Features

Critics’ Choice
by Dennis Ray Wheaton, with Anne Spiselman, David Novick, and Allen H. Kelson
Our annual roundup of the city’s most notable restaurants reveals an altered dining landscape. Plus: a special section with scores of great dishes, places, and people on the local dining scene

Pier Pressure
by Joseph Crump
The design competition to rehab a neglected city treasure is over. But the battle for the future of Navy Pier has just begun.

Dressed to Kill
by Marcia Froelke Coburn
Clothes make the Historical Society’s Costume Center – and they also make for gossip, alliances, and rivalries.

Sideliners
photography by Rich Saal
Of Pharaohs and Appleknockers: Downstate high-school mascots with a sense of humor – and history

The Tempest
by Dennis Rodkin
The Hoeper kids’ latest Fourth of July party was just another beer blast at a fabulous Lake Forest mansion. Then the police arrived – and brought their dog.

Some Enchanted Evening
by Leslie Pace
Light up the night with this season’s hottest looks, all sparkle and shine, glamour and glow.

Departments

Letters

Frontlines
A thrilling new Ivy League mystery, a little filmed dance history, and a whole Lotto shakin’ goin’ on; Scoops du Jour, by Carla Kelson
Art Works
by Henry Hanson
Freedom writers at the Humanities Festival; a room of their own for Chicago’s contemporary artists

Show Biz
by Henry Hanson
Robert Altman’s gold-lust opera for Lyric

Prime Time
Hot dates around town this month

Movies
by Penelope Mesic
Swoon makes it clear that the Leopold-Loeb murder was an outsider crime of its time.

Chicago Woman
by Marcia Froelke Coburn
How 16 small-town women made it big in the stock market

Books
by Laurence Gonzales
Norman Maclean’s last tragedy – an old man’s masterpiece about young death

Real Estate
by Dennis Rodkin
Shopping the city’s top neighborhoods with $200,000 in our pockets. Plus, recent and notable residential sales

Budget Beat
by Anne Spiselman and David Novick
Doing DePaul: In addition to some of the city’s best-known restaurants and a wide variety of shops, DePaul holds dozens of dining discoveries.

Back Talk
by Henry Hanson
Henri Bendel, Philip Miller, Mike Ditka, Sandy Duncan, Sherilyn Fenn, John Malkovich, Jim Hoge, Leslie Hindman, John Updike, Isaac Stern