Things to do in Chicago
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Art Institute of Chicago
The second-largest art museum in the country, the Art Institute houses treasures and masterpieces from around the globe, including a fabulous selection of both impressionist and post-impressionist paintings. The Modern Wing dazzles with natural light, and hangs Picassos and Mirós on its 3rd floor.
Allow two hours to browse the museum's highlights; art buffs should allocate much longer. Ask at the front desk about free talks and tours once you're inside. Note that the 3rd-floor contemporary sculpture garden is always free. It has great city views and connects to Millennium Park via the mod, pedestrian-only Nichols Bridgeway.
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Billy Goat Tavern
Tribune and Sun-Times reporters have guzzled in the subterranean Billy Goat for decades. Order a 'cheezborger' and Schlitz, then look around at the newspapered walls to get the scoop on infamous local stories, such as the Cubs Curse.
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Hot Doug's
Doug's the man to fulfill all your hot-dog fantasies. He serves multiple dog styles (Polish, bratwursts, Chicago) cooked multiple dog ways (char-grilled, deep-fried, steamed). Confused? He'll explain it all. Doug also makes gourmet 'haute dogs,' such as blue-cheese pork with cherry cream sauce. It's sublime, but a heck of a haul unless you're traveling by car. Cash only.
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Lula Café
Funky, arty Lula led the way for Logan Square’s dining scene, and appreciative neighborhoodies still crowd in for the seasonal, locally sourced menu. Even the muffins here are something to drool over, and that goes double for lunch items like pasta yiayia (bucatini pasta with Moroccan cinnamon, feta and garlic) and dinners such as striped bass with pine-nut-peppered orzo. Mondays offer a prix fixe three-course Farm Dinner.
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Parthenon
This veteran has anchored Greektown for three decades, hearing countless yells of ‘Opa’ to accompany the flaming saganaki (sharp, hard cheese cut into wedges or squares and fried). Greeks returning to the city from their suburban retreats have made the Parthenon a favorite. Vegetarians and gluten-free eaters will find lots of options, all marked on the extensive menu. A plus for drivers: there’s free valet service.
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University of Chicago
Faculty and students have racked up more than 80 Nobel prizes within U of C's hallowed halls. The economics and physics departments lay claim to most. It's also where the nuclear age began: Enrico Fermi and his Manhattan Project cronies built a reactor and carried out the world's first controlled atomic reaction on December 2, 1942. The Nuclear Energy sculpture, by Henry Moore, marks the spot where it blew its stack.
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Pizzeria Uno
Ike Sewell supposedly invented Chicago-style pizza here on December 3, 1943, although his claim to fame is hotly disputed. A light, flaky crust holds piles of cheese and an herb-laced tomato sauce. The pizzas take a while, but stick to the pitchers of beer and cheap red wine to kill time, and avoid the salad and other distractions to save room for the main event.
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Cafe Iberico
Iberico’s creative tapas burst with flavor. Among the standouts: salpicon de marisco (seafood salad with shrimp, octopus and squid), croquetas de pollo (chicken and ham puffs with garlic sauce) and vieiras a la plancha (grilled scallops with saffron). The cafe’s heady sangria draws wearied Loop workers by the dozen in the summer.
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Chicago Diner
The gold standard for Chicago vegetarians, this place has been serving barbecue seitan, wheat meat and tofu stroganoff for decades. The tattooed staff will guide you to the best stuff, including the peanut butter vegan ‘supershakes’ and the ‘Radical Ruben.’ Vegans take note: even the pesto for the pasta can be had without a lick of cheese.
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Ann Sather
The cinnamon rolls are the marquee item at the flagship of this small, friendly local chain that offers Swedish standards in a pleasant café environment. Filling, familiar Nordic offerings like meatballs and potato sausage join selections of American comfort food on the dinner menu.
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Soul Vegetarian East
Finding soul food that meets the tenets of the vegan diet is such a rarity that the creative barbecue sandwiches and dinner plates at this comfy South Side place have earned a national reputation.
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John Hancock Center
Get high in Chicago's third-tallest skyscraper. In many ways the view here surpasses the one at Willis Tower, as the Hancock is closer to the lake and a little further north. Those needing a city history lesson should ascend to the 94th-floor observatory, and listen to the archaic audio tour that comes with admission. Those secure in their knowledge should shoot up to the 96th-floor Signature Lounge, where the view is free if you buy a drink ($6 to $14).
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Museum of Contemporary Art
Consider it the Art Institute's brash, rebellious sibling, with especially strong minimalist, surrealist and book arts collections, and permanent works by Franz Kline, Rene Magritté, Cindy Sherman and Andy Warhol.
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Nelson Algren's House
You can’t go inside, but on the third floor of this apartment building writer Nelson Algren created some of his greatest works about life in the once down-and-out neighborhood. He won the 1950 National Book Award for his novel The Man with the Golden Arm, set on Division St near Milwaukee Ave (about a half-mile southeast). A Walk on the Wild Side contains the classic advice: ‘Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Mom’s. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own.’ And his short Chicago: City on the Make summarizes 120 years of thorny local history and is the definitive read on the city’s character.
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Borinquen Restaurant
The story goes that Borinquen owner Juan ‘Peter’ Figueroa created his signature dish after reading an article in a Puerto Rican newspaper about a sandwich that subbed plantains for bread – a flash of inspiration that birthed the jibarito, a popular dish that piles steak, lettuce, tomato and garlic mayo between two thick, crisply fried plantain slices. The idea caught on, and the jibarito is all the rage at local Puerto Rican eateries. It’s the marquee item at Borinquen, though more traditional Puerto Rican fare is also available at this homey family spot.
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Jin Ju
One of only a handful of nouveau Korean restaurants in town, Jin Ju throws a culinary curveball by tempering Korean food to Western tastes. The minimalist candlelit interior of Jin Ju echoes softly with downbeat techno, and the stylish 30-something clientele enjoys mains like haemul pajon (a fried pancake stuffed with seafood) and kalbi (beef short ribs). The drinks menu must is the ‘soju- tini’, a cocktail made with soju, a Korean spirit distilled from sweet potatoes.
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Green Mill
The timeless Green Mill earned its notoriety as Al Capone's favorite speakeasy (the tunnels where he hid the booze are still underneath the bar), and you can feel his ghost urging you on to another martini. Local and national artists perform six nights per week; Sundays are for the nationally acclaimed poetry slam.
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David & Alfred Smart Museum of Art
Named after the founders of Esquire magazine, who contributed the money to get it started, this fine arts museum opened in 1974 and expanded in 1999. The 8000 items in the collection include some excellent works from ancient China and Japan, and a colorful and detailed Syrian mosaic from about AD 600. The strength of the collection lies in the paintings and sculpture contemporary to the university’s existence, including works by Arthur Davies, Jean Arp, Henry Moore and many others.
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Robie House
Of the numerous buildings that Frank Lloyd Wright designed around Chicago, none is more famous or influential than Robie House. The resemblance of its horizontal lines to the flat landscape of the Midwestern prairie became known as the Prairie style. Inside are 174 stained-glass windows and doors, which you'll see on the hour-long tours (frequency varies by season).
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Hot Chocolate
‘Come for dessert, stay for dinner’ might be the motto at this cocoa-walled Bucktown restaurant. Run by renowned pastry chef Mindy Segal, the cute place feels exactly like the irresistible, upscale chocolate desserts it peddles. With six rich kinds of hot chocolate available (they’re like dipping your mug into Willy Wonka’s chocolate river), along with mini brioche doughnuts, you may forget to order the other food on offer, such as Kobe beef flank steak and beer-soaked mussels.
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Schwa
Exceedingly popular – reservations for chef Michael Carlson’s masterful restaurant should be booked around the same time as your airline ticket. The fact that Carlson worked at Alinea is apparent in an avant-garde, three- or nine-course menu (go for the nine) that redefines American comfort food via such dishes as apple-pie soup. The setup is progressive, too, with chefs also acting as servers. The intimate room is bookended by black wood floors and has a mirrored ceiling.
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Margie’s
Margie’s has held court at Bucktown’s edge for over 80 years, dipping ice-cream sundaes for everyone from Al Capone to the Beatles (check the wall photos). Sure, you can admire the old-fashioned Tiffany lamps, the marble soda fountain and the booths with minijukeboxes. But the star is the hot fudge, unbelievably thick, rich and bountiful, served in its own silver pot. Burgers and sandwiches are just clumsy foreplay to the 50 massive sundaes on offer.
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Field Museum of Natural History
The mammoth Field Museum houses everything but the kitchen sink – beetles, mummies, gemstones, Bushman the stuffed ape. The collection's rockstar is Sue, the largest Tyrannosaurus rex yet discovered. She even gets her own gift shop. Special exhibits, like the 3D movie, cost extra.
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Strange Cargo
The retro store stocks kitschy iron-on T-shirts featuring Ditka, Obama and other renowned Chicagoans.
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Lou Mitchell's
A relic of Route 66, Lou's old-school waitresses deliver double-yoked eggs and thick-cut French toast just west of the Loop by Union Station. There's usually a queue, but free doughnut holes and Milk Duds help ease the wait.
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