A boost to Chicago entrepreneurship

There was a small nod to Chicago smarts when Nate Silver turned his knack for baseball stats into the brilliant distillation of political polling that was fivethirtyeight.com, since absorbed by the New York Times. Nice, Nate! But on a much richer scale is December’s almost-purchase of made-in-Chicago bargain site Groupon for a non-discount $6 billion, which the locals spurned because they thought they could do better. Thirty-year-old Andrew Mason—whose ambitions to create a site, The Point, that aided collective action mutated into Groupon, with its 3,100 employees, 1,000 of them local—could be the smiling poster boy of a new Lake Silicon called Chicago. We could use the Jobs.

Audience choice:

Cheap stuff, Jobs, Nothing (TIE)

Others that were mentioned a few times, amused us or seemed especially weird:

“I could live on them!”

“It has heralded the phrase ‘Gettin’ My Group-on’”

The enclosed Starbucks means you now can buy the New York Times south of Division Street.

Best of Chicago 2007

Lula Cafe
One of those accidental miracles that make life interesting, Lula should never have been. A chance encounter between an aspiring writer and a cook at café led to a do-it-yourself culinary adventure that eventually led to its recognition, here and in the New York Times, as a leader in the Chicago school of New American cuisine. Co-owner Jason Hammel and Amalea Tshilds conduct daily kitchen jam sessions based on availabilities from local farmers and markets, and deliver their findings in the form of ever-changing and always-surprising daily specials. Their weekend brunch is a wonder in and of itself too, for those willing to brave the likely wait.

2537 North Kedzie (773)489-9554

Best of Chicago 2002