Features Best New Restaurantsby Dennis Ray Wheaton and Joanne TrestrailIt’s the year of odd names (Schwa), hard-to-find doorways (Copperblue), New York transplants (Il Mulino), and global ingredients used with inspired abandon (Alinea). Winners all, but so are their patrons. Head of the Classby Monica GinsburgChicago’s eight “selective enrollment” public high schools are fielding some … Read more
Features The Road To Summerby Geoffrey JohnsonA world-class golf course overlooking Lake Michigan. A wilderness resort on a Lake Huron island. A luxury cruise that visits all five Great Lakes. These are just three of 14 Midwestern destinations that all lead to warm-weather fun. The Quiet Billionaireby John CookArea native Joe Mansueto built Morningstar into … Read more
Features Why We Love Chicago In The SummerIt’s not that we don’t love the city during the winter, spring, and fall. But during the warmest months-from June through August-people open up, clothing comes off, and Chicago turns into one of the best destinations on earth. Here we catalog the reasons why right now there’s nowhere … Read more
Features Best of ChicagoFor this year’s Best of Chicago feature, we ate, shopped, visited, interviewed, imbibed, and otherwise sampled our way through the city and suburbs looking for treasures and treats. Somebody had to do it!Plus: The best of Albany Park, Evanston, Highwood, Hyde Park, and Ukrainian Village Friendly Persuasionby Jonathan Black Elegant, upbeat, and … Read more
Features Sweet SpotsFor our roundup of bars and clubs we posed questions real Chicagoans might ask when searching out great nightlife. And we found answers: swanky lounges, hot dance clubs, out-of-the-way gems, and more. That’s EntertainmentStuck in a routine? These fresh ideas will put some life into your night. Dramatic Effectby Mara TappRobert Falls ignited … Read more
Features The A+ Teamby Dennis Rodkin and Amy RaineyWe crunched data on more than 1,740 Chicago-area public elementary and middle schools to name the 115 best. We also compiled a list of 25 topflight private schools. Been Up So Long, Looks Like Down Too Me by Dennis RodkinSlower sales, flattening prices? It’s not as bleak … Read more
Features Welcome to ToquevilleChicago has arrived as one of the premier dining cities on the planet, and we feature the men and women who have put it there.Chicago’s Best ChefsMeet the city’s foremost kitchen legends, the aces, and the innovators.Table TalkSix of the biggest names in the restaurant world gather to chat about the state … Read more
Features Unseen Chicagoby Brittney BlairCelebrating photography from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, these 29 delightful but forgotten pictures, culled from dozens of collections, invoke history, beauty, emotion, and memories. Sudden Impactby Bryan SmithIn the 1969 Days of Rage, antiwar radical Brian Flanagan and city lawyer Richard Elrod collided, changing their lives and creating an … Read more
Features How Healthy Is Your Town?Chicago gathered data on 195 suburbs in 15 key categories-from water quality to street crime to cancer rates-to find the healthiest and unhealthiest towns around. Plus: Updates on Super-fund sites, medical waste incinerators, and the battle over smoking bans Can It Last?by Dennis RodkinAs Chicago takes its annual look … Read more
Over the course of 20 raucous years, J. J. Jameson became a fixture on the city’s lively poetry circuit—a loud, drunken declaimer out of central casting. So his many friends were more than a little shocked when Massachusetts police came to town this spring and arrested him. He had been active in his church, loyal to a fault, unusually talented—and his writing revealed such intimate details of his life that people on the scene thought they knew him. But they didn’t know he had been doing time for murder, and had escaped. They didn’t even know his real name.
