The Smart Museum of the University of Chicago

One problem with world-class museums is that they are tourist destinations and crammed with people. The Smart Museum has an exquisite small contemporary collection including a Nancy Spero, a Sylvia Sleigh and H.C. Westermann’s illustrated letters. Asian and European objects, drawings, prints and paintings, modern American and European works and traveling exhibitions are their forte. There is usually almost no one around; you can hear yourself think as you contemplate the work. A tiny bookstore/coffee bar with a case full of jewelry (no pressure from museum merchandising) sits across the foyer from a huge abstracted black-and-white landscape.

5550 South Greenwood
(773)702-0200
smartmuseum.uchicago.edu

Best of Chicago 2010

Chicago Fly Fishing Outfitters

The late University of Chicago professor Norman Maclean’s masterful semi-autobiographical novella depicted a spiritual euphoria in fly fishing the waters of the West, almost enough to make you want to pick up and head out there. Except you’d have to live in Montana. But you don’t need to, thanks to Chicago Fly Fishing Outfitters, a large store selling apparel, tackle, flies and all the other gear needed to hit the waters. Plus they arrange destination travel, either nearby or far off, and even offer lessons in how to tie a fly. “In my family, there was no clear division between religion and fly fishing,” Maclean wrote. And now there’s no excuse not to go to “church.”

1279 North Clybourn
(312)944-3474
www.chifly.com

Best of Chicago 2009

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

Aruns
Arun Sampanthavivat came to Chicago for graduate study at the University of Chicago; he stayed to create America’s finest Thai restaurant, a must-stop on every culinary tour of town. No menu will be presented; instead your waiter will quiz you on your preferences, and then bring you twelve courses prepared accordingly. With a fixed-price of $85, expect to spend more than $100 a head after wine, tips and taxes. But the sensuous decadence and endless flow of dishes will leave your taste buds in a state of euphoric stupor for weeks to follow.

4156 North Kedzie (773)539-1909

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