Revision Home

There are plenty of places in town to shop for vintage furniture, but few make it as hip an experience as Revision does. Founder Katie Ernst throws a party four times a year at her West Town showroom and invites interior designers and artists to create vignettes using her well-edited, glamorous collection of refurbished pieces. … Read more

Heritage Littles

Michael and Melissa Salvatore, the owners of Heritage Bicycles in Lake View, wanted a balance bike for their toddler. When they couldn’t find a design they liked, they enlisted the pros at their shop, which makes custom rides for adults. The resulting model was a hit with their son—but also with customers who wanted ones … Read more

An Untamed State by Roxane Gay

The prolific Gay demonstrates her exceptional talent with 2014’s bracing, harrowing account of Mireille Duval Jameson, a wealthy Haitian American who gets kidnapped by a band of mercenaries while on vacation in the Caribbean. It’s not easy reading by any means, but Gay’s ability to write humanely about the complicated web of economic privilege, racism, … Read more

Winifred Grace

For more than a decade, local jewelry designer Winifred Gundeck has run a successful business selling her constellation-themed cuffs and geometric necklaces to shops around the country, including Bird in Brooklyn and P.45 in Chicago. In May, she opened a boutique in Andersonville, where you can chat with her while you wait for charms or … Read more

Ike Holter

Holter broke out with 2012’s Hit the Wall. But the follow-up to his kinetic take on the Stonewall riots shows that the Minneapolis native is a blaze, not a flare. With Exit Strategy—produced earlier this year at Jackalope Theatre—he brought white-knuckle intensity to the emotional and politically incendiary topic of the public school closings in Chicago. Watching … Read more

Ian Abramson

The 25-year-old Logan Square resident delights in peppering the Twittersphere (@iantherage) with droll one-liners such as “I tried to get my checking account to check on my savings, but it didn’t have any interest.” The regular on the standup scene has lately been running around town staging madcap pranks. In one, he put a comedian … Read more

Roam

Third time’s a charm for Mallory Ulaszek, who closed her shops Cityblue Apparel & Denim and CB last year to focus on this boutique. It keeps pace with current trends—stocking lines such as 10 Crosby by Derek Lam, ICB by Prabal Gurung, and See by Chloé—while taking risks with emerging brands and local labels that include … Read more

Analogue

Come here for a before-dinner drink—it is, after all, a cocktail den from Violet Hour vets Robert Haynes and Henry Prendergast in the hot nabe of Logan Square. Then stay for a meal. You’d never guess it, but the slick bar is home to some of the best Cajun food in the city. That’s thanks … Read more

R. Franklin's Original Recipe Bësk

This wormwood-based liqueur is not technically Malört—not since last October, when Jeppson’s, the original maker of Chicago’s mascot Schnapps, blocked other local distillers from using the name. The effort from Letherbee reaches back to the mother tongue for its name—bësk means “bitter” in Swedish—and is a shade less harsh than the gasoliney shot most Chicagoans … Read more