Kay Rosen’s “Go Do Good”

If you thought Tony Tasset’s giant fiberglass eyeball was nothing more than an expensive roadside attraction in a time of austerity, then you must have been unpleasantly stoked by the unveiling of the Chicago Loop Alliance’s new public art extravaganza “GO DO GOOD,” Kay Rosen’s six-story mural above the Old Navy on State and Washington. The idea was to motivate people to carry out thousands of good deeds but the text was too designy, and people had trouble making out the words. To make things even worse, “GO DO GOOD” had the appearance of a state-sponsored marketing campaign—and people just don’t like to be preached at while shopping.

Best of Chicago 2011

The return of the Queen’s Landing crosswalk

The Daley administration made a number of anti-pedestrian “dick moves” in a losing battle against auto congestion: fencing off crosswalks on Michigan Avenue, shortening walk-signal times and adding right-on-red arrows for cars. But the kicker was the 2005 removal of the stoplight and crosswalk at Queen’s Landing, where in 1959 the city rolled a red carpet across Lake Shore Drive so Queen Elizabeth II could stroll from the lakefront to Buckingham Fountain. While the removal saved motorists a minute or two of wait time, it forced walkers to take a ten-minute detour. As part of a wave of pedestrian improvements under Emanuel, the city reinstalled the crosswalk on Thanksgiving Day—definitely something to give thanks for.

500 South Lake Shore

Audience choice: He speaks coherently

Best audience comments: “Seeing Rahm’s ass on the Brown Line every morning with his security detail. Daley would NEVER have done that”; “He can’t have all his fingers in the pie, can he?”; “He was at the Adele concert at the Riv”; “That 50-0 budget approval vote. Oh, wait.”

Best of Chicago 2011

Halo Asian Mix

Hawaii’s cuisine reflects the state’s melting-pot ethnic makeup, with native Hawaiian, Japanese, Filipino, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese and mainland American influences. Most of these cultures get their own section on the menu of this tiny lunch counter, and everything’s delicious. For a taste of authentic diner fare, order a plate lunch: chicken katsu, barbecue or hamburger steak plus “two scoop rice” and macaroni salad. Or try Spam loco moco (grilled slices over rice with brown gravy and two fried eggs) or Spam musubi (sushi-style with rice and seaweed). Throw in a bubble tea smoothie and take a culinary vacation to the islands.

Halo Asian Mix
29 East Adams
(312)360-1111
facebook.com/haloasianmix

Best of Chicago 2011

Chicago Chocolate Tours

Guided two-hour crawls lead as many tourists as locals through one of Chicago’s most notoriously vice-ridden underbellies: that of our sugary network of cupcakeries. “Cupcakes have been around long enough now that they are more than a trend; cupcakes are here to stay,” says Valerie Beck, president, founder and self-proclaimed “Chief Executive Chocolate Lover” of Chicago Chocolate Tours. The Downtown Loop Cupcake Route meets at the fountain at Macy’s on State Street and samples some of the more popular varieties at shops like Sarah’s Pastries and Candies (Black and White), Flirty Cupcakes (A Raspberry Stole My Heart) and at mySpa in the Fairmont Hotel. Beck’s Gold Coast Cupcake Route meets in the lobby at 900 North Michigan and tastes at spots like Swirlz Cupcakes (gluten-free pumpkin cream cheese), More (Bacon Maple; Feta Cranberry) and Hendrickx Belgian Bread Crafter. Beck says the current trend is salted caramel, a flavor evident in samples at tour spots like Loop-route stop Toni Patisserie (Salted Caramel Tarts). A nominee this year for the tenth annual Chicago Innovation awards, the six-year-old tour company has expanded to guide tours in Boston and Philadelphia.

Chicago Chocolate Tours
Downtown Loop Cupcake Route
Tuesdays at 3:45pm, meets at Macy’s, 111 North State
Gold Coast Cupcake Route
Thursdays at 4:45pm, meets at 900 North Michigan
(312)929-2939
chicagochocolatetours.com

Best of Chicago 2011

The city’s pedestrian safety campaign

The thirty-two ghostly white mannequins installed along Wacker Drive last October weren’t Halloween decorations. They represented the thirty-two pedestrians killed by cars in Chicago last year, part of Chicago’s new shock-and-awe campaign to draw attention to traffic safety. The “It’s Up To You” campaign also includes placard ads with graphic images of the tragic results of dangerous driving, such as a motorist cowering in her vehicle with a body sprawled across the shattered windshield. “Some of it is a little hard-hitting,” says transportation chief Gabe Klein. “But we want to remind people that when you’re frustrated behind the wheel, these are real people and real lives.” The city recently relocated nine of the mannequins to CTA stations and plans to install four in the State Street median between Wacker and Lake Street.

Best of Chicago 2011

Chanelle at Bliss Spa

Her attention to detail of the body’s needs goes beyond what your body even thinks it needs. Deep tissue treatment or a Blissage or the ginger rub, her code name should be milk because she does a body good.

Topshop

At first it was sad to see Borders close shop, but when affable UK-based clothing company Topshop (and Topman) moved into the abandoned space this fall, the store paired well with the other Mag Mile foreign fast-fashion fixture H&M. Merchandise ranges from the affordable jumper to the expensive jacket with their inventory constantly being updated in their stores and online. With store locations only in New York City, the United Kingdom and now Chicago, suddenly Topshop makes the Windy City seem very cosmopolitan chic.

Topshop
830 North Michigan
(312)280-6834
topshop.com

Best of Chicago 2011

CTA Holiday Train
A gale wind blows freezing rain into your face as you fight your way down a crowded December street, the gloomy overcast skies giving way to an afternoon nightfall. It’s been an especially bad day: your significant other seems significantly more interested in others lately, your boss seems wont to emulate Ebenezer Scrooge, circa chapter one, and your mother’s not happy with you—your mother’s never happy with you. You shuffle onto the El platform, eyes down amongst the Uggs and Naughty Monkeys. Just. Let. This. Day. Be. Over. Then, you hear it first, the joyful din of your fellow travelers, the sound of the…sleigh bells? Then you see, a wondrous, unexpected sight: your train is decorated on all sides by thousands and thousands of lights. Red bows, garlands, candy canes and wait—there’s Santa, being pulled into the station on his own flatbed car. What were you so unhappy about anyway? Hello Bedford Falls! Merry Christmas!

transitchicago.com/travel_information/holidaytrain.aspx

Audience choice:
Christkindlmarket Chicago in Daley Plaza
118 North Clark
(312)494-2175
christkindlmarket.com

Best of Chicago 2010

Photo: Kristine Sherred

Mary Bartelme Park/Adams-Sangamon Park

Many Chicago parks are merely utilitarian: flat rectangles of grass broken up by a few baseball fields and basketball courts. So it’s exciting when the Park District thinks outside the diamond and creates a unique green space. Opened last summer, Adams-Sangamon Park features a large, groovy playground with drawbridges and climbing nets, a dog run and man-made hills covered with native grasses. Boulders and seating cubes are strewn about in pleasingly random patterns. The coolest element? Huge silver gateways shaped like crooked picture frames, spraying refreshing mist in hot weather.

115 South Sangamon
(312)742-7529
chicagoparkdistrict.com

Audience choice:
Millennium Park
Michigan Avenue between Randolph and Monroe Street
(312)742-1168
millenniumpark.org

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