Dec 15
The Owl
Logan Square nightlife has reached a tipping point with the opening of this giant 5am drinking complex. As the latest addition to the already-great Milwaukee Avenue tavern corridor—which includes The Boiler Room, Revolution Brewing, Cole’s, The Whistler and more—The Owl seals the neighborhood’s fate as a libation destination. This multi-room bar is surprisingly comfy for such a huge space, featuring plush couches, warm woodwork, mirrored walls, a dance floor and even a working fountain. An extensive craft-beer list and a kick-ass jukebox, featuring everything from Siouxsie to Sharon Jones, means your late-night session at the Owl is sure to be a hoot.
The Owl
2521 North Milwaukee
(773)235-5300
owlbarchicago.com
Audience choice:
Haymarket Pub & Brewery
737 West Randolph
(312)638-0700
haymarketbrewing.com
Best of Chicago 2011
Dec 15
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
Dec 15
Jeff Zimmermann’s “you know what you should do”
Jeff Zimmermann’s colorful public mural follows in the steps of the great Pop painter James Rosenquist, in a collage of portraits, products and politics. Partially commissioned by the Environmental Protection Agency, the mural responds to the topic of Lake Michigan’s health.
“you know what you should do”
By Jeff Zimmerman
Oak Street Beach, 1000 North Lake Shore
Best of Chicago 2011
Dec 15
Finch’s Beer Company
Chicago has made strides to become one of the Midwest’s leaders in brewing craft beers and Finch’s Beer Company is proof of that. Off to an unconventional start, they come from a marketing research and graphic design background, but that doesn’t stop the beer itself from being smooth and full-bodied. The Golden Wing Blonde Ale is medium-rich, but for more of a bite and a hoppy taste try their Cut Throat Pale Ale. It’s getting easier to grab as Finch’s is expanding availablity at many local neighborhood bars and stores.
Finch’s Beer Company
4565 North Elston
(773)283-4839
finchbeer.com
Best of Chicago 2011
Dec 15
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
Dec 15
She Doesn’t Shill for Toxic Cults
On November 18, self-help guru James Arthur Ray was sentenced to two years in prison for negligent homicide, the result of a poorly planned “sweat lodge ceremony” gone awry. Ray was one of many new-age hucksters who gained celebrity and influence in the wake of “The Secret,” a simplistic positive-thinking fad that became an enormous cash cow after receiving The Big O’s powerful seal of legitimacy. Rosie O’Donnell may be an ostentatious do-gooder and a sucker for Hollywood glitz, but she retains a comedian’s nose for blatant BS. One can hope she won’t introduce the world’s desperate housewives to another dangerous con man like Ray.
Audience choice: Who cares?
Best audience comments: “She frequents Boystown bars”; “She said Soldiers Field and Wrigley Park or something like that”; “You don’t want to see what Rosie has put under your seat”; “Um… is there one?”
Best of Chicago 2011
Dec 15
“Hyperlinks: Architecture and Design” by Joseph Rosa and Zoe Ryan
An exhibition showcasing experimental architecture and graphic and industrial design necessarily demanded a cutting-edge catalogue. COMA Amsterdam/New York met the challenge with a book whose content changes depending on the direction it is read: front-to-back or back-to-front. The designers made an art object worthy of exhibition.
“Hyperlinks: Architecture and Design”
By Joseph Rosa and Zoe Ryan
Art Institute of Chicago, 160 pages, $30
Best of Chicago 2011
Dec 15
Mana Food Bar
At this fusion small-plate restaurant on Division, you’ll be too busy diving into caponata, bi bim bop and vindaloo to notice the place is vegetarian. Rather than wasting time trying to fake meat, Mana does veg well. Somehow, magically, the wide range of international flavors go together, especially paired with sake, straight up or in a cocktail.
Mana Food Bar
1742 West Division
(773)342-1742
manafoodbar.com
Audience choice:
Chicago Diner
3411 North Halsted
(773)935-6696
veggiediner.com
Best of Chicago 2011
Dec 15
35th/Bronzeville/IIT, Green Line
This city has a number of memorable El stops, like the Blue Line’s Damen station, with its fascinating view of Wicker Park’s buzzing North/Damen/Milwaukee crotch and the Red Line’s sparkling-clean, Apple-sponsored North/Clybourn stop, complete with a sleek new seating plaza. But we love the Green Line’s 35th/Bronzeville/IIT station for two reasons. Just north, trains zoom through a super-cool, 530-foot stainless steel tube above the Rem Koolhaas-designed McCormick Tribune Campus Center. And while the Sox/35th Red Line stop is a madhouse after baseball games, CTA blackbelts know you can skip the crowds by strolling two blocks east to the nearly empty Green Line station.
South State and East 35th
Audience choice:
Belmont Station (Red, Brown and Purple Lines)
Best audience comments: “The one that’s clean, safe, structurally sound, and doesn’t smell like feet—I forgot the name”; “The Lakes in the Loop (Clark & State): because where else can you head NSWE from the same station?”
Best of Chicago 2011
Dec 15
William J. O’Brien at The Renaissance Society
The multi-level table-display created to showcase William J. O’Brien’s ceramic and assemblage heads looked, at turns, like an alien ethnographic museum and a buffet of nightmares. O’Brien is one of Chicago’s best emerging artists, and The Renaissance Society gave him the space to prove it.
5811 South Ellis
renaissancesociety.org
Audience choice:
Windows on the War: Soviet TASS Posters at Home and Abroad at the Art Institute
111 South Michigan
(312)443-3600
artic.edu
Best of Chicago 2011
