every year. This program alone makes the $6 billion foundation not only Chicago’s largest nonprofit, but also its most exciting. Of course, “Big Mac” does a lot more with its money: take note of its underwriting of public radio and television when you tune in, or catch its support of documentary filmmaking at the local art-house. Beyond the media and the arts, the MacArthur Foundation pours resources into support for human rights and international justice, global conservation and sustainable development, affordable housing in the U.S. and many, many other admirable areas.
140 South Dearborn
(312)726-8000

Audience Choice:
Hyde Park Art Center
5020 South Cornell
(773)324-5520

Best of Chicago 2007

Seminary Cooperative Bookstore
Long before the superstores, this bookseller was offering discounts to book buyers, as long as they bought shares in the store. That small investment also makes you part owner of what may be the world’s best academic bookstore. With more than 100,000 different titles, and virtually no potboilers, this is the place to pump up your gray matter. The store rambles underground beneath an actual seminary-make sure you look for the map-and it feels sometimes like the catacombs.

5757 South University (773)752-4381

Best of Chicago 2002

Jimmy’s Woodlawn Tap
This is a tough call since the city has become one of the world’s centers for biotech research. Jimmy’s Woodlawn Tap is near the site of the University of Chicago’s $100-million-plus nanotechnology laboratory now rising near 55th Street. Practice your opening lines before you head in. We suggest something like this: “Let’s build a relationship atom by atom and self-replicate.” Or not.

1172 East 55th (773)643-5516

Best of Chicago 2002

Parakeets in Hyde Park
Tell most residents of Chicago to go see the parakeets in Hyde Park, and they’ll ask you what pet store. But it’s just a matter of looking up. For nearly thirty years, a large colony of monk parakeets-smaller than a parrot but larger than the Kmart-bought species-have made Hyde Park their home, pets that went on the lam and somehow adjusted to survive the brutal Chicago winter. Defined by a sharply green back and head and distinctive blue-colored feathers, the parakeets are loud and vocally assertive, though generally not disruptive. Their nests-massive constructions of woven twigs-have proven to be a bit of a problem recently, especially since utility poles are among of the monk’s favorite spots to build.

Best of Chicago 2002

Lem’s Bar-B-Q House
To get the ribs that made Chicago famous, you’ve got to head south, into neighborhoods perhaps unfamiliar. Our favorite is Lem’s, served out of an old-fashioned drive-in, carryout only, with the rib pit fired up smack dab in the middle of the joint. Lem’s makes the big, meaty stick-to-the-bone ribs, with just enough fat to hold the flavor, and an outer layer of meat that peels away with ease. Their mild sauce, a subtle yet sweet-and-tangy original, or Louisiana-style hot sauce, properly take a back seat to the main attraction on the bone.

311 East 75th, (773)994-2428

Best of Chicago 2002

Museum of Science and Industry
Occupying the only surviving building from the 1893 Columbian Exposition, the Museum of Science and Industry is America’s favorite interactive learning toy, our first experience with pushing buttons and watching the resulting action. Every schoolkid remembers the Coal Mine and the captured German sub, but recent years have seen a dramatic facelift for this popular institution. Commencing with the Henry Crown Space Center and culminating recently in the important exhibit on advances in genetic science, the MSI retains its knack for keeping the fun in learning.

57th Street and Lake Shore Drive (773)684-1414

Best of Chicago 2002

Jimmy’s Woodlawn Tap & Liquor Store
Where else can a Nobel laureate in economics hoist a few with both a University of Chicago student studying Marx and a blue-collar South Sider? Since 1948, this 55th Street institution has served both the likes of Saul Bellow and Margaret Mead as well as Hyde Park lifers who come to soak up the stimulating atmosphere that can mirror a populist Algonquin Round Table. Although shined up a bit when renovated in 2000 after owner Jimmy Wilson’s death a year earlier, “Jimmy’s” is still the smoky sticky hole-in-the-wall of legend.

1172 East 55th (773)643-5516

Best of Chicago 2002

Doc Films, University of Chicago
Even with the death of 16mm as a film distribution medium, Doc Films still maintains a seven-day schedule during term, with a high level of intelligence and sophistication. Plus the prices are low and the projection is generally scrupulous.

1212 East 59th (773)702-8575

Best of Chicago 2002