Seven years ago, Bill Rancic won the first season of The Apprentice, Donald Trump’s still hugely popular reality show, and the experience changed his life. Trump gave Rancic an insider’s tour of New York City and inculcated him with business savvy, tycoon-style. “It was a whole different world,” Rancic says... Read more
March 2011
When not at home helping his wife, Dulcie, raise their adorable twin toddlers and his 17-year-old son, Darnell Robinson splits his time between managing the door at The Shrine, the dance-focused nightclub at 21st Street and Wabash Avenue, and catering to Oak Street’s rich and famous in the cool luxury of the Jimmy Choo shoe boutique... Read more
Married with three children, Amy Schatz recently began teaching yoga, after decades of practicing. “It’s very humbling to watch people do yoga,” she says. “It’s such an introspective personal journey.” Schatz, who teaches vinyasa and prenatal yoga at Yogaview and the Lakeview Athletic Club, exudes calm, balanced serenity... Read more
The life of an honest-to-God digging-for-bones paleontologist, says Paul Sereno, of the University of Chicago, “is every bit as adventurous as a kid thinks it is.” That is more or less the message of Project Exploration, an educational outreach organization founded in 1999 by Sereno and his wife, Gabrielle Lyon, which connects disadvantaged teens with mentors from the science fields... Read more
Gerri Shute recently found herself transfixed by William Kuhn’s Reading Jackie, about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’s act-two career as a book editor in New York in the 1970s and 1980s. “[The book] gave me pause in terms of thinking, How do I want to give back? How do I want to be remembered?” she says... Read more
UPDATE: Since this interview was conducted, Simon has left Graham Elliot and is pursuing other opportunities.
“I’m the sheriff of Booze Town,” says Michael Simon, the beverage director and general manager at Graham Elliot, the fine-dining hot spot named for its famously eccentric chef. At the restaurant, located in River North... Read more
The mother of two 20-something daughters, Anita Sinha is a Renaissance woman who holds a Ph.D. in sociology, patronizes the Art Institute of Chicago, studies Italian, and, for fun, participates in two book groups. For many years, she has worked on behalf of the Chicago Foundation for Women, which provides grants to small organizations around the city to improve the lives of women and girls... Read more
What hasn’t Pantelis Vassilakis done? Let’s see: He grew up in an exotic foreign city; played volleyball for his country’s national team; released an LP as a member of an eighties rock/pop band in the vein of Roxy Music; studied electrical engineering before switching to music composition; worked as a photographer for a major publisher; traveled all over Europe as a professional model; appeared once in the Italian Vogue... Read more
Pascale Wellin grew up in Lake View, went to high school in Wilmette, and attended Columbia College in the Loop. So, understandably, she dreams about moving to another city. “I would love to live in New York on the Lower East Side and work as a rep for a clothing designer,” she says. But for now, Wellin is content to learn about the trade as the... Read more
The graphic designer Jordan Williams, with two friends from journalism school at the University of Missouri, decided to become her own boss this year; in January, the trio founded a company called Nitewerk, which for now focuses on layout and design for print magazines. “This way we can pick the projects we want to work on, and there’s no cutting corners,” Williams says... Read more