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

Wise Fools Pub

Located at Lincoln and Belden, you’d think that Thursday night, aka 50-cent Miller High Life Draft night, would be packed with college kids. Well, you’d be wrong. The crowd ranges from college kids to people in their mid-thirties, and you never know when it’s going to be a chill night or a rowdy night. It has a lengthy bar, a pool table and a dance floor off to the side with its own bar. But the best part—besides the free popcorn—is that you can feel like a baller by ordering rounds for your friends and still not need to break a $20.

Wise Fools Pub
2270 North Lincoln
(773)929-1300
wisefoolspub.com

Best of Chicago 2011

Galway Bay

This pub is a hidden gem. Hidden downstairs, first are the dart boards and the pool tables. To the left is the ring-shaped bar, the popcorn machine, the TVs playing sports, and for some, the main attraction: big, comfy, leather couches and seats clustered around two TVs with a selection of NES, SNES and N64 systems. For any nostalgic gamer, it’s heaven: GoldenEye, Ocarina of Time, Mario Kart 64 and so much more for all of the systems. Shelves of cartridges. Be prepared to spend way too many lives there.

Galway Bay
500 West Diversey
(773)348-3750

Best of Chicago 2011

Noble Tree Coffee & Tea

Not everyone cares what the surface of their cappuccino resembles because they’re gonna gulp it down no matter what, but when adroitly poured, intricate leafy designs will float in foamed milk mingled with espresso until the very last tepid sip. It might take an extra minute, but the pretty result is well worth the wait. Above all, the baristas at Noble Tree consistently create traditional art in every cup. Somehow it tastes yummier that way.

2444 North Clark
(773)248-1500
nobletreecoffee.com

Best of Chicago 2010

State Restaurant & Café
NFL Sunday Ticket? Big deal, who doesn’t have that? Free wifi? Definite plus. How about a media center and seven internet terminals throughout the bar? Okay, this is starting to get interesting…Did we mention more than 100 flat-screen HD plasma TVs? We’ll excuse you if you just messed yourself.

935 West Webster
(773)975-8030
state-chicago.co

Best of Chicago 2010

Kith and Kin

Former chef David Carrier and his replacement Andrew Brochu, vets of spots like Alinea, cook like Michelin-starred moms. Their spaghetti carbonara, stews, chicken-gravy larded poutine, and crispy fried-chicken thighs are so soulful and comforting, you might not care if mom ever comes back.

1119 West Webster
(773)472-7070
knkchicago.com

Audience choice:

Lockwood
17 East Monroe
(312)917-3404
lockwoodrestaurant.com

Best of Chicago 2010

Stax Café

We’ve probably had as many pancakes as Wilt Chamberlain had ladies and to pick amongst them is a disservice of sorts. For the Walker Bros. Pancake House in Wheeling’s Dutch Baby is just as solid as the Butterfinger-larded Bongo Room flapjack. It’s really just a matter of mood. No matter our temperament though, the light ricotta pancakes slathered with tart-sweet rhubarb strawberry compote at Stax Café always seem to fit the bill.

1401 West Taylor
(312)733-9871

Audience choice:

Bongo Room, Orange, Original Pancake House (TIE)

Bongo Room
1470 North Milwaukee
(773)489-0690

1152 South Wabash
(312)291-0100
thebongoroom.com

Orange
738 North Clark
(312)202-0600

730 West Grand
(312)942-0300

2011 West Roscoe
(773)248-0999

2413 North Clark
(773)549-7833
orangerestaurantchicago.com

Original Pancake House
2020 North Lincoln Park West
(773)929-8130

22 East Bellevue
(312)642-7917

1517 East Hyde Park
(773)288-2322
originalpancakehouse.com

Best of Chicago 2010

Kirkwood Bar & Grill
The city is up for quite an experience starting next year, when Nebraska joins the Chicago-centric Big Ten Conference. Husker fans are a singularly loyal (crazy?) crowd; Northwestern will be challenged to keep Evanston purple and not to turn red when the new kid on the block pays a visit. Of course, plenty of Cornhuskers already call Chicago home and five or so bars have taken on the identity as “Nebraska bars” either out of ownership affinity or simple entrepreneurial opportunism. All fill up during Nebraska games, some standing-room-only, and the ones we visited each made for outstanding gathering spots for fans, with plenty of televisions, lots of Huskers-red paraphernalia decorating the space, and drink and food specials that sometimes even included runzas and Valentino’s Pizza, hometown favorites in Lincoln. We ever-so-slightly favor Kirkwood for the overall experience: not only are the basics solid, but the fans are very focused on the game. And these fans raise the level of spirit inside the room as close as we can get to the Memorial Stadium experience. One night, a fan served as a sort of cantor, slowly singing out “Gooooooooo……….Bigggggg…………Reeeeeeeedddddd,” which was answered by the entire crowd chanting back a thunderous “Go Big Red!” The game ends, for better or for worse, and the fans quickly disperse. Leaving, we encounter a reminder of where we are and who makes up the usual crowd of this Lakeview hangout, as an inebriated twentysomething screams into the face of the bouncer over some life-or-death slight. It is 10pm after all.

2934 North Sheffield
(773)770-0700
kirkwoodbar.com

Audience choice:
Gamekeepers
345 West Armitage
(773)549-0400
gamekeeperschicago.com

Best of Chicago 2010

“The Brother/Sister Plays” at Steppenwolf Theatre

In a very good year for Chicago theater, snowbirds missed its pinnacle in January, when 29-year-old playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney’s three-generation Louisiana family trilogy set Chicago on fire. Loosely structured through a series of vignettes, dreams, songs, dances and so on, McCraney’s work, brought to life by a superb cast under the direction of McCraney’s lead interpreter Tina Landau, managed to play every key on the emotional piano, from the highest hilarious joys to the most heartbreaking mournful lows. We left convinced we’d just seen the emergence of a major new voice in American theater, an August Wilson for the twenty-first century. Apparently Steppenwolf agreed: they offered McCraney a coveted ensemble membership shortly thereafter.

Audience choice:

Wicked
Cadillac Palace Theatre, 151 West Randolph
(312)384-1502
broadwayinchicago.com

Teavana

If Lipton is as far as your tea knowledge goes, Teavana is the perfect place to discern your oolongs from your rooibos. If you’re ready to free yourself from your mom’s old-fashioned tea bag, the steeped boutique offers wall-to-wall displays of the most preserved leaves prime for tea time. The drinking potpourri comes in traditional black, green, white, oolong, herbal, rooibos and maté varieties but what really makes you feel like a kid in a candy shop is mixing flavors to create superblends that bring your mouth to a whole new state of bliss.

520 North Michigan
(312)527-3584

835 North Michigan, Water Tower Place
(312)335-9802
teavana.com

Audience choice:

Argo Tea
16 West Randolph
(312)553-1551

819 North Rush
(312)951-5302

958 West Armitage
(773)649-9644
argotea.com

Best of Chicago 2010