Newcity Chicago November 2017

David Harttin the forestSeptember 14, 2017–January 6, 2018 Image: David Hartt, Carolina I, 2017, archival pigment printGraham Foundation mounted to Dibond, print size 36 x 54 inches. Courtesy ofMadlener House, 4 W Burton Place, Chicago Corbett vs. Dempsey and commissioned by the Grahamwww.grahamfoundation.org Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.

Bof eCHsICtAGO NOVEMBER 2017Essays ARTS & CultureHope and Disillusion12 ArtIndivisible Landmarks Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Triumphant Return24 57Pictures with Bite Dance38 Gamesmanship with Lucky Plush ProductionsNever A Stranger 6450 Design What message do we send with embassySections architecture?City Life 6611 Dining & DrinkingCulture & Nightlife The ten best restaurants you don’t know yet23 68Food & Drink Film37 Ai Weiwei, filmmakerGoods & Services 7049 Lit Reginald Gibbons’ “The Orchard in the Street” 74 BEST OF CHICAGO — NOVEMBER 2017 Newcity Music Coming to terms with classical singing 76 Stage Socially conscious theater changes the landscape 79 Life Is Beautiful Teen Dream, Thanksgiving nightmare 82 3

MAKE MAKE MAKE MAKEMAKE MAKE MAKE MAKEMAKE MAKE MAKE MAKEMAKE MAKE MAKE MAKENEW NEW NEWNEW NEW NEWNEW NEW NEWHISTORY HISTORYHISTORY HISTORYHISTORY HISTORYExhibitions, events, performancesand more by over 140 leading architectsand artists from over 20 countriesPresenting Founding Presenting Biennial Sponsor Sponsor Partner Sponsors Samuel M. and Ann S. Menco Foundation

9.16.2017 – 1.07.2018 Chicago Cultural Center chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org Image: James Welling, 8482, 2016 from Chicago, 1987–2017, courtesy the artist and David Zwirner, New York / LondonExperience transformative architectureand design from around the worldFree and Open to the PublicEdlis-Neeson Joe and Rika Foundation Mansueto Media A&D Trade MediaPartners Partner

“When you’re talkingabout Cloud Gate,magic is not toostrong a word.”Time OutCloud Gate Dance Theatre of TaiwanFormosaConcept / Choreography: Lin Hwai-minMarch 2 and 3, 2018, 7:30 p.m. at the Harris Theater

Formosa, performed by Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan. Photo: LIU Chen-hsiangTickets start at just $16. Guarantee the The Dance Center presentation of Cloud Gate Dance Theatrebest seats now—call the Box Office at of Taiwan is supported by Alphawood Foundation Chicago.312-369-8330, or order online atcolum.edu/dancecenterpresents. This tour is made possible by grants from the Ministry of Culture, Republic of China (Taiwan) and the Ministry of@Dance_Center @dancetheaterpresents Foreign Affairs, Republic of China (Taiwan).

Newcity NOVEMVER 2017 — BEST OF CHICAGO LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Those were the best days of our lives. Anniversaries often trigger nostalgia for a better time and place—better mostly because we were younger. For this reason, Newcity prefers to use such milestones to look toward the future, at what we hope is a better world for our older selves. But 1993, the year we published the first Best of Chicago twenty-five years ago, was something special. It was a special time in Chicago, especially in the alternative culture where Newcity had found itself. Chicago’s music scene exploded that year, supplanting Seattle as “the rock capital of America,” a moment that thrust Liz Phair, Urge Overkill, the Smashing Pumpkins and many others into the limelight (as chronicled in these pages last year by the Reader’s music critic at the time, Bill Wyman). The center of that music culture was the then-edgy bohemian neighborhood of Wicker Park, and our pages were full of stories and ads that chronicled this emerging space. It was a special time for Newcity, too. We had one of our finest creative teams ever, and we were, after seven years of learning the publishing business the hard way, coming into our own. The creation of Best of Chicago, which was the first of its kind in our town, marked a turning point for us, both in our stature in the marketplace and in our bottom line, as we finally crossed the breakeven point. So we decided this year to pause and reflect. We asked Jorge Colombo, who was our art director at that time and now mostly lives in New York where he often contributes covers to the New Yorker, to revisit Wabash Avenue, the subject of Chris Ware’s illustration for our first cover. Inspired by this, we decided to track down our original essayists of twenty-five years ago and ask them to do it again. Dale Eastman, then our senior editor, had left Newcity for the magazine world, ending up as the editor of San Francisco magazine, before she gave up journalism entirely and became an artist. Ray Pride would soon join Newcity as our film editor, a post for which he’ll soon celebrate twenty-five years. Ted C. Fishman, then a regular contributing writer, would climb the ranks of national magazine writing before switching primarily to books, like his bestseller, “China, Inc.” Ted stayed in Chicago and has continued to craft the occasional story for us over the years. Stephen Rodrick was already out the door for the New Republic at the time, after a staff gig at Newcity; the subsequent years have moved him around the country while he’s honed his craft, writing for New York magazine, Rolling Stone, The New York Times Magazine and the New Yorker, among others. In addition to all this throwback material we have, with our exemplary staff of today, crafted a couple hundred contemporary insights into the best of Chicago right now. Newcity today is a much different entity than we were back then. But those early days were formative and the DNA of Newcity now is the same as it was back then. Best of Chicago 2017: a fusion of Newcity past and present. BRIAN HIEGGELKE 8

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Newcity NOVEMVER 2017 — BEST OF CHICAGOCONTRIBUTORS ON THE COVER Illustration Jorge Colombo Best of Chicago Essays by: Dale Eastman, Ted C. Fishman, Ray Pride, Stephen Rodrick Vol. 32, No. 1373 Best of Chicago was written by: David Hammond, Brian Hieggelke, PUBLISHERS Scoop Jackson, Danielle Levsky, Ray Pride, Robert Rodi, Brian & Jan Hieggelke Michael Workman Associate Publisher Mike Hartnett With additional contributions by: Corey Hall, Hugh Iglarsh, Lauren Knight, EDITORIAL Toni Nealie, Garin Pirnia, Elliot Reichert, Editor Brian Hieggelke Vasia Rigou, Kelly Roark, Dmitry Samarov, Noel Schecter, Managing Editor Jan Hieggelke David Witter Art Editor Elliot Reichert Best of Chicago Cover by: Dance Editor Sharon Hoyer Jorge Colombo Assistant Dance Editor Irene Hsiao Best of Chicago Photos by: Dining and Drinking Editor Monica Kass Rogers David Hammond Best of Chicago Design by: Film Editor Ray Pride Fletcher Martin Lit Editor Toni Nealie Music Editor Robert Rodi10 Theater Editor Kevin Greene Contributing Writers Isa Giallorenzo, Aaron Hunt, Alex Huntsberger, Hugh Iglarsh, Chris Miller, Dennis Polkow, Vasia Rigou, Loy Webb, Michael Workman ART & DESIGN Senior Designers Kady Dennell, MJ Hieggelke, Fletcher Martin Designers Sean Leary, Jim Maciukenas, Stephanie Plenner, Dan Streeting, Billy Werch MARKETING Marketing Manager Todd Hieggelke OPERATIONS General Manager Jan Hieggelke Distribution Nick Bachmann, Adam Desantis, Preston Klik, Quinn Nicholson, Matt Russell One copy of current issue free. Additional copies, including back issues up to one year, may be ordered. Copyright 2017, New City Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Newcity assumes no responsibility to return unsolicited editorial or graphic material. All rights in letters and unsolicited editorial or graphic material will be treated as unconditionally assigned for publication and copyright purposes and subject to comment editorially. Nothing may be reprinted in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher. Newcity is published by Newcity Communications, Inc. 47 West Polk, Suite 100-223, Chicago, IL 60605 Visit NewcityNetwork.com for advertising and editorial information.

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Hope and Disillusion: Chicago Helped Me Grow UpNewcity NOVEMVER 2017 — BEST OF CHICAGO By Dale Eastman And so it was with a bit of skepticism that blasé about his own gang activity, but I connected with father and son Luis and also unexpectedly reflective about the As a relatively new reporter in 1993, Ramiro Rodriguez, on the West Side of necessities of that life and the dangers. someone eager to learn and write as the city. Luis, a poet who owned and ran Later, while driving through the much as I could, I often found myself that Tia Chucha Press, had recently penned a neighborhood, he pointed out alleyways year renegotiating my idea of Chicago memoir about his own gang experiences he and his cohorts used as escape and of life. Working as a journalist as a member of Lomas, a Latino gang in routes, a treasured mural that gang demands this ongoing process. But Los Angeles, twenty years earlier. members protected from graffiti, and the closely following and writing about Carol “Always Running—La Vida Loca: Gang high school, Roberto Clemente, where he Moseley Braun’s disillusioning campaign, Days in L.A.,” was raw, violent, and an was nearly killed. Throughout it all, I and then her Senate win in 1992, which eye-opening education for a white, detected the sweetness of a young man happened despite her inability to answer middle-class woman who’d grown up in anxious for his life to be seen and even softball questions about her vision the suburbs singing Christmas carols understood. or ethics, something felt topsy-turvy. door-to-door. Luis had become an As 1993 dawned, I wondered how I intellectual and a peacemaker. But I was I can’t recall my state of mind, but I have could have been swayed early on by still on guard to meet an ex-gang to believe that Luis, Ramiro and Dantrell Braun’s hollow rhetoric and what the new member and his son, a current gang Davis were in my thoughts as I wrote year held. member, as simplistic as those terms later that year in the debut issue of Best surely were. The reality, as you might of Chicago about the psychic struggle One of the surprises in early 1993 was imagine, was confounding: I remember Chicagoans had been engaged in since that gang violence in Chicago was in a sensing an aggressive, worrisome edge the beginning of the century. Daniel cautiously hopeful place: after seven- in Luis’ voice and in the rigid way he Burnham’s “White City,” built for the 1893 year-old Dantrell Davis’ murder at sat—what was I doing alone with these World’s Columbian Exposition, had Cabrini-Green in October 1992, a year in two men in an unfamiliar café on planted the desire for this place to be which the city logged one of its highest Milwaukee Avenue where the Latin recognized as an urban and cultural death rates ever, local gang leaders Kings, a rival gang to Ramiro’s, were said power center—what Burnham called “a called a “truce.” Gang killings did go to be in control?—while at the same time world-class city”—while, nearly down; they even stopped for a time at hearing a clarity and intelligence in his simultaneously, Jane Addams and Upton Cabrini-Green, where gunfire was so words as well as an endearing concern Sinclair were advocating for urban common that kids living there and and pride for his son. Ramiro, hooded centers where every citizen, common or throughout Chicago Housing Authority and sullen at the table where we met and highly accomplished, had a voice, a complexes knew to instantly drop to the talked, was by turns matter-of-fact, even purpose and a place to call home. Over ground at the sound of shots. People the years, Chicago, like most cities, had started talking about the ethics and gotten the mix of those two perspectives morality of gang members. I watched and tried to figure out how much expediency was at play.12

wrong as often as it had gotten it right. In be married. From Mick Dumke’s award- But I also sense that the expansion of the1993, though, I claimed reasons for winning series “The shot that brought the Riverwalk in recent years has injectedrenewed hope. In part because of projects down” that appeared in the fresh vitality into the city’s downtown.Dantrell’s death, an old plan to redevelop Chicago Reader in October 2012, it The photographs I’ve seen areCHA complexes to make them safer and seemed clear that while the physical spectacular. They make me long for themore livable had been revived and was specter of the CHA complexes were city that taught me how deeplybeginning to receive funding; Ramiro was finally gone, a solution for many of the complicated human beings are, but alsowriting poetry and had helped organize a people who had been displaced had still how much other people can change us,city-wide youth conference; and there not been found. Statistically, I for the better, if we have the courage towas an impressive new library drawing understand, gang killings are still down in open up.attention to the South Loop, a building the city from what they were in 1993, butdesigned in the architectural spirit of the chaotic, horrific, whack-a-mole nature BEST OF CHICAGO — NOVEMBER 2017 NewcityBurnham and named to evoke the soul of of the violence that remains sounds—Harold Washington. from a distance, anyway—like a terrible trade-off.In 1996, I left Chicago and returned to theSan Francisco Bay Area where I’d been A reporter friend still living in Chicagoborn. I continued writing and editing at tells me that while the HaroldSan Francisco magazine, and then in Washington Library is well used and2000, I left journalism to write fiction and remains a beautiful structure, it nevermake art. As a journalist, I worked toward became the deeply engaging cultural hubdeadlines and in search of answers. Now, that I and others had hoped it wouldas an artist, time and truth are constantly become. My friend reminded me that thebeing upended for me. building was a product of the early 1990s, meaning of the fear that city planners feltFrom afar, I’ve kept a news junkie’s eye back then, which pushed them to designon Chicago. I read that in 2011, Luis in buffers to potential violence at streetRodriguez published a second memoir, “It level. As a result, people have to walk aCalls You Back,” which came out not long ways to get to useable space inside.after his son Ramiro’s 2010 release fromprison. Ramiro had served thirteen-and-a-half years for attempted murder;reports say that after his release heenrolled in college and was planning to 13

BSOESMTEPOUNBELIWCHSOERHVAICSENAECVTERBYSERVED A DAY move!” before slapping her. “It was a the trigger and publish the results of a IN PUBLIC OFFICE reaction,” Nicosia said, in explaining how nine-months-in-the-making, daring, his hand just happened to meet damning investigation into the behavior Hubbard’s face. “I’m not going to pin a of rapper R. Kelly since Jim Dr. Willie Wilson medal on Mr. Nicosia. He did not act in a DeRogatis’  shattering first reports in the way that a man should act to any lady,” Sun-Times in 2000. Since the Hulk Before vultures could consume Obbish said as he acquitted him. Hogan case against Gawker, partially vulnerable citizens’ properties in a tax financed by baron Peter Thiel, outlets sale, businessman Willie Wilson wrote a BEST NEWSPAPER FRONT PAGE without the deepest of pockets have personal check totaling $150,000 to SO WRONG IT’S RIGHT shimmied away from the kind of hard- establish a property tax relief fund hitting investigative reporting that the through the Cook County Treasurer’s The Sun-Times Partial Eclipse survival of journalism will depend upon. It office. (Cook County Commissioner took several days, but the legal team at Richard Boykin also raised $8,000 for the On August 21, barely a month since the BuzzFeed cleared D-Ro’s blast on Kelly’s fund.) It’s hard to imagine a more direct tabloid was taken over by its new apparent, alleged “sex cult” for act of public service by most elected owners, the Sun-Times presented a face publication in July. politicians which is probably why Wilson to the city that suggested punchy, failed in his previous runs for office, scrappy design was back, if only in one BEST PARK TO ESCAPE THE including in several 2016 Democratic image: A black page, and where the word BUZZ OF THE LOOP presidential primaries, as well as for “Sun” should be, an eclipse-coronated mayor of Chicago in 2015. sun brightly shone. Of course, that image Lake Shore East Park would mean more if it had been on a BEST THING TO HAPPEN TO RAHM front page in Carbondale, say, where the Nestled between the hustle and bustle at IN A LONG TIME eclipse was total rather Wacker and Randolph, you’ll find Lake than partial. But as Shore East Park: a four-and-a-half-acre Donald Trump images urban botanic garden that includes a walking path, a playground, a dog park, lit Finally the mayor has NEWCITY 2017 fountains and a splash pad. If you’re someone to spar with BEST OF CHICAGO looking for a moment of peace on a publicly, without workday or you have family in town that’s worrying about exhausted you from trips along Michigan offending Avenue and Millennium Park, this is your progressives or, little slice of heaven. better yet, 450 E. Benton Place deep-pocket investors. So BEST NEWLY PRESERVED GHOST SIGN the president wants to end DACA? Bad Beatnik for the country but Excavating a storefront near Ashland and good for the Chicago, just east of Loop Tavern in West centrist mayor Town, newly opened Beatnik, a cocktail who needs to bar and restaurant chocked full of find a common eclectic, extravagant decor “inspired by enemy with his more the bohemian lifestyle and aesthetic liberal constituents. sensibility of the 1950s in America and Europe” also harks to an earlier area in aNewcity NOVEMVER 2017 — BEST OF CHICAGO BEST JUDICIAL DISLOYALTY TO A pronouncing a wall to the east of their large, year-round COLLEAGUE healthy self-image enclosed patio beneath glass. The rude go, this one suggesting that traces of a painted wall, appearing to be Judge James Obbish to Judge Arnette Hubbard the paper could emerge from behind the part of a long-forgotten tobacco store dark gravity of Tronc, this one packed a remain visible, an expanse of stumbled After hearing fifty-seven-year-old David punch. black, a serene if sooty trace of ruin, of small commerce and smokes smoked Nicosia admit under oath that he slapped decades ago. CORK TIPS are advertised eighty-one-year-old Judge Arnette BSUESRTVLIVOECAPOLSETN-TGEARWPRKIESREJRITETPEORRSTING TO at roofline below the skylight, and the Hubbard in July 2014, Cook County Judge emblematic signature of Chicago’s James Obbish acquitted him. (The two leading early twentieth-century sign had had a verbal altercation in Daley painters, “Thos. Cusack Co.,” winks in a Plaza about Hubbard’s cigarette smoke.) Jim DeRogatis On R. Kelly’s Alleged Predations corner near the street. Hubbard, a former civil rights attorney After months of reporting under the 1604 W. Chicago, 312.929.4945, who has been a judge since 1997, also umbrella of an unnamed regional beatnikchicago.com testified under oath that Nicosia spat in publisher, two outlets pled potential her face and shouted, “Rosa Parks, penury when it came time to finally pull14

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Best of Newcity NOVEMVER 2017 — BEST OF CHICAGO SBTEUSNT NPLINAGCEDIENTATIHLETCHIETYJUTXOTWAPITONSEITSISONIN dismantling gun networks or effectively Chicago 1993 BETWEEN MAN’S NEED TO INDUSTRIALIZE helping to set them up.” The account of from the AND NATURE’S WILL TO PERSEVERE all the moving parts and injustices upon 2017 Lens injustices in the attempt to forge gun On the far Southeast Side, between 127th justice in our unfair city is bracing, Wherein we pat and 130th Street, the Little Calumet River infuriating, superb, essential. ourselves on the bends ever so slightly against a gritty interactive.wbez.org/everyotherhour/ back for our backdrop of railroad yards, empty how-chicago-gets-its-guns/ prescience, duck storefronts and abandoned warehouses. under cover for However limited the economic BEST NEW NAME FOR THE TRUMP our stupid opportunities, the river is surprisingly rich INTERNATIONAL HOTEL AND TOWER mistakes and in nutrients, drawing an impressive array generally wallow of wintering birds, including bald eagles It is inevitable that sometime after the in nostalgia for a that often circle high above in search president is impeached, indicted or city so much of prey. committed, the inhabitants of Trump younger then Tower are going to want to change the BEST TAX REPEAL name of their residence. A safe bet would 1993 CITY LIFE be something vanilla, like the Trump Cook County Sweetened Beverage Tax family’s chosen cover brand, Scion. But Best Recovery from a why not play up the building’s association Colossal Civic Blunder: Although its repeal was a foregone with what will be the most written and conclusion once untold millions of dollars gossiped-about presidency ever? At the Block 37 in advertising flooded the airwaves from same time, the new name should have an In 1993, we were hailing the American Beverage Association and elegant, timeless feel. The “Russian Tea the arrival of an “open-air MIchael Bloomberg, the hastily enacted House” nicely satisfies both criteria. arts-and-crafts workshop and clumsily implemented tax on Trump International Hotel and Tower, 401 for youth” in the summer sugar- and high-fructose-stoked N. Wabash trumphotels.com/chicago and an “ice-skating rink” in beverages was a mess to begin with and the winter to make use of was voted down 15-1 by the Finance BEST ANTI-TRUMP PROTEST the gaping empty space Committee after only four months. Still, left after a developer county revenues will decrease by $200 The Chicago Women’s March convinced the city to million after the December 1 repeal, so destroy the landmark another jerry-rigged so-called solution to If you weren’t at the quarter-million- McCarthy Building before tax shortfalls is surely in the offing to strong Women’s March, you missed a they bailed on the entire counter the threatened eleven-percent generational watershed. Of all the project. Today, a huge slash in spending. reasons to protest the newly elected retail, entertainment and President Trump, few were as residential project stands BEST INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM DEBUT momentous. Coming on the heels of  an on the site, a couple electoral college victory that wrested decades behind schedule, ProPublica Illinois’ “How Chicago Gets Its Guns” away the presidency from a woman who and that “workshop for won the popular vote count by a margin youth” has morphed into Mick Dumke is a star hire of ProPublica near three million, the event had the the year-round nonprofit Illinois, and his decades of stellar work at visceral punch of a primal scream against After School Matters “that the Reader and Sun-Times stand behind the structural misogyny and sexism that provides life-changing the nonprofit journalism powerhouse’s made his win possible. The march both after-school and summer first project, published at WBEZ and in condemned our new normal and program opportunities to collaboration with the Sun-Times. released, through the sheer more than 15,000 Chicago Following street-level gun dealers for righteousness of its shriek of outrage, a high school teens each almost a year, Dumke delves into social new hope that the people would, against year.” and economic factors with sheer zeal. Of impossible odds, still somehow find a his main figure, Dumke writes, “An way to persist. And, of course, truth will16 in-depth examination of Thomas’ case— always find a way. based on police reports, court records Womens121marchonchicago.org and interviews, including a series of conversations with Thomas—shows how authorities target mostly street-level offenders, sometimes enticing them with outsized payoffs. In this and other cases, critics say their techniques raise questions of whether they are

Soviet Art Put to the TestAdOctober 29–January 15 Revoliutsiia! Demonstratsiia! Soviet Art Put to the Test is organized by the Art Institute of Chicago and the V-A-C Foundation. Major support is provided by Caryn and King Harris, The Harris Family Foundation. Additional funding is contributed by Constance R. Caplan, Karen and Jim Frank, and the Tawani Foundation. Annual support for Art Institute exhibitions is provided by the Exhibitions Trust: Neil Bluhm and the Bluhm Family Charitable Foundation; Jay Franke and David Herro; Kenneth Griffin; Caryn and King Harris, The Harris Family Foundation; Liz and Eric Lefkofsky; Robert M. and Diane v.S. Levy; Ann and Samuel M. Mencoff; Usha and Lakshmi N. Mittal; Thomas and Margot Pritzker; Anne and Chris Reyes; Betsy Bergman Rosenfield and Andrew M. Rosenfield; Cari and Michael J. Sacks; and the Earl and Brenda Shapiro Foundation. Generous in-kind support for this exhibition is provided by Tru Vue, Inc. and JIT Companies. Aleksandr Rodchenko. Demonstratsiia u Pushkinskoi ploshchadi (Demonstration near Pushkin Square) (detail), 1931. Gift of Joyce and Michael Axelrod, courtesy of the Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, CA. Art © Estate of Aleksandr Rodchenko/RAO, Moscow/VAGA, New York.

BEST PLACE TO PROTEST Ohio and live in Northbrook; we all have BEST LOCAL BATTLE FOR TERRITORY our woes. Rather, because he denies the Union Park essence of the city. Chicago is a union South Shore-Jackson Park  residents versus town, and Ditka berated his players for Developers of the Obama Library and the Tiger Trump, Rahm, Rauner, budget cuts… We not crossing a picket line. Chicago is a Woods Golf Course have no shortage of things to protest and melting pot of ethnicity: all colors and no better place to protest, historically and nationalities, and Ditka has proved You might think the people in South geographically, than Union Park. Located himself to be an enemy of minorities at Shore would be happy for the upgrades at Ashland, Ogden and Lake, the park is every turn, whether dismissing the that come with having the sought-after big enough to hold a large gathering and Redskins controversy as ‘stupid,’ denying and coveted presidential library and close enough for the group to then pour the oppression of blacks or sucking up to revamping of one of the city’s best public into downtown. Named in honor of the his pal, the president, who wouldn’t dare golf courses. But you would be so wrong. Federal Union prior to the Civil War, it has show his face here out of fear of well- Bickering and beef. Contention building. historically been a center of labor union earned ridicule. I’m surprised Ditka can. Neighborhood town-hall meetings ugly. activism. It is not far from the site of the At some point, you’d think decent people An urban-planning nightmare! The only Haymarket Riots, and near the would turn away from him.” thing that may save the day is if both headquarters of the Teamsters, United Barack and Tiger come in and beg Electrical, Plumbers Hall, and other union residents personally for blessings. offices. As one of the first racially BEST REMAINS OF CHICAGO’S BEER BSUESCTCDESESMIONNYSOT’RFAATCIOEN OF RUBBING integrated parks in the city, Union Park BREWING GLORY has been the site of the annual May Day gathering, immigration crackdown Former Peter Schoenhofen Brewing Company protests, and countless other events.Newcity NOVEMVER 2017 — BEST OF CHICAGO These marches often begin beneath the Located in an industrial strip between The Gentrification of Wrigleyville statue of Irish Socialist Republican Party Pilsen, Chinatown and the South Loop, founder James Connolly, who was the Schoenhofen Building may be the What’s the first thing an organization has executed in Ireland in 1916. It is also the oldest brick structure in Chicago. But the to do after waiting 108 years to win a site of the annual Pitchfork Music date of 1867, etched into the ornate brick World Series? Gentrify, of course. The Festival. façade, doesn’t represent the year it was Cubs did their best showing the world 1501 W. Randolph at Ashland, Lake and built, only the year that Schoenhofen took what winning is supposed to look like. Ogden Avenues sole control of the brewery. By 1900, the Looking less and less like a Prussian immigrant was brewing more neighborhood, Wrigley this baseball BEST REACTION TO NOBODY’S FAVORITE than 190,000 gallons of beer a year, most season took on not just a new look (the LOCAL MEATHEAD under the Edelweiss brand. The water for plaza, “The Park,” the new Starbucks, the beer came from an artesian well, the new Green City Market, the still- Neil Steinberg’s “Mike Ditka Is Not A Chicagoan” which has been capped but is still on the building Hotel Zachary, etc.), but a premises. While the brewery closed in new, less Wrigley-like feel. Now the On October 9, seventy-eight-year-old 1972, much of the structure remains, people of Wrigleyville have begun to feel retired Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka including the cement archway which how the people from outside of felt compelled to share about the taking reads “Schoenhofen Brewery.” On the Wrigleyville have felt for years when of knees: “There has been no oppression cornice in the western part of the coming to watch the Cubs. in the last one-hundred years that I know complex is a six-pointed star. While many of.”  On October 10, the tomato-faced think the hexagram is the Star of David, it BEST REMEDY FOR THE CUBS YEAR-LONG throwback backtracked his belate: “I have is a “Bierstern,” a German symbol of WORLD SERIES HANGOVER absolutely seen oppression in society in brewing purity which dates to the 1300s. the last one-hundred years and I am Now registered in the National Register Making It Back to the Postseason completely intolerant of any of Historic Places, the main buildings of discrimination.” But in the hours between, the Schoenhofen Brewery Historic It has been five years since a team that Neil Steinberg was at his columnizing District have been updated with new won the World Series came back the next best in the Sun-Times with the already- windows and are part of a mixed office year to the playoffs. World Series classic “Mike Ditka Is Not A Chicagoan.” and residential complex. “Blues Brothers” hangovers are real. Baseball is cruel that “Even before his bromance with Donald fans, however, will miss one part of the way. But the Cubs, as proven over the Trump, Da Coach was radiating bigotry original complex that has been torn past three seasons, are not baseball’s like a tuning fork,” Steinberg wrote. “In down, the towering staircase from the typical great team. They’re actually 2014, after the Ferguson shooting: ‘I don’t “St. Helen of the Blessed Shroud greater. Giving the city another reason to want to hear about this hands-up crap. Orphanage.” Located in the Normal believe—because we’ve seen this kinda That’s not what happened. I don’t know Avenue portion, now closed to traffic,  it thing before with the Bulls and the exactly what did happen, but I know was here that The Penguin pushed Jake Blackhawks and the Daleys—that that’s not what happened. This and Elwood Blues down the stairs. At the another Chicago dynasty is in the policeman’s life is ruined.’ Though not as bottom, both men came to the realization making. ruined as Michael Brown’s life was. I wish they were “on a mission from God.” I could hold up Ditka as a dinosaur, an 18th and Canalport. anomaly. The tragedy is, he’s not… And he’s not a Chicagoan. Not because he18 was born in Pennsylvania—I was born in

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Best of Chicago Newcity NOVEMVER 2017 — BEST OF CHICAGO space that had been occupied by a cemetery have spoken of their shoes 1993 from the gorgeously detailed, four-story vintage being covered with blood and seeing 2017 Lens apartment building until the late 1960s. ghosts wearing Mardi Gras-type beads How about four or five stories of blankly wandering the area. Ghost hunters talk of 1993 CITY LIFE modern apartments? statues crying, dogs barking, cold pockets and orbs. For twenty or so BEST LOCAL, RADICALLY POLITICIZED LIVE South East Grove Cemetery, Crown years, we ran a NEWS SHOW Point, Indiana section in Best of Chicago called The Hoodoisie BEST NEIGHBORHOOD BLOCK PARTY “Sports & Recreation,” always a challenge The Hoodoisie launched at La Catrina People of East Albany Park for this culture- Cafe in Pilsen on January 20 of this year. centric publication. Founder Ricardo Gamboa hosts this Most block parties in the city are Sports is now part of radically politicized, biweekly live news provincial affairs, restricted to a single City Life. show podcast in a different gentrifying stretch of road giving its homeowners a neighborhood every month. Gamboa chance to roll out the welcome wagon for In that first year, we invites co-hosts and speakers to share all the other hard-working taxpaying covered fishing, bowling, the experiences and perspectives of neighbors, fire up a grill, have a few billiards and just a little bit everyday people—particularly people of beers. But the block party put on by the about the pro sports color, queer people and working-class People of East Albany Park welcomes teams that our town people. The show features discussions whoever wants to come, whether you live obsesses over. with artists, activists and comedians; on the block or any other pocket of the interviews with social changers and city, and everybody pitches in to Best Place for Perch saboteurs, political figures, culture welcome one and all who jam-pack this Fishing in the Dead of makers, often with musical guests. little stretch of residential street for their Winter: hoodoisie.wordpress.com/ annual neighborhood block party, Calumet River, dancing, eating, children playing, all in a off Ewing Avenue BEST PONTOON GARDENS welcoming spirit of generosity pretty much unparalleled by others in An ad for “The Cue Club” Chicago Riverwalk Chicago today. offered “more sports and facebook.com/PeapBlockClub live bands than you can Bobbing alongside the Chicago shake a stick at.” The city’s Riverwalk is a river garden that’s planted BEST FACEBOOK NEIGHBORHOOD GROUP fascination with sports in pontoons. Strollers can stop for a glass bars and rock clubs hasn’t of wine and watch birds and butterflies Ravenswood Manor waned but the mania for as they flit amid the lush hibiscus and shooting pool seems to wetland grasses, afloat. Though sometimes the page can have been a fleeting Chicago River South Bank from Lake descend into barking between people moment. Today? We have Shore Drive to Franklin Street who, for some reason, think that even table tennis bars instead. though they all live in the same BEST HAUNTED SPOT NOT YET DISCOVERED generalized geographic area, the internet STILL AT PLAY still somehow magically grants them Best Pool Hall: The Haunted Gypsy Graveyard anonymity. And it sure can get gossipy. Chris’s Billiards But the Ravenwood Manor group on Haunted houses, legends, evil spirits, Facebook also helped mobilize response Best Bowling Alley: ghosts, orbs and all manner of life after to Nazi graffiti at Waters Elementary Southport Lanes & Billiards death fill the Halloween season. But School, helped residents stay informed many Chicagoans are bored with the about crime in the area, and GONE BUT NOT same old haunts—Bachelor’s Grove, communicated effectively with local 17th FORGOTTEN Resurrection Cemetery, Hull House and precinct commander Elias Voulgaris and Best Sports Bar: the site of the Englewood home of H.H. 33rd Ward alderman Deb Mell. Equal Schaller’s Pump Holmes. Here’s a new one: In 1820, the parts gossipy and a modern-day townspeople of a town in Northwest neighborhood watch, virtual watering Best Indoor Miniature Indiana heard tales of Gypsies hole and town hall rolled into one, the Golf Course: performing pagan rituals using strange Ravenswood Manor group sets a high Art Golf (Eighteen holes chants and charms. When an influenza- bar for community engagement.22 designed by artists!) type plague hit the town, it was blamed facebook.com/groups/65240842795/ on the Gypsies. Even though they were also suffering from it, they were quarantined and driven from their camp. But as they left, the story goes, the Romany cursed the town and the graveyard. For decades, visitors to the

CULTURE BEST OF CHICAGO — NOVEMBER 2017 Newcity 23Nightlife&

Indivisible Landmarks: neighborhood has almost no building The Signs of the larger than a three-flat, even in the plots Street Clinging to its where banal modernity has raised Character another blank face to the street, another Lego-click structure, monument to theNewcity NOVEMVER 2017 — BEST OF CHICAGO By Ray Pride unabashedly lift to their noses, sniff, and capacity for mortgage, wall-to-wall with remark approvingly about the ink scents. carpet and flat-screen. Dick Wolf-ready. You’ve seen the streets by night, in life Newcity. Shiny from the selfsame box Chicago! We’re so pretty. We’re so more than in movies, those handfuls of that was once bright, bold red, where I colorful. But we’re in present danger of rain-lavished pavements of Chicago remember reserving extra copies of the losing the character of the street, the myth. The motion pictures: ninety-six-page inaugural “Best of Chicago conurbation that came with the contemporary cars—now period Chicago” issue, with a cover illustration gridding of the streets. Other areas, cars—U-turning atop the shimmering by Chris Ware featuring the El and West Loop, near west, farther west, reflection of simmering red upon the Loop. disappear weekly. chilly blue neon of now-defunct delis and clubs. A city stands, still stands, stands still. I am spoiled by the several miles that The buildings don’t rise up as in M. C. contain my Chicago days and nights, The motion between moments: tonight, Escher drawings or Christopher Nolan’s with a comforting illusion that the city is this Chicago night, has unseasonal “Inception.” Cars dawdle along the city impervious to tectonic change, to spring mist warming autumn, city light street, pedestrians move at a clip in the esthetic shift, to voluminous relaxed over the landscape, softening climatically erratic, cinematically surreal transformation. This is foolish. Division edges, mellowing the moment. Towers sunlight. Change, except in the form of Street at the foot of Wicker Park, the of arc lights don’t light these streets, leveling fire or disruptive technology, head of Ukrainian Village, is nearly done. only that 2017 uneasy mix of the bold comes slowly, if accelerating by the day. Enough brick beauties still stand to give orange hues of sodium vapor light, and the illusion of 1993, when there were lots the newer, bluer, grayer temperature of Next morning. Around another corner. and lumberyards and lunchrooms. But I twenty-first century LEDs. Coffee is still coffee, it’s strong in the warm by the resounding legend of a corner café. Lavishly loud developers crotchety old Polish curmudgeon deep Go round this one misted corner and speak of buying and getting downzoning into his nineties who won’t let his last pocked boxes cluster, and one in on twenty-eight parcels a block south. building go until he dies, a saloon he particular, still standing across decades This seemingly unchanging locked one day and threw away the of sunlight, once red but now a faded, key, to the consternation of developers dusty rose, scaled at the base with and heirs. fatigue and rust. A news box. And inside? Not the ragamuffin “alt-weekly” almost two feet tall and a foot across from 1993. A shiny monthly that people24

“Dirty and narrow streets, alleys piled The vibrant Chicago in the mind is a We live in all these cities. We all live inwith refuse and alive with dogs and rats, composite several decades deep, the our minds and in our memories.goats hitched to carts, bleak tenements, palimpsest of the day-to-day everyday. Remember Chicago? Yeah. Let me tellthe smoke of industry hanging in a haze, A decade before 1993, even, and you a story… The night is young.the market along the curb, foreign decades since. My transactions, socialnames on shops, and foreign faces on and economic, take place mainly at BEST OF CHICAGO — NOVEMBER 2017 Newcitythe streets, the dissonant cry of the street level, shoulder height, right therehuckster and the elevated, the pealing of at eye contact. Chicago is athe bells of the great Catholic churches,” conversation I’ll likely have tonight, orHarvey W. Zorbaugh wrote in “The Gold any minute now, just walking down theCoast and the Slum” in 1929, “the street. Street level. Eye level.occasional dull boom of a bomb or thebark of a revolver, the shouts of children Low-rise buildings are engulfed by tallerat play in the street, a strange staccato ones or forgotten entirely, demolished,speech, the taste of soot, and the smell erased, no traces on the fresh edifice.of gas from the huge gas house by the We are outside the subtle accretions ofriver whose belching flames make the history. Or so we think. Of construction.skies lurid at night.” Of the song of the jackhammer and backhoe. Of deal-making behind doorsThat wasn’t 1993. We don’t go back that heavier and more handsome than thesefar. That was 1993 looking back to at street level. Maybe the true historicallegend and lore. “When he reached image of Chicago isn’t a book or aPaulina, Sparrow turned with swift photograph or a photoplay, but Chrishope,” Nelson Algren wrote in 1949 in Ware looking at the streets and“The Man with the Golden Arm.” “But no structures and strictures of the Loopone waved in the arc lamp’s feeble glow and Midwestern architecture in “Jimmyfor any punk’s returning… Down both Corrigan: the Smartest Kid on Earth,”sides of Division Street the occasional Ware and Jimmy alike dreaming back toarc lamps burned and it was late, so late, 1893’s World’s Columbian Exposition,there should be a light step on the long nestling in a haven of reassuring artifice.dark star and someone to cry out thatthe night was too long.” 25

BARESTITSNTEW GRAPHIC NOVEL BY A CHICAGO the Center on Open TV (beta) lies in “My Favorite Thing Is Monsters” by Emil Ferris Halsted, the the originality of its Ferris’ remarkable debut graphic novel is exhibit was a NEWCITY 2017 approach to a particular treat for Chicagoans because necessary BEST OF CHICAGO online prestige her young heroine/monster walks the reminder programming streets of Uptown and visits her favorite pieces in the Art Institute, illustrating that overlooked by familiar sites in a river of Bic ink. The figures on her streets are at once segments of the other grotesque and drawn with love, with all the lewd exaggeration of R. Crumb and the gargantuan the endearing crosshatches of Maurice Sendak. Each page is a horror vacui of population entities. lines, breathtaking in scope, especially considering the nearly-400 page book love to hate, Smart, was drawn as Ferris recovered from paralysis due to West Nile Virus. and also grassroots “My Favorite Thing Is Monsters,” Emil Ferris, Fantagraphics that hate and driven for BEST PLAN FOR A DESTINATION TOURIST comes at a all the right ATTRACTION cost in lives. reasons, we Studio Tours at Cinespace Chicago Film Studios Haunting and expect Aymar and The North Lawndale location of much of Chicago’s production boom, the thirty- important, his efforts to flower stage, nearly sixty-acre CInespace campus, which also houses the Wachowski pointed in directions new and Lagunitas brewery, recently received permission to gate its expanse, which specifically to the center innovative, and count increases security but also offers an opportunity to bring the world, or the as a safe space for premiering Chicago lucky to serve as its tourist trade, to its location. Taking a page from Lagunitas, which gave a the portraits, a fact that reaffirms it as laboratory. reported 400,000 tours in 2016 alone, Cinespace hopes to create a backlot the gem we’ve always known it to be. Weareopen.tv studio tour to rival those conducted by the Los Angeles film studios. It’s like the 3656 N Halsted, 773.472.6469, old saying that the stockyards processed everything but the squeal: One Chicago: centeronhalsted.org PBOESLTITIBCRAELATKHOEUMTEDSANCE ARTIST ON all opportunities. Cinespace Chicago Film Studios, 2621 W. BEST BREAKOUT CONTEMPORARY DANCE Anna Martine Whitehead 15th Place, 773.521.8000, ARTIST chicagofilmstudios.com Joshua Ishmon Anna Martine Whitehead is that rare BEST TRANS MEMORIAL ART EXHIBIT performer who fuses politics and Lilly Wachowski at the Center on Halsted Joshua Ishmon is having a well-earned performance in a way that goes beyond Most Chicagoans know the Wachowskis good year. Longtime member and artistic merely pointing to her own from their cinematic and television credits, and throughout that body of director of Deeply Rooted dance representation onstage as advancement. work, from “The Matrix,” to the Netflix’s recently cancelled “Sense8,” sex and company and its special Emerging Conceptual, resonant with issues on the gender identity has been integral to their endeavors. Lilly, the second of the two Choreographer’s Showcase at the Old ground and in the streets, Whitehead’s sisters to come out as transgender, has also been quietly painting the portraits of Town School of Folk Music, Ishmon has performances track not only the black each trans woman murdered in 2016, the year of her transition. Shown recently at showcased new work across town and experience, but also how best to perform26 was a 2017 recipient of the exclusive an emotional, intellectual, physically Chicago Dancemaker Laboratory Artists moving response to it. Awards. Previously more a figure behind Annamartine.com the scenes and onstage only at select performances, the dance artist has by BEST DARK CLOWN IN THE AGE OF TRUMP sheer dint of talent broken out into the public eye. Jay Torrence chicagodancemakers.org/joshua- ishmon A graduate of The Neo-Futurists and the author of “Burning Bluebeard” andNewcity NOVEMVER 2017 — BEST OF CHICAGO BCHESATNNNEEWL INTERNET STREAMING TV “Roustabout: The Great Circus Trainwreck!,” Jay Torrence came back with a bang in his role as Leni Open TV (beta) Riefenstahl in Akvavit Theatre’s “Hitler on the Roof.” Leni Riefenstahl was a Netflix? Nope. Amazon? Nope again. German film director, producer and Few have done more to provide a screenwriter, most actively known as a streaming online digital platform for technically innovative propaganda artists, including those working in filmmaker closely associated with the traditional narrative forms, than Aymar Führer, a closeness she attempted to Jean Christian’s Open TV (beta). deny later in life. Torrence played both Innovating on traditional streaming unease and denial expertly. His knockout services, Christian, who teaches at performance showed an undeniable Northwestern University (which has ability to play with darkness in an partly helped support the development insanity-inducing purgatory with humor of the project), is  the shepherding force and slapstick. behind the show-runners to whom he provides a springboard. The efficacy of

H. F. Johnson Gallery of ArtDisplaying works by established and emerging artisits, the H. F. Johnson Galleryof Art at Carthage College provides students, faculty, and the community theopportunity to engage with current regional and national art trends. 2017-18 EXHIBTION SEASON The Saint John’s Bible Nov. 13-Dec. 15, 2017 Opening Reception: Thursday, Nov. 30 | 4:30-7:30 p.m. Clear and Present Jan. 8-March 2, 2018 Opening Reception: Thursday, Jan. 11 | 4:30-7:30 p.m. Artist Lecture: Wednesday, Feb. 28 | 5 p.m. At Home AdMarch 12-April 20, 2018 Opening Reception: Thursday, March 15 | 4:30-7:30 p.m. Artist Lecture: Monday, March 19 | 5 p.m Studio Art Thesis Exhibitions April 27-May 12, 2018 Opening Reception: Saturday, April 28 | 1-4 p.m.PHOTOS FROM TOP TO BOTTOM art at carthage1. Life in Community, Aidan Hart in Studio art collaboration with Donald Jackson), Art education 2005,The Saint John’s Bible, Order of Saint Art history Benedict, Collegeville, Minnesota, USA.2. Kristin Bauer,Seeing is Believing, Polymer Learn more about majoring in art pigment and plexiglas, 30x30x2.5”, 2017 including scholarship opportunities.3. Gwendolyn Zabicki, Big Mirror With Vinegar,Oil on Canvas, 46 x 36 inches, 2017 carthage.edu/art (photo: Clarissa Bonet) Coleton Keener Untitled Paper Towel and Ceramic Slipcast 2” x 3” x 3” 2017 carthage.edu/art-gallery

Best of Chicago Newcity NOVEMVER 2017 — BEST OF CHICAGO BHEUSMTAWNAITYYTO RESTORE YOUR FAITH IN passed over the program for the Emmy it 1993 from the was nominated for. 2017 Lens Attend the Humanities Festival browngirlswebseries.com 1993 CULTURE 2017 has been a dismal circus of political BPUESBTLISSOHCEIRALLY CONSCIOUS SMALL PRESS & NIGHTLIFE buffoonery, natural disasters and literal Nazis. Thank goodness for the Chicago Haymarket Books In addition to a seminal Humanities Festival, bringing brilliant cover by Chris Ware, this minds from around the world to elucidate Scoring an impressive string of issue established our and illuminate on this year’s theme: belief. publishing victories , bookended by tradition of dramatic splash Speakers include Al Gore and Brooke sponsoring a visit from Noam Chomsky pages for each section. In Gladstone and literary powerhouses like on the eve of last year’s presidential this issue, City Life was Ta-Nehisi Coates, Marilynne Robinson, election that drew international attention drawn by (even then a New Edwidge Danticat, Claire Messud and and briefly helped reframe the debate, Yorker!) Melinda Beck; Colson Whitehead. With subjects ranging Haymarket Books has become a harbor Culture & Nightlife by from civil rights to religion, it’s just the for respected, often radical lefty titles Archer Prewitt (now best sustained event to recharge our from Bill Ayers, Rebecca Solnit and a known as a musician); Food collective faith in humanity. panoply of thinkers, activists and cultural & Drink by Jennifer Riegler; October 28-November 12, critics. And, it appears, it’s here to stay. Good & Services by Cherise chicagohumanities.org/ After facing down a challenge from some Mericle (now better known of its Buena Park neighbors, armed with as a children’s book author); BEST SEX-POSITIVE DANCE TO BECOME A a generous grant from the Lannan and Sports & Recreation by CHICAGO INSTITUTION Foundation, the press finally got its Chuck Death, aka Jon mansion home approved for rezoning. Langford (then and now The Fly Honey Show at the Den Theatre The ground floor will be a reading room, better known as a musician) clearing the runway for Haymarket to It’s hard to trump most anything flaunted continue its mission to publish Best Gauntlet to a Club onstage at the wildly popular annual Fly challenging, thought-provoking work into Bathroom: Get Me High Honey show, which operates with the tag the foreseeable future. Lounge line “Everybody, no matter what your haymarketbooks.org “This Wicker Park jazz body.” It’s a necessary reminder that sex dive puts the ‘p’ in positivity exists, despite all the hateful BEST PERFORMANCE SPACE performance—or rather the rhetoric directed at “othering” different PROGRAMMING REVAMP performance in ‘pee’—for bodies in our current political climate. patrons as well, who are Brainchild of director and choreographer Hairpin Arts Center forced to cross the Erin Kilmurray, the Fly Honey Show, in its bandstand to access the eighth edition, blows back the hair of the For years, the Hairpin Arts Center has restrooms.” entirety of Chicago with its barnstorming stood as a mostly underused venue cadres of queers, trans, large and lovelies hosting the occasional event. Under the A selection of advertisers and every other permutation under the direction of dance maven Kacie Smith in the section still at it, for sun because, well, really, that’s what and of Betsy Zacsek, who has run the which we’re generally humanity is. Viva la everybody, and viva Pond Hole apartment gallery, Hairpin’s thankful la Fly Honeys, an inimitable Chicago ode programming has taken on a new Old Town School of to the best in us. vibrancy. Whether hosting the recording theflyhoneyshow.com of an episode of Open TV (beta) favorite Folk Music “Brujos,” a month-long LatinXArts Rolling Stones Records BEST NEW LOCALLY PRODUCED INTERNET TV showcase or programming from High Empty Bottle SERIES THAT SHOULD HAVE WON AN EMMY Concept Labs, the space is revving its Tony N’ Tina’s Wedding (it engines. 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BEST LGBTQ PERFORMANCE SERIESNewcity NOVEMVER 2017 — BEST OF CHICAGOPBRESOTGNRAEWM PERFORMANCE ART DISCUSSIONBandcamp. Limited-edition vinyl will be available behind the counter and at Homolatte Illinois Humanities with Karen Finley at Reckless Records, natch. Steppenwolf 1531 N. Damen, 773.235.4039, Curator and host Scott Free bills it as the bigstarchicago.com/big-star-recording-co “longest-running queer performance Steppenwolf’s LookOut program’s series in the country,” and given that it’s collaboration with the Illinois Humanities BEST COMIX FEST THAT HAS COME been a feature of the first and third Council, showcasing “Performing INTO ITS OWN Tuesday of each month for eighteen Identity,” a talk between Young Jean Lee years, you might as well take his word for and performance art icon Karen Finley, CAKE Chicago it. Its list of past spoken-word and music hit it out of the park. Bridging the divide performers is one of those will-I-be- between two notable generational In its earliest incarnations, CAKE had the scrolling-down-forever affairs, but Free talents, the discussion was a convincing feeling of a sidebar  to the popular Zine himself remains the principal attraction, reason to believe smart, thoughtful, Fest, capitalizing and building on the brash, fearless, tireless and often energetic art might still be made. cultural undercurrent of Chicago as a savagely funny. Steppenwolf.org town for working cartoonists. And just as homolatte.com comix as an art form has moved from HBEESATRDNEOWF GARAGE ART SPACE YOU HAVEN’T outsider to institutionally embraced, so BEST ENSHRINEMENT OF THE CULTURAL has CAKE evolved to become not only a EDIFICE COMPLEX Boundary distinct print-culture fest, but a destination event which draws rising and Chicago Filmmakers’ Firehouse Sure, the likes of Michelle Grabner, already-risen stars alike, whether Sabina Ott and friends have managed to showcasing the death-tripping sex Reaching back into the past century, operate in far-flung art-stardom enclaves fantasies of Corinne Halbert’s “Hate Chicago cultural institutions have like Oak Park and beyond, but have you Baby” or the astounding ballpoint color coveted a home to call their own, notably been to Morgan Park? Owned and collisions of Emil Ferris’ much-lauded the still-unsatisfied ambitions of Michael operated by the stalwart art-curatorial “My Favorite Thing Is Monsters.” Kutza to have a permanent, year-round team of Larry Lee and Susannah Papish Cakechicago.com locale for the Chicago International Film and located across from the Beverly Arts Festival. Boosted by the 48th Ward Center, Boundary more or less marks the BEST DIY CREATOR OF SAFE, THEATRICAL alderman Harry Osterman’s push for a dividing line where city territory gives SPACES IN CHICAGO redevelopment agreement with the city, way. Inside, it’s a museum-grade white Chicago Filmmakers, which eschewed cube, professionally outfitted with works Olivia Lilley programming for the past year in favor of by the likes of emerging talents such as coping with the protracted process, is Maya Mackrandilal, Annette Hur, Julie Lai From opening Pop Magic Productions, to opening the doors to a spanking-new, and Chinatsu Ikeda. receiving a Pivot Arts residency and a classically old home in Edgewater. After 2334 W. 111th Place, 773.316.0562, High Concept Labs residency with The four decades, the storied nonprofit can boundarychicago.space Runaways Lab Theatre, to directing a sustain a long legacy of celebrating sold-out run of a new rock musical, artistic innovation and historical BEST NEW TASTE FROM BIG STAR “Hatchet Lady,” for RhinoFest 2017, to awareness at a modernized site that also writing, directing and producing a reflects the quiet glory of the building’s Big Star Recording Co. sold-out run of her ensemble-devised brick-and-terra cotta past. Building out a adaptation of “The Portrait of Dorian two-story former firehouse, built in 1928 Behind the scenes at ever-packed, Gray,” Olivia Lilley has been busy this and designated a historic landmark in ever-rocking Big Star, music has been up year. In her goal to “spread the gospel” of 2008, Chicago Filmmakers has a there with the roadhouse elements that devised theater, she has also given splendid new home not only for only begin with tacos and whisky. Cueing actors a safe and real space on the stage. exhibition of the rare, the good and the up Buck Rogers or Gram Parsons or breakthrough in experimental cinema, Townes Van Zandt on the turntable is a BEST LOCAL NEW ACADEMIC TITLE ON but for its classes and workshops that comforting everyday feature. The DANCE AND PERFORMANCE ART embolden the current and future super-successful Wicker Park destination generations to continue to make media launched an in-house record label in late Elise Archias, “The Concrete Body” matter locally, and then extend influence summer: “We’re all about sourcing and around the world. playing rare vinyl, as well as giving the The Concrete Body” advances the new 5714 N. Ridge, 773.293.1447, artists we love a place to share their standard for dance scholarship. chicagofilmmakers.org music,” they wrote in a press release. Published by Yale University Press, Elise Reportedly years in the planning, the Archias’ book traces the methods by30 label will release current artists as well as which visuality began seeping into and rerelease favorite forgotten or overlooked transmuting dance in our contemporary acts. The first release, Quarter Mile era through some of its most influential Thunder’s seven-song “Bucking The practitioners. In doing so, dance theorist Tiger” is available for digital download at and writer Archias has begun to make the case to situate herself among the

ranks of Andre Lepecki and Sally Banes. Willens and Marie-Caroline Hominal, WBEISTCTHCEHSICAGO-BASED WEB SERIES ABOUTyalebooks.yale.edu/ Defibrillator competes with anything thatbook/9780300217971/concrete-body might be happening on the MCA Stage. “Brujos” Orders of magnitude separate the two ofRBEESSTTONREAWTIOANRT HISTORICAL MONUMENT course, but Hominal’s innovative “Brujos” is a radically politicized web one-on-one performance this year was series that follows four gay LatinoWolfgang Vostell at the University of Chicago special, breathlessly exploring intimacy, doctoral candidates who also happen to audience, history, myth and sexuality in a be witches. Shot on the South Side,Wolfgang Vostell’s “Concrete Traffic” way few dare. Risky, fearless, powerful. primarily in Little Village, the four(1970) was made using the heft, weight 1463 W. Chicago, dfbrl8r.org opening episodes paint a dark yetand volumetric presence of concrete as a comedic narrative of the quartetmetaphor for questioning the ideals of BEST NEW VISUAL ART/PERFORMANCE navigating a world of magic and sex,permanence and efficiencies of violence CROSSOVER while they are also hunted by a secretthat came to define the state-sponsored society of “white heteronormative malewar-making of the 1960s and 1970s. Allen Moore at ACRE descendants of the first New WorldPermanently installed in a parking colonizers,” according to creator Ricardogarage adjacent to the Smart Museum at Allen Moore appeared in recent years Gamboa, who also co-stars.the University of Chicago, Vostell’s operating collaboratively on the fringes Brujostv.comencased Cadillac in its square, blocky with a variety of small to mid-scaleconcrete form harnesses the automobile Chicago arts groups, including Comfort BEST MOVEMENT DIRECTORand its singular symbology of the freedom Station, ACRE and Experimental Soundof the American individual to question Studio. And it’s in that throughline Elizabeth Margouliswhat uses that freedom is put to. between music and visual art that MooreBetween Ellis and Greenwood has discovered his niche. Moore’s Elizabeth Margoulis, a Chicago-based,Avenues at 55th Street, crafting of sculptural objects and multiple-Jeff Award-nominated stage andsmartmuseum.uchicago.edu wall-hanging surface assemblages, often movement director, has been nominated using LPs fused in surfaces of shining for her work on movement for anBGEOSOTDMROEVVIIEE-WHOUSE ENSHRINEMENT OF A graphite, interrogates his own childhood incredible number of shows, but her experience, blackness, groove and the articulate and precise movement workGeorge Booker’s Lobby Mural at the Music Box transformative power of auditory with “Machinal” for GreenhouseTheatre environments simultaneously. Sometimes Theater was able to transform the performing as DJ at his own exhibits, very personality and nature of thePainted in an inset to one side of the Moore remixes the visuality of the show. Rather than creating a spaceinner lobby of the Music Box around the experience with a sound art dimension, and providing physicality for thesame time as the erection of a freshly bringing the two together in ways both actors, movement itself operated in aappointed new marquee, the Music Box innovative and jarring. leading role.enlisted artist George Booker to apply allenmooreart.com Elizabethmargolius.comGene Siskel’s encomium from a 1991blurb for the earliest days of BEST NEW MOVIE PALACE RENOVATION BEST LIVE JAZZ WHERE YOU’D LEAST EXPECT BEST OF CHICAGO — NOVEMBER 2017 NewcityEntertainment Weekly: “A significant LIVE JAZZChicago cultural attraction, a showcase Davis Theaterfor progressive filmmaking at a time Shedd Aquariumwhen American movie theaters are as Those who have frequented the Davishomogenized as the films they exhibit.” Theater over the years might harbor a Every summer, the Shedd takesew.com/article/1991/06/28/gene- little bit of nostalgia for the pre- advantage of the unbeatable cityscapesiskels-favorite-theater/ renovation version of this beloved vistas provided by its promontory seat neighborhood cinematheque, with its with Jazz at the Shedd, a weekly outdoorPBEERSTFOVRISMITAINNGCEINATRETRPNEARTFIOONRAMLANCE loud, creaky metal row-chairs and jazz event on the veranda outside its duct-tape-strength floor stickiness. north face. Featured players are mainlyThe Triumph of Fame by Marie-Caroline Hominal at Those memories have thankfully faded, topflight local talents; this year’s lineupDefibrillator replaced with high aesthetics and included Shawn Salmon Duo, Petra van museum-quality luxe, a new model of a Nuis and Chris Greene Quartet. OtherIf it wasn’t clear to art enthusiasts the movie theater where you can munch lakefront music fests may boast morevalue of Defibrillator Performance Art gourmet kernels and sip cocktails in situ, music, but none boasts more lakefront.Gallery in bringing innovative talent from upscaled screens, projection tech and 1200 S. Lake Shore, 312.939.2438,around the planet to Chicago, then you’re sound systems, a true restoration of the sheddaquarium.orgnot paying attention. An international Davis to its long-faded historic grandeur.port of call for those at the cutting edge Funny thing about nostalgia, of course, isof participatory, performative work, with that it burnishes the memory of a thingvisits this year from the likes of Frank that never existed, and today’s Davis is better than it ever was. 4614 N. Lincoln, 773.769.3999, davistheater.com 31

BAREST-THIONUASDEVERTENT SECOND-RUN BINESSTTRUUSMEEONFTAASROPBEROFTIOCRSMUARNGCICEAALRT true to both. Front man Grzegorz Wielgat sings (or snarls and screams) in Polish, while his four bandmates grind and slash The Gene Siskel Film Center of the School of the Art Vincent Tiley at the International Museum of in the universal language of defiance and Institute of Chicago Surgical Science alienation. It’s not quite world music; call it Fallen World Music. The cascade of factors that transformed It’s a rare occasion when an artist topchicago.org/autofobia how movies get to theaters in our employs a surgical instrument to the economically and technologically effect that SAIC grad and now Brooklyn- tempestuous time would take far too based artist Vincent Tiley presented for BEST SUNDAY NIGHT WEEKLY MUSIC EVENT much wind to properly delineate. But the the video installation of his performance Siskel’s inadvertent transformation into a piece “Material Eyes” at the International Fumée Gypsy Project cinémathèque that not only lavishes Museum of Surgical Science. Using a premieres and retrospectives, but harbors robotic da Vinci Surgical System, Tiley’s Fumée Gypsy Project, a Chicago-based recent, overlooked work is noteworthy. It’s mother manipulates the Dr. Ock-like gypsy jazz band featuring Christy been years since Chicago lost the “dollar arms of the machine as a prosthetic Bennett on vocals, Don Stille on houses” and neighborhood second-run demonstration of maternal care. Spooky, accordion, Don Stiernberg on mandolin, and third-run screens that today’s more gooseflesh-inducing and hauntingly Anton Hatwich on bass and other cautious audiences would rush toward. gorgeous, it’s precisely the weird, altering Chicago all star-musicians, perform What’s four or five simoleons for a movie kind of artwork you’d expect from a Sundays, 8pm-11pm, at Larry’s at The you wouldn’t dare fork over fifteen for, if museum devoted to the search for new Lawrence House. Arrive early and you’ll you could impulsively walk down the ways to display the human body. Some find pop-up restaurant Marchanta block to see it, instead of waiting months things just can’t be treated with a scalpel. serving tacos, rice and beans until 8pm. for FilmStruck or Mubi or Hulu or even imss.org/material-eyes-video-screening A night of tacos and gypsy jazz is a Netflix? Foreign-language and American low-key way to close out an weekend. independent films are especially BEST DISART PERFORMANCE Larry’s at The Lawrence House, 1020 W. susceptible to disappearing after a week Lawrence, 312.841.7149, at the Facets or the Music Box or larryschicago.com Landmark Century. The past couple years, ONEOFUS Mat Fraser and Julie Atlas Muz’s “Beauty BEST JAZZ-THEMED BENEFIT IMPRESARIO the Siskel has done a solid job of quickly and the Beast” at MCA Stage reviving small, lovely movies that would Elaine Dame otherwise not be seen in properly One of the few performance art events to projected glory. While the raft of embrace and place the DisArts Elaine Dame could make a fair claim on programming still embraces all eras and movement center stage, ONEOFUS Mat the Best Jazz Singer category, but in the genres of cinema, movies that have only Fraser and Julie Atlas Muz’s “Beauty and Jazz Benefit zone, she’s in a class by been glimpsed locally gain from the Siskel the Beast” at the Museum of herself. Since 2015 she’s organized jazz imprimatur. Current examples include Contemporary Art Stage shifted the events that have raised more than Kogonada’s reverie on the architectural paradigm, if only for awhile. Fraser, $16,000 for causes including Chicago marvels of “Columbus” Indiana, and South popularly known for his “Lobster Boy” Women’s Health Center, the Chicago Korean auteur Bong Joon-ho’s raucous, character on “American Horror Show,” Foundation for Women, the Matthew dark comedy-adventure not-for-kids kids’ has long worked with Brooklyn-based Shepard Foundation, Jazz for Japan anti-GMO movie “Okja,” prised from the artist Muz in performances that take (post-tsunami) and Planned Parenthood. Netflix servers for a weeklong run. advantage of and put his unique Her personal warmth and popularity are 164 N. State, 312.846.2800, physiognomy to wondrous effect. This a big help; the best and brightest lights in siskelfilmcenter.org reinterpretation of the classic fairytale Chicago jazz are happy to answer her was no exception, especially given its call and donate time and talent. BEST BREAKTHROUGH DESIGN ARTIST vivid depictions of sexuality, played out in elainedame.com full, carnal display onstage, that both gave a spotlight to the differently abled,Newcity NOVEMVER 2017 — BEST OF CHICAGO Bob Faust and insisted on true sexual joy as the SBHESOTWRENPORTEESNETNITRAETLIYOBNAOSFEDCHINICCAHGIOCAINGOA only metric for all human beauties Faust is the sort of design artist that many coming to understand the needs and designers aspire to become but never satisfactions of our bodies. Exceptional, manage to transcend their trade. Whether ambitious, and of uncommon depth of ”Ozark” backing collaborator Nick Cave—whose feeling, this was one of the more work wouldn’t reach its masterful degree innovative of this year’s offerings on the ”Ozark,” a kind of “Breaking Bad”-lite of virtuosity without him—or creating MCA stage. debuted on Netflix this summer, following interactive scenery for Carrie Hanson and mcachicago.org/Programs/MCA-Stage financial planner Marty Byrde (Jason The Seldoms entirely out of brassieres, Bateman), who launders money for a designing the banners commemorating BEST POLISH PUNK BAND drug cartel. Beautiful shots of Chicago Chicago art landmarks in recognition of open the show, including Bateman the Year in Public Art Program for the strolling through Millennium Park, and a Loop Alliance, Faust is well in line to Autofobia not-so-nice shot of a dead body dropped become Chicago’s Dan Graham. Autofobia unites two of Chicago’s onto the corner of Garland and Lake. But Faustltd.com proudest substrata and manages to be when things go sideways—it always does32 on these shows—Bateman moves his

family to Lake of the Ozarks so he can BBEUSRTLESSPQEAUKEECALSUYB-THEMED CABARET- Best of Chicago BEST OF CHICAGO — NOVEMBER 2017 Newcitylaunder even more money. Bateman 1993 from themeets a local Cardinals fan who asks him Uptown Underground 2017 Lensif his love for the Cubs is a “lifelongaffliction or just since it got fashionable.” Twenty-first century culture has become 1993 CULTUREHe replies that it “came with the territory.” so baldly sexual that burlesque could & NIGHTLIFEMarty’s wife, played by Laura Linney, seem quaint. Yet the acts at Cabaretdons a Murphy’s Bleachers T-shirt, Burlesque restore frisson to the form Best Latin Dance Club:giving a quiet shoutout to her character’s through powerful, compelling artistry. Mario’s Ballroomold life. Eroticism, it turns out, can be conveyed as much by force of personality as by Best Comedy Club:BEST LOCAL MUSIC PODCAST ribaldry and bared flesh. Magicians, The Funny Firm acrobats, drag queens and stand-upChicago Acoustic Underground Podcast comics are frequently on the bill, and all Best Classical Orchestra: adapt to the aura of life-enhancing Chicago SinfoniettaSinger-songwriters usually slog from bar perversity.to bar, tirelessly chasing open mics and 4707 N. Broadway, 773.867.1946, Best Gay Bar:round-robins to connect with new uptownunderground.net The Vortexlisteners. Michael Teach’s podcast putsthem right into our living rooms, and lets BEST GOSPEL GROUP Best Jazz Club:us hear what they have to say as well as The Green Millsing. Featured guests have included Malcolm Williams and Great FaithLeah Shoshanah, Heather Horton, Kevin Best Gallery Openings:Presbrey and Hadley Kennary. Chicago’s gospel community doesn’t get World Tattoo Galleryplayer.fm/series/chicago-acoustic- its due in these pages (we’re working onunderground-podcast it), but it’s not because Malcolm Williams Best Rock Club < 1,000 and his crew aren’t making enough joyful Capacity:BEST CHICAGO TOURING OPERA COMPANY noise. They summon enough hand- Lounge Ax clapping, foot-stamping, raise-the-roofThe Floating Opera Company euphoria to—well, truly raise the roof, if it Best Rock Club > 1,000 ever came to that. Their show-stopping Capacity:Chicago is well-fixed for opera turn at this summer’s Gospel Festival Metrocompanies, but only one is, by design, was enough to convert stray birds thatnimble enough to play multiple venues. flew overhead. If salvation has a Best Movie Theater:Floating Opera isn’t shy of big soundtrack, this is it. Music Boxproductions, either. In 2015, it tackled malcolmwilliams.com/index.php/Mozart’s “Così Fan Tutte,” which it biography/ Best Cabaret/Piano Bar:debuted in Chicago and then took to Joann Piano BarMinneapolis—and earlier this year BEST CELLIST-COMPOSERdebuted “War and Peace,” featuring a Best Painting at the Artcomposite score of songs spanning the Tomeka Reid Institute:first World War to recent protest songs. El Greco’s “Assumption ofThefloatingoperacompany.com A true Renaissance woman, Reid the Virgin” navigates between the stringent shoresBEST GREEK MUSIC CONCERT PROMOTER of classical music and the uninhibited Best Theatre Space: banks of jazz. A longtime member of Remains TheatreGreek Music Live multiple local ensembles, her own dedicated quartet released its first album Best Place for World Music:Chicago has a large and prosperous in 2015, establishing her as a leader of Equator ClubGreek population, and it doesn’t miss out rare vision and audacity. She’s been aon the big Hellenic acts. Greek Music constant and invigorating presence at Best Dance Bar:Live has made a specialty of luring venues like Constellation and festivals Crobartop-drawer names (at top-dollar prices) like Ear Taxi. And that’s just in herto the city’s stages—names like Antonis hometown; she’s in demand on a Best Heavy Metal Club:Remos, Marinella, Glykeria, Eleni Vitali national level, too. The Thirsty Whaleand George Dalaras. In fact GML is the chicagocomposersorchestra.org/event/leading Greek talent booker for much of cco-tomeka-reid/ Best Late-Nightthe United States; but since they’re a Theatre Show:local outfit, we claim them as our own. “Hellcab”gmlshows.com Best Performance Artist: Joan Dickinson Best Lesbian Bar: Paris Dance Best Local Comedian: Jeff Garlin 33

BEST HOUSE MUSIC PODCAST people showed up and shattered the Emily Dickinson, John Steinbeck, Ralph previous record from 2014, with 320 Ellison and Eudora Welty. Typewriters are Cz’s Boogie Podcast Australians headbanging. See how arrayed on a table so visitors can feel worthy humans can be when they put what it was like to write before Czarina Mirani, the publisher of online 5 differences aside and rock together? computers were invented. And, of course, Magazine—“North America’s only Party on. Chicago writers are well represented— magazine dedicated exclusively to House Ida B. Wells, Nelson Algren and Studs Music”— is also the pub’s most beguiling BLOENSTGPERROUGNRDEESRSIAVVEIMADUUSCICT VENUE NO Terkel have their own displays.   podcaster, spinning tunes and 180 N. Michigan, 2nd Floor, 312.374.8790, dispensing opinions with a mixture of americanwritersmuseum.org bright-eyed enthusiasm and whip-smartNewcity NOVEMVER 2017 — BEST OF CHICAGOauthority. By the end of your first episode,Constellation BEST REPRESENTATION OF CHICAGO IN A she’s your new best friend or your CHICAGO-BASED SHOW dominatrix of choice—or both. For years after its founding in 2013 by 5chicago.com/podcasts/czs-boogie/ musician-impresario Mike Reed, the ”Easy” czs-boogie-podcast-episode-8/ progressive music club was one of Chicago’s best-hidden secret, given that Newcity’s own editorial staff had scenes BEST BOSSA BEAT it huddled in shadows beneath the in the first season of “Easy,” Joe Western Avenue overpass. Now that the Swanberg’s Netflix anthology show, Neal Alger’s Brazilian Trio overpass is no more, Constellation basks which the Chicago indie filmmaker wrote proudly in the sun, looking out on a city and directed in his usual observant Guitarist Neal Alger is Brazilian by that has started looking back. And it’s fashion. Taking to the half-hour format, marriage; but his feeling for the country’s easier than ever to find your way to the Swanberg goes outside his usual roster bountiful sounds couldn’t be truer if he club’s heady mix of jazz, avant-garde and of folks with concerns like his own to had it in his DNA. With bassist Curt Bley improvised modern music. feature characters from all across the and drummer Gerald Dowd, he 3111 N. Western, constellation-chicago.com social, racial and sexual spectrum of captivates with decades’ worth of Chicago. There’s an episode entirely in irresistible bossa nova, samba, carioca, BEST FESTIVAL AFTERPARTY Spanish (and subtitled). Familiar players chorinho—the full range of pulsating from his stock company (Orlando Bloom, Latin rhythms. CUFF with DJ Personal Bankruptcy Jane Adams, Jake Johnson, Emily wintersjazzclub.com/neal-algers- Ratajkowski) are joined by figures from brazilian-trio Those who have tracked the resurgence all across the city as bit players, including of former Ashtray Boy member J. Niimi cartoonist Chris Ware, Hannibal Buress BEST LIVE BAND COUNTRY KARAOKE (aka DJ Personal Bankruptcy) will note as a Newcity reporter and Dark Matter that his return to music began as nights owner Jesse Diaz. Making his time Bub City as DJ in residency with Wax On Wax Off, capsule of 2016 even more piquant is an spinning singles at Reggies, at Township eye for locations around Chicago, from Chicago’s not a big country-music town, or its original location at Delilah’s. But cafes and bars to streets and skyline, of especially not in comparison to Nashville when he showed up at the Chicago which a second season, in post- or Branson. But homegrown Garth and Underground Film Festival, it felt like the production, promises further bounty. Shania wannabes can content themselves late 1990s all over again, born of that with a weekly throwdown. Bub City’s particular era as the festival and its BEST HOUSEWIFE TO DEFECT TO CHICAGO rustic ambience may be ersatz, but the music-maker were, and an alignment of band that assembles each Tuesday night the stars seemed to have taken place. Tinsley Mortimer is the real deal. As for the bona fides of For the flat-out wall-thumping ecstasies the vocals, that’s up to you, isn’t it? of that night, we have CUFF special NYC-via-Palm Beach socialite Tinsley 425 N. Clark, 312.610.4200, bub-city. events programmer Mikhael Bortz to Mortimer joined the latest season of com/live-music/live-band-karaoke thank, who booked Niimi. “Real Housewives of New York City” for cuff.org an image makeover (last year, she was BEST EXCUSE TO GO TO AURORA arrested). Coming off a terrible breakup— BEST REASON TO SKIP THE NUTELLA CAFE and mug shot—Mortimer was looking for “Wayne’s World” 25th Anniversary Celebration love and found it in the Chicago-based The American Writers Museum CouponCabin founder and CEO Scott Beloved “Wayne’s World” turned Kluth. Fellow housewife Carole Radziwill twenty-five in February. Even though the America’s first Nutella Cafe opened at set the two up on a date, and while film takes place in Aurora, it wasn’t filmed 189 North Michigan this year, but across cameras rolled, the duo began their there (some scenes were shot in the street is a much more nutritious flirtation. According to Mortimer’s Chicago). But on the Fourth of July, the experience—feed your mind instead of Instagram, she’s spent a lot of time in our city organized an event celebrating the your belly—at the American Writers city in recent months. Mortimer took milestone. Fans gathered in Aurora’s Museum, which opened in May. The selfies at Chicago Riverwalk, at RiverEdge Park to break the Guinness sprawling space contains both interactive Lollapalooza, and near Marina Towers. World Record of most people and physical literature. The Gallery of 100 But, supposedly in the fall, Scott’s simultaneously headbanging to American Voices represents Native moving to New York! “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Around 1,000 American storytelling but also Thomas instagram.com/tinsleymortimer34 Jefferson, Sojourner Truth, Walt Whitman,

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THE NEXT NEW THING FOR Take CareTHE NEO FUTURISTS September 15, 2017 – January 13, 2018A new show from the WEEEKVEENRDY!critically acclaimed In the Family: Screening & Panel DiscussionNeo-Futurist ensemble Tuesday, November 14, 6 – 8 PMFRIDAYS & A screening of the Emmy-nominated documentarySATURDAYS film about predicting breast and ovarian cancer, the consequences of knowing, and the women who 11 30PM live with the risk, followed by a panel discussion addressing precision medicine in the context of SUNDAYS systemic healthcare disparities. 7PM Weinberg/Newton Gallery FIND TICKETS AND DETAILS NEOFUTURISTS.ORG 300 W Superior Street, Suite 203 Chicago, IL 60654 312 529 5090 weinbergnewtongallery.com Hours Mon – Sat 10 AM – 5 PM

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Pictures with Bite: Is Chicago the Hollywood of Food Photos? Bloomberg reports that after selfies,Newcity NOVEMVER 2017 — BEST OF CHICAGO By Ted C. Fishman To Bon Appétit’s credit, their pictures of food is the second most-photographed the champion foods looked to be subject on the big social media sites. I By now, you likely know Bon Appétit photographed on site, on the plates know that my Facebook feed is certainly anointed Chicago the 2017 Restaurant chefs actually use. If not, the pictures aptly named. When I took a portrait of a City of the Year. The magazine called our would be matched against shots taken sourdough bread I made at home, I set it town “clearly America’s most exciting and shared by real diners. That, after all, on a marble slab in the morning sun and city to eat in right now.” A slew of is where the real power is today. Whole took a glamour shot that might have restaurants made Bon Appétit’s fifty- restaurants are designed to optimize the made Marlene Dietrich wish she were best list, too. I’m an irredeemable pictures diners take of their food. For the yeastier. As soon as I posted it, I heard Chicago booster, so I devoured this new ravenous, it can be character-building. from people I didn’t know I went to high bun in my braggart’s basket. The visuals In the first Best of Chicago issue twenty- school with. Mountain survivalists like it. in the coverage jumped out at me. five years ago, I confessed my love of So did an ex I owe money to. Around Rustic Japanese and Korean-style food porn, the professionally styled food town, I see more locals and tourists dishes—not the cooked ones, but the photos that reduced me to drool. Now taking pictures of the city’s high and low handsome ceramic pieces under the foods that are impossibly gorgeous are foods than I see photographing the food—are now Chicago’s serveware of abundant in the real world and I must skyline. choice for foods of all kinds. Getting a control myself. When real foods were big ravioli on a piece of raku ware can uglier than their printed ideals, Photographing food may complement a be, literally, disorienting. But the plating restaurant food was easier to manage. meal in surprising ways. I worked in is for the eyes, or more precisely, the Once we looked mainly into the eyes of Osaka, Japan during college and lived in camera phone. For now, these are the our dinner dates and basked in their a big workers’ dormitory when kids from plates the city’s kitchens may feel the reflected beauty. Now we want to be the country’s farms were still moving to camera loves best. It’s no trivial matter. seated in front of edible stars and share the cities to work in factories. During the The look of the city’s food broadcasts its and boast of their beauty. If Chicago is cafeteria dinners, I learned the graceful quality every time someone takes a the food capital, is it also the Hollywood Japanese habit of pausing before picture. Which is to say, at all times. of dishy dishes? If not, it probably needs digging into my meal for the ritual to be, to stay on top of the restaurant appreciation of the food before me. heap. There in a room of ravished young men, back from a hard day of factory work, I saw how they first looked down motionless at their simple plates of fish (sometimes whale) and vegetables. They called it “eating with our eyes.” Then,38

after a deep breath they’d all say with small spotlights, just so foods BEST OF CHICAGO — NOVEMBER 2017 Newcity“itadakimsu,” which roughly translates photograph well. I carry a small, brightto “I receive this with gratitude.” When I LED light in my bag that I can use tosee people photograph food on their even better effect. Or use a candle for aChicago tables, especially where the slow-exposure shot, but rest your phonefood seems unique to the restaurant or on a small tripod or jerry-rigged paperthe city, they also slow down and, I cup notched with your knife to hold yourbelieve, have a deeper sense of phone. Add local color. Consider gettinggratitude than they would if they just tables by restaurant windows that adddug right in. There may be times one the city’s big shoulders to your littlesnaps a pic of god-awful food, but meal. Upstairs at Triple Crown, themostly we capture and share the foods classic dim sum spot in Chinatown, onewe’re glad for. can capture a glistening pot sticker dumpling with both the Chinatown GateFood pictures are taken everywhere, all and the Willis Tower in the background.the time. So what can Chicago diners do No landmarks nearby? You can stillto make the city the food photo capital? mark the territory. Get a sports fan in aAnd to promote the local scene so we jersey into a corner of the shot.stay on top? Beautiful plates help, but Eventually the Asian plate fad will pass.there is also a creeping monotony in the Why wait?styling. Here’s some modest proposals.For my food pictures, I hunt for steam. Frank Lloyd Wright designed someBig clouds of it, and wisps that rise off beautiful dishes (okay, they, too, werehot foods, too. It does for food pics what influenced by the Japanese). Carry a fewpainted sunlight poking out from cloudy of those when you go out to eat andskies did for the aristocrats who sat for re-plate your food on them before takingJoshua Reynolds. It adds motion and your pictures.drama. Some restaurants light tables 39

TBWESETNCTYO-OYKEABROOWKAAITFTER A whisky with a water chaser. ‘A man is a BEST UNDERGROUND OYSTER BAR fool if he drinks before he reaches the age of 50, and a fool if he doesn’t Half Shell “Cheers to the Publican” afterward,’ he explains.” Below street level and off-the-radar for 326 N. Morgan, 312.763.6564, most who don’t live in the immediate After years of reticence, and perhaps prairieschoolchicago.com neighborhood, Half Shell has served without a sufficiently compelling concept oysters, clams, crab and other tasty sea creatures since 1968, making this to engage his eclectic, peripatetic taste basement bar one of the longest-running Chicago restaurants. The decor seems and intelligence, chef Paul Kahan’s BLUENSTCHPLRAOCOEMTO(RGIPET) SPECIALS FROM LEO’S like it hasn’t changed that much since “Cheers to the Publican, Repast and 1968. The prices are a throwback, too: Present: Recipes and Ramblings from an you’re not likely to find a half-dozen well-shucked oysters or clams for under American Beer Hall,” dropped after two The Skylark $10 anywhere else. decades of his influential work first 676 W. Diversey, 773.549.1773, Leo’s has been gone for more than a halfshellchicago.com shimmered into the culinary spotlight decade, but check out the specials board BEST MEZCAL BAR with the opening of Blackbird in 1997. at this Pilsen favorite and you could Quiote Writing with clarity and fervor (with possibly see old favorites like Now that mezcal is established as the sip co-writers Cosmo Goss and de noche, mezcal bars are opening left the Elvis Sandwich, which and right. One recent opening: Quiote, Rachel Holtzman), which not only houses a very good you can scarf down Mexican restaurant but a basement “Cheers” rollicks with mezcal bar tended by someone who can with a $5 draft of make all the difference to your mezcal flavor and tasting experience: Jay Schroeder. Zombie Dust, in a Formerly at Logan Square’s Mezcaleria generosity to all NEWCITY 2017 neighborhood Las Flores, Schroeder knows as much the many, many about this fine Mexican beverage as more like the anyone in Chicago, and he is willing to collaborators BEST OF CHICAGO share with anyone who sits down for a Wicker Park glass. who made 2456 N. California, 312.878.8571, of old rather quiotechicago.com the food than the the BEST SPEAKEASY emanating sports-bars- Ladies Room from the and-strollers Stride confidently through the small temple to bakery to the curtain at the back to enter “paradise” the intimate space of the Ladies Room. “oysters, pork Vintage and original cocktails are poured that is behind a tiny bar, influenced by Chinese and beer” the and Portuguese flavors. (Fat Rice is right present-day around the corner.) Most of the infusions worthy are made in-house, and the house Division Street. Chartreuse is impressive. The success that it presentation is consistently delightful, 2149 S Halsted, particularly for the DIY vermouth. remains. An Bartenders are happy to provide 312.948.5275, suggestions, and while making your effusion from reservation, ask if they might hold for you skylarkchicago.com a few pastéls de nata, the best egg Nancy Silverton, custard tart you’ll find this side of the Atlantic. co-owner of Los Angeles’ 2957 W. Diversey, 773.661.9170, eatfatrice.com/menus/ladies-room Mozza, is generous and true: BEST PLACE FOR BURGERS (IF YOU “Now I know how Paul packs so much TWRAIESDATTOHGROEET-OHAOUURCHWEAVIAT)L AND THERE flavor into his food. The effort he puts into sourcing and his balance of seasoning, marinating, cooking, and saucing is what turns his cooking into a Little Goat Diner concert of flavor. These recipes are so clearly written they will be easy to make We’ve been there: you get to Au Cheval at home. This is the most delicious book just when it opens for dinner and there’s I’ve ever read.”    already a three-hour wait. Little Goat Diner, the alternative, provides burgers just as juicy, just as scrumptious, withNewcity NOVEMVER 2017 — BEST OF CHICAGO BEST EXAMPLE OF DRAGGING A KICKING- adorable, retro diner decor to boot. You SCREAMING FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT INTO will drool for the shrimp and cheesy grits, TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY CHICAGO a pork belly pancake sandwich, a sloppy goat sandwich and a banh mi-style Prairie School burger made with Kilgus goat. 820 W. Randolph, 312.888.3455, Prairie School, a gleaming new Fulton littlegoatchicago.com/diner Market cocktail bar from the owners of Sportsman’s Club, Estereo and Lone Wolf, as well as James Beard award- winning bartender Jim Meehan, mingles Midwestern and Japanese influences in its decor and rotating drinks menu of a dozen or so cocktails. Wright wasn’t  fancy or particularly fancy, as the New York Times reported in 1958: “Before dinner he often sips a single Irish40

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Best of Chicago BEST NEW FOOD DISTRICT BRANDING BEST KYRGYZ FOOD IN CHICAGO 1993 from the 2017 Lens Ravenswood’s “Malt Row” Jibek Jolu 1993 FOOD & Chicagoans like to drink. And yet, with Serving the cuisine of Kyrgyzstan, Jibek DRINK the wide array of breweries and Jolu has an interior design reminiscent of distilleries across the city and beyond, no a yurt, a traditional structure of the Best Locally Brewed Beer: concentrations of places to imbibe quite Central Asian country. (Its name means Baderbräu Draft compares with the Ravenswood Corridor “Silk Road,” after China’s historic central We chose this then- rebranded as “Malt Row.” With six Asian trading route.) Meat and carbs Elmhurst-based product breweries, including Spiteful Brewing, dominate, and the must-have dish is the from the very nascent craft Empirical Brewery, Band of Bohemia, manty, a dumpling stuffed with meat and beer upstarts at the time, Half Acre (with its eye-popping onions. Heartier foods dominate the including Goose Island’s 60,000-square-foot facility), Dovetail menu, which is just what you’d expect Blonde Ale and Legacy Brewery and Dovetail Brewing, you from a restaurant serving the food of the Red Ale. hardly need to throw in the nearby Koval Kyrgyz Steppes, and just what you want Distillery to drive home the point. as the weather grows chillier. Best Rib Tips: Maltrowchicago.com 5047 N. Lincoln, 773.878.8494, Ms. Piggies Bar-B-Que jibekjolu.us We took our work veryNewcity NOVEMVER 2017 — BEST OF CHICAGO seriously for this debut BEST CANDY STORE BEST NEW CHICAGO FOOD BOOK THAT CAN edition, and for category of NEVER BE COMPLETED Best Ribs, it meant literally Dylan’s Candy Bar visiting every BBQ place in The Chicago Food Encyclopedia Chicago, a tasty task. This You see all types at Dylan’s Candy Bar: was before the internet, mostly kids, as you would expect, but Blurbed by Rick Bayless, Rich Melman before Yelp, and it meant a also flocks of sugar junkies after work, as and Rahm, Carol Mighton Haddix, Bruce mix of library time and well as guys in suits furtively stuffing Kraig and Colleen Taylor Sen’s heavily- Yellow Pages, but the gummies into clear plastic bags, hoping illustrated A-to-Z “The Chicago Food South Side rib joints like no one notices they’re picking out all the Encyclopedia” dropped into the sea of Lem’s were not yet widely red ones. Dylan’s is overpriced, but their the Chicago food scene in early fall, known outside of their selection of aforesaid gummies, boasting hundreds of entries from the more immediate environs. chocolate in many delicious forms and erratic past to the sumptuous present to (Today Lem’s has a penny candy cannot be beat by any the foodie future. The tone varies, from website!) On our way to corner bodega or sweet-tooth emporium the bone-dry to the tersely tasty, hoping visit Lem’s in the course of in the city. to be authoritative without tipping too our research, we exited the 445 N. Michigan, 312.702.2247, much into passing fancy. “Of all foods Dan Ryan at 59th Street dylanscandybar.com commonly perceived to be Chicago icons, and saw a smoker out near none is as important as the hot dog. With the street, with the WBEISTHT PALDAUCLETTPOOFRETEIODNYSOUR INNER CHILD about 2,500 locations, the Chicago area unmistakable fumes of has more fixed-location hot dog barbecue in the air. Wyler Road restaurants than any other city in the Completists that we are, world,” is typical of the explicating. “Hot we stopped to investigate Weren’t ice cream floats the best thing dogs are sausages descended from and met the proprietor of a when you were a kid? Especially when several varieties brought by German tiny, even by BBQ-shack you got crazy, and went for the orange immigrants, beginning in the 1850s” is standards, joint called Ms. soda instead of the usual root beer. Wyler even more typical of the deep-dish diving. Piggies Bar-B-Que. We Road lets you relive the childlike glee of a But the range of detail about wrote: “It’s the kind of perfectly foamy, creamy, bubbly float, personalities, trends, temples and the outdoor rib pit that filling a huge soda-shop glass with a history of food production impresses legends are made of, and scoop of ice cream and root beer, black across 375 entries from seventy-four it’s home base for cooks cherry, or, yes, orange soda. Slurp it up contributors, reflecting nearly four years and customers alike in the alongside one of their giant sandwiches, of work. Haddix told the Tribune the team summertime.” We returned which include riffs on childhood favorites is ready for a second edition already: “We many times to Ms. Piggie’s like the house-made sloppy joe (on a have a folder on Google Docs already after that, until, eventually, toasted challah brioche) or ham & created to add and things to change. it was no more. cheese (on raisin walnut toast). It’s a Restaurants close, and we need to keep nostalgia trip that won’t leave you hungry. on top of it.” 3581 W. Belden, 773.661.0675, wylerroad.com42

BEST FANCY-PANTS POLISH RESTAURANT BEST PITA INN SPINOFF BEST PLACE TO HAVE A HEARTLutnia Zad by Pita Inn Duck Duck GoatIf your perception of a Polish restaurant Denizens of the northern suburbs When it comes to offal, a plate of gutsis a simple storefront serving simple suffered the long days of the Pita Inn’s can be off-putting for the average diner.foods like sausage and potatoes, Lutnia closure, then rejoiced at its reopening in Steel those nerves and order thewill turn your head around. Not that they a larger space. Not nearly enough people wood-fired duck hearts at Duck Duckdon’t offer sausage and potatoes—they are aware of its sister-restaurant in its Goat and you will be greatly rewarded.do—but this white tablecloth restaurant, former location: Zad. The menu, created Tender, perfectly charred, and paired withwith a gold metal ceiling and chandeliers, by chef Falah Tabahi, is much more a sesame-horseradish sauce, theseserves so much more, including roast adventurous than Pita Inn’s pedestrian hearts taste more like a fine bit of steakduck flambée, roast goose with but delicious sandwiches and plates. The than a traditional sweetbread. Sosauerkraut and pears, and one of the fassoulia and the fabulous fatet makdous disarmingly delicious, these hearts mightbest Caesar salads you’ll find in Chicago, will almost make you forget the dark days just be your gateway into more daringprepared tableside by a nattily attired of the shop’s absence. dining.server. 3910 Dempster, Skokie, 847.410.7999, 857 W. Fulton Market, 312.902.3825,5532 W. Belmont, 773.282.5335, zadbypitainn.com duckduckgoatchicago.comlutniarestaurant.com BEST OLD-TIMEY FIRST-DATE SPOT BEST “COLD BREW”BEST PLACE TO HAVE RATTLESNAKE FORDINNER Margie’s Fine Candies Hopewell BrewingLa Casa de Samuel It can get crowded and chaotic in Not long ago, the only marriage anyone Margie’s Fine Candies, but if you visit recognized between coffee and beerYou can get enchiladas, rice and beans outside of weekend rush hours, you can took place in a stout. With the rise ofand the usual Mexican offerings at imagine you’re sipping a milkshake with lighter coffee ales, brewers haveMichelin-recommended La Casa de Danny Zuko. Margie’s ice cream is embraced the more delicate side ofSamuel, but you can also enjoy unusual creamy and the hot fudge should be coffee, drawing out flavors as only thedishes that are not found on many, if any, illegal, it’s so good. Before you leave, get best baristas can. The finest of these is atother Chicago restaurants. We’re talking your date something to remember with Hopewell Brewing. Their Cold Brewrattlesnake and alligator and bull’s one of their massive chocolate-covered session coffee ale, made with Metrictesticles, which are predictably meaty, as marshmallows or caramel turtles. Coffee’s Pacamara beans from Peru,well as one of those foods you order Though the sundaes seem pricey, the tastes just like you ordered its namesakeonce and try not to think about while size and the fixings (sauce, whipped from a coffee shop, but with the addedyou’re eating. cream, nuts, everything you ever wanted perk of 4.5 percent ABV. Has there ever2834 W. Cermak, 773.376.7474, on ice cream) make it worth the price as been a better beer for day drinking?lacasadesamuel.com well as your sweet time. 2760 N. Milwaukee, 773.698.6178, 1960 N. Western, 773.384.1035, hopewellbrewing.comBEST PLACE TO ORDER A WHOLE ANIMAL margiesfinecandies.com(ALLIGATOR, WILD BOAR, GOAT, ETC.) BEST TIKI DRINKS BEST GARRETT POPCORN TV SHOUTOUT BEST OF CHICAGO — NOVEMBER 2017 NewcityThe Frontier Chicago Ward 8 “Insecure”Frontier offers a whole-animal servicethat lets you select entire creatures for Ward 8 bartenders shake excellent Tourists flock to Garrett Popcorn (multiplelarge-format dinners (including alligator, classic cocktails every night of the week, locations in Chicago and in other cities)farm-raised pig, wild boar and goat). but on Tuesdays they roll out an inventive because they heard they can buy giantCustomize your “whole animal service tiki menu that’s true to the history of this tins of CaramelCrisp, CheeseCorn andexperience” with coordinated sides, faux-Polynesian libation. Cultural mixed popcorns. Recently, an episode ofdesserts and pre-batched cocktails. appropriation aside, the always-changing L.A.-based HBO show “Insecure” featured1072 N. Milwaukee, 773.772.4322, Tuesday night menu might feature classic Molly (Yvonne Orji) visiting a Chicagothefrontierchicago.com crowd-pleasers like a flaming Mai Tai, a business associate, Quentin (real-life complex Jungle Bird or a brand-new Chicagoan LilRel Howery), who offers herBEST CHICAGO STREET FOOD YOU JUST creation. Except for the de rigueur mugs, “Buttery Ranch and CaramelCrisp”DON’T SEE ANYMORE the focus is not on the expected kitsch popcorn. At first she hesitates, but but beautiful, balanced cocktails. decides she likes it enough to bring someWhatever happened to the Pizza Puff? Coconut mug in hand, sitting on their back to L.A., to her lover, who is equallyUsed to be that every pizza joint in the patio while the weather holds, you’ll be skeptical. “Trust me,” she says, as theycity served up these deep-fried pizza transported miles from Howard Street. chomp on the popcorn, with Garrett’spockets of gooey goodness. But times 629 Howard, Evanston, 847.420.7353, signature bag in full product-placementhave changed and the puff seems to wardeight.com glory. Not that Garrett needed more press,have gone poof. but it shows even finicky Los Angelenos can love the stuff. Garrettpopcorn.com 43

BEST WAY TO GET A GOOD POKE AT HOME BEST NEW WEST LOOP LUNCH Mexican classics infused with a range of American culinary styles. ASAP Poke Honeygrow 1758 W. 18th, 312.285.2710, 5rabanitosdotcom.wordpress.com Poke, the raw fish salad that’s become The West Loop has become the ubiquitous, is one of those foods that you hot neighborhood for company probably would never have at home, HQs, and an influx of hungry office BEST FRESH AND QUICK SUSHI WEST OF since you need sashimi-grade fish and workers has spurred a lunchtime THE RIVER loads of raw ingredients that make it revolution around Restaurant Row, impractical to DIY. ASAP Poke delivers traditionally more dinner-driven. While SuChi Sushi & Maki an exceptional fresh raw fish salad or other fast-casual spots are popping up, maki to your door. Each bowl or roll can it’s an out-of-town import that gets our From the outside, SuChi seems small, but be customized with sea proteins and vote for best new lunch. After success on once inside, the openness of the largely accoutrements such as avocado, the East Coast, the Philadelphia-based takeout joint impresses. For a quick scallions, sesame seeds, edamame and a Honeygrow has brought their made-to- lunch or on-the-go dinner that manages range of sauces, all in delicious order noodles and salads to Chicago. to emulate the quality of a sit-down sushi combinations and all under $12. Delivery Highly customizable using a kiosk restaurant, look no further. only, and for now, only to Lincoln Park. ordering system, a meal at Honeygrow is 651 W. Washington, 312.600.9924, 773.868.0002, asappokechicago.com a delicious and refreshing midday suchisushi.com option. Try the Chicago-exclusive BEST BEACHSIDE BAR Capone noodle bowl and treat BREESSTTAFUARNACNYTPANTS UKRAINIAN yourself to their honey bar for a Nacho Mama’s wholesome and satisfying dessert. 179 N. Morgan, 312.989.3926, Next summer when they reopen for the honeygrow.com/fulton-market Tryzub season, travel up the Lakefront Trail past BEST HOUSE CHIPS Tryzub offers traditional Ukrainian dishes, Oak Street Beach Food + Drink and but it’s the decor, subtle side dish Castaways on North Avenue beach, all Heineken Pub 97 components and incredibly kind service the way up to Osterman Beach, and that sets Tryzub apart. The palette of the there you’ll find the best bar on Chicago’s Unless you’re a soccer player or fan, restaurant and dishes is bright and beachfront. Nacho Mama’s is a simple Heineken Pub 97 might not be on your colorful, with an almost museum-like patio with blow-ups of lotteria cards for bar rounds. Adjacent to the Chicago display of adornments to peruse while decoration, and the menu is everything Fire practice pitch, the bar draws a waiting. Dill-infused kefir in the borscht is you need on a summer beach day. The specific clientele. But even if soccer isn’t subtle and pleasant, and check out the Nacho Mama Margarita is worth the your sport, the trip is worth it for the banosh: rich and creamy, the addition of splurge, a generous frozen helping chips alone. Their housemade Fire Pitch pork belly and colorful vegetable brightened up with mint and ginger. And Chips are the kind of crispy, crave-able garnishes adds a contemporary their Fiesta Fridays can’t be beat: $10 for snack that will have you shamelessly American touch to a Ukrainian favorite. an all-you-can-eat taco bar and a house gobbling handful after handful. They are 2201 W. Chicago, 773.698.8624, margarita, with all additional margs fifty smoky, spicy and salty, a true “Fire” trzyubchicago.com percent off. 5800 N. Lake Shore, 773.878.1183, staple. They come as a side with an BEST CROQUETAS NORTH OF MIAMI nachomamasbeachbar.com entrée order, but don’t be afraid to just ask for a basketful à la carte. BEST BAR TO DRINK FOR A CAUSE 3626 N. Talman, 773-944-1203, 90 Miles Cuban Café fire-pitch.com/heineken-pub-97/ At 90 Miles Cuban Café, order theNewcity NOVEMVER 2017 — BEST OF CHICAGO Spilt Milk BCUESMTBPILAAACNEDTOEALTISMTEENATTO scrumptious croquetas and ask for extra IN ITS OWN JUICE lime to squeeze into every bite. (Tip: skip Dim lighting, funky gold-and-green the accompanying sauce; lime is the true accents, and a vintage bar held over from Cinco Rabanitos croqueta sauce.). For entrees, alternate the building’s days as a pharmacy between ropa vieja, pan con lechon and already make Spilt Milk a cool place to The food is so good here that a dinner vaca frita, all of which are heavenly and grab a cocktail. It’s what those cocktails companion said that he once came here portions are huge. If you’re at the can do that make this bar stand out. Spilt for every meal of the day. Sonora Lincolnwood location, try a seasonal Milk has made charitable giving a part of Tropicana’s “Que bello” and other cumbia cocktail. their menu, with a section of featured hits play as you scarf crispy chicken 2540 W. Armitage, 773.227.2822 drinks that support a new charity each taquitos. The pièce de résistance, (Armitage), 847.679.2822 (Lincolnwood), month. There are few places where you however, is carne en su jugo Rabanitos 773.245.2822 (Clybourn), can regularly contribute to the greater style: a steak submerged in tomatillo, 90milescubancafe.com good while getting boozy, so stop in and serrano and cilantro broth, pinto beans, raise a glass to restoring our faith in bacon and avocado. Each bite holds the humanity. perfect amount of spice. Other dishes are 2758 W. Fullerton, 773.413.8440, spiltmilktavern.com44

SBUESBTUNREBWS RESTAURANT IN THE NORTHERN BEST CRANBERRY GUACAMOLE Best of Chicago 1993 from theThe Barn L’Patron Tacos 2017 LensThe restaurant scene has been quietly Come here for carne asada tacos and the 1993 FOOD & DRINKbuilding in Evanston, largely due to the salsas and stay for cranberry guacamole.efforts of Amy Morton. Hidden just The fresh tortilla chips and the sweet and Food & Drink advertisers inenough to offer adventure, The Barn is salty guacamole are especially lovely that issue. See if you cansituated off an alley, and slipping through when you can sit outside in the back. guess which are still inthe thick velvet curtain inside the door Everything is simple yet carefully done. business:adds to the thrill of entry. Set in a former 3749 W. Fullerton, 773.252.6335barn, as you might guess, the setting is Cafe du Midi BEST OF CHICAGO — NOVEMBER 2017 Newcitynevertheless luxurious, and the “meat- BEST KOREAN BBQ TACOS Trattoria Dinottocentric” menu is decadent. Order Kopi, A Traveler’s Cafeanything prepared table-side for truly Del Seoul Monroepersonalized service. Morton is often Merlot Joeon-site, as attentive as the staff, always Latin-Asian fusion restaurants are hot Cafe Penelopehoping her guests are satisfied. now, but few do a kalbi taco (grilled beef Cafe MozartRear, 1016 Church, Evanston, short rib) like they do at Del Seoul. For Blue Iris Cafe847.868.8040, thebarnevanston.com something a little bigger, bento boxes Raw Bar offer a variety of flavor and food with one Fireside RestaurantBEST PLACE TO SOURCE RARE INGREDIENTS of the best bulgogi marinades around. Alfo’s Ristorante 2568 N. Clark, 773.248.4227, delseoul.com Pat’s Pizza RistoranteRare Tea Cellar The Third Coast BEST UKRAINIAN/RUSSIAN DELI SOUTH OF Coffeehouse & Wine BarWhat acclaim remains to be asserted THE SUBURBS (the one located on Lakeabout Rodrick Markus and his Rare Tea Shore Drive and EastCellar? As supplier to a self-estimated Ann’s Bakery and Deli Delaware versus the otherninety percent of the high-end on North Dearborn)restaurants in the city, the gastronomic Patrons unused to Eastern European Luigi’s of Hong Konggolden age Chicago wouldn’t be possible manners may find the servers at Ann’s Bella Vistawithout Markus’ vast store of ingredients Bakery and Deli friendly enough. Most of The Berghoffand hs seemingly endless knowledge of Ann’s servers are direct, even jokey, and Conte Di Savoiathem. Given effusive acclaim and an vigorously recommend dishes from the Grizzly’sever-expanding pursuit of the rare, exotic deli and bakery counters. It’s a great way Bareoand  elusive, the Ravenswood resident for Chicago locals to try foods they’ve Le Caféstands for not only the best in Chicago, never had. A case in point: an entire aisle Bongo Roombut from around the globe. of Eastern Bloc farmer’s cheese. Sweet Spice3701 N. Ravenswood, 773.561.3000, 2158 W. Chicago, 773.384.5562 Italian Villagerareteacellar.com Club Lucky BEST COFFEE SHOP FOR DOG-WATCHING Avanti PopuloBEST PLACE TO HAVE A BEER WHILE Christopher’sREADING A BOOK Jackalope Coffee Sorrev’s Chicago DinerKibbitznest books, brews & blarney Frenchies, Pekingese, retrievers and all Andrzej Grill manner of mutts parade in and out of this Café AmoreThe employees at kibbitznest are warm Bridgeport coffee shop morning, noon and South Loop Clubto a fault and the drink menus are night. Stop by for your canine fix. The Abbey Pubmodest, with beer, wine and coffee on sandwiches and coffee aren’t half bad either. Poor Phil’soffer. But it’s hard to beat being 755 W. 32nd, 312.888.3468 Osteria Tutto Benesurrounded by books, board games and Frida’sgreat company. There’s even a piano and BEST USE OF CHAMBORD IN CHICAGO September’sguitar if anyone cares to play. BYO food is Gypsy’s Coveencouraged. It is a laptop-free zone, The Cellar at the Stained Glassalthough they do have typewriters. Comehere when you need to decompress and The place is cozy and intimate, with softdisconnect from your electronic tethers. lighting and modest decor. For the best2212 N. Clybourn, 773.360.7591, use of Chambord this side of the pond,kibbitznest.com look no further than Rick’s indulgent and artful “French” cocktail, which is deceptively simple, with Absolut Citron, 45 Chambord and pineapple juice. 820 Clark, Evanston, 847.864.8678, thecellarevanston.com

WBEISSTCOWNISSCINONSIN BAR OUTSIDE OF 1350 W. Randolph, 312.733.1314, Best of Chicago elskerestaurant.com 1993 from the 2017 Lens Millie’s Supper Club BEST NON-TWO-HOUR WAIT FOR BOOZY SLUSHIES 11999933 FFOOOODD && DDRRIINNKK Walk into Millie’s Supper Club and you feel as if you’ve entered a fully immersive Best Locally Brewed Beer: TBhaoduegrbhrCähuaDrlrieafTtrotter’s set, with an immediate craving for Simon’s Tavern wWaescahloresaedthyitshtrhivein-gE(lamnhdurst- Spotted Cow Beer, cheese curds and a wbaesllebdepyorondduocut rfrboumdgtheet),very dip in Devil’s Lake. With robust decor, In the summertime, the city’s rife with Cnahisccaegnot’scrgarfetabtemeroumpesntat rints at moose heads and TV screens airing old boozy slushies coming from a machine. cthuelintaimryea, icncclaluidminwgaGsoaowseays Wisconsin commercials on the wall, this Last year, frosé —frozen rosé wine—was aIswlaanyda’ssBelovinddeencAeled abnydboth is a comfortable place and very the rage. Logan Square’s Parson’s wLeingnaecrys RtheadtAyleea. r and the Wisconsin. The music is aptly mid- Chicken and Fish has been at the categories we chose to ThhigohuligghhtC.harlie Trotter’s was century and ambient, allowing epicenter of the slushie craze. Sipping already thriving (and well conversation to flow freely. For the best frozen negronis, and coconut slushies BbeesytonBduroguerrb: udget), Chicago’s spin on Old Fashioneds south of can create long wait times, especially on JgorehantBmaorlmeyecnotrnin culinary Milwaukee, try the Brandy Old Fashioned a holiday weekend. Instead, head up to Macecmlaoimriawl Paus ba ways away as Sweet. Andersonville dive bar institution Simon’s BeveisdteRnicbesd: by both winners 2438 N. Lincoln, 773.857.2000, Tavern. This summer they offered a glogg Lwtheeamct’hsyoBesaaerr-taBon-hdQigtHhhoeliugcshaett.egories millieschicago.com slushie—mulled wine, a winter Swedish Best Drive-In Restaurant: specialty, but in frozen form. The glogg SBuepset rBduarwgger: BMJMeooeshomtnnCoBPrhaiaianrlllaeePcysueecboRrnestaurant: BEST COFFEE FLIGHTS slushie had no wait time, as well as no BVLBeieevmssettr’seIRtBaiabatlsiraI-:tBna-lRiQaensHtVoaiululsareagnet: pretension. Pair it with their awesome BMSBueeopssrttetoSrDdntrae’isvawoekgf-hICnohuRicseeas:gtoaurant: alt-rock jukebox and you have a winner. BWMBeeeossiotntnKBCePehlaeilnelraerLcs(iieesntRB: eesrwtayunr)ant: PBVBeeievgssettareGsIturaasetleRiaIktenasRltRieaaesunstrtVaaaiunlulrtaraagannentdt: : Fairgrounds Coffee and Tea 5210 N. Clark, 773.878.0894, TBaevsetrSntaeakhouse: facebook.com/simonstavern BMeosrttoMna’srgofaCrihtaic:ago Last year, Fairgrounds opened a HBaest tDBaenecreList: BWeesitnKVeelgleert(ainriaBnerwyn) storefront in Wicker Park and opened a RBestaGurreaenkt:Restaurant: BPleingdasFuasitRheCstaafeurant and second store this year on South BEST RAINBOW TOAST TBaevsetrCnoaffeehouse: Michigan. They don’t roast their own UBrebsutsMOarrbgisarita: BHeasttDFarenncech Fries: beans, but brew their coffees from Dark Beatrix DBeosgtgVieegDeintearian Restaurant: Matter and regional roasteries. They have BBelinstdMFaeixtihcaCnafReestaurant: eight taps, including cold brew, The rainbow and unicorn craze hit a peak FBreosnttCeroaffGereilhl ouse: Stumptown Nitro and sparkling teas. If this year, but when River North, Fulton BUerbstusHOotrbDisog: you can’t decide, order a flight. With Market and Streeterville brunch spot FBaessttTFrraecnkch Fries: flights, three types of coffee come in an Beatrix lists “rainbow toast” on the menu, Doggie Diner eight-ounce pour. Or, get a flight of they don’t mean it’s sprinkled with what’s on tap, in three four-ounce pours. artificial flavors or red 40. They take a Best Mexican Restaurant: 1620 N. Milwaukee and 12 S. Michigan, hunk of toast and smear it with house- Frontera Grill fairgrounds.cafe made ricotta, then layer it with colorful berries, such as blackberries, chopped Best Hot Dog: Fast Track BEST SCANDINAVIAN RESTAURANT THAT peaches and sliced strawberries. The REALLY ISN’T SCANDINAVIAN end result looks more like an edible flag than something a child created. Plus, it’s actually good for you. Elske 519 N. Clark, 312.284.1377; 671 N. St. Clair, 312.642.0001; 834 W. Fulton Market, It’s no wonder Bon Appétit named Elske 312.733.0370; beatrixchicago.com the second best new restaurant inNewcity NOVEMVER 2017 — BEST OF CHICAGO America 2017. Married couple David and Anna Posey—he, the longtime chef de BEST SUBVERSIVE ICE CREAM PARLOR cuisine at Blackbird, and she, the former executive pastry chef at The Publican— Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream opened the West Loop restaurant at the end of last year. David’s family is Danish, Despite its name, leafy Edgebrook has and their spot is cozy and warm from an always seemed the city’s least edgy outdoor fireplace. They serve things like neighborhood. Until you encounter gjetost (a thick goat cheese) and the Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream, a corner Greek-inspired purée, walnut skordalia. storefront on Devon that combines sweet Despite its Scandinavian namesake— desserts with vitriolic satire. From the Elske translates to “love”—it’s also grotesque—and at Halloween, ghoulish— influenced by local ingredients. effigies of Trump, Clinton, Putin and Serviceberries, for their cocktails, grow others in front, to graffiti-like murals onsite, and seasonal vegetables arrive inside, the Chocolate Shoppe turns the from local farmers. simple purchase of a cone of fudge ripple46 (cash only) into a transgressive gesture. It

was in the revolutionary year of 1968 that you’ll find more types of corn than you’ve Restaurant City in America.”) With a BEST OF CHICAGO — NOVEMBER 2017 Newcityproprietor Ron Mondel took over what ever seen, as well as  ulloco, an edible three-month wait to get on a list to getwas then a Baskin-Robbins franchise. root that is one of the most important into Alinea, a three-hour wait to get anThe nearly half-century since “has been a foods of the Andes; maracuya, a relation Au Cheval burger and the difficulty inblink,” says Mondel, a free spirit who of the passion fruit and tree tomatoes. having someone not named Andrewdescribes modern life as a “global social 2349 N. Milwaukee, 773.252.5112, Zimmern try the braised beef tongue (inengineering program.” His shop is an elcondorchicago.com peanut butter sauce) at Mi Tocayaoasis of consciousness, where zombies Antojeria, just one bite of the “neveron the wall and in the window help in BEST NEW FANCY RESTAURANT SELLING coming off the menu” fontina tortelli attheir own small way to de-zombify the STREET FOOD Boka will make them understand. Andtimes. probably want to never leave.5337 W. Devon, 773.763.9778, Proxi 1729 N. Halsted, 312.337.6070,chocolateshoppeicecream.com bokachicago.com Street food is trending in ChicagoBEST BAR FOR TRIPPY COCKTAILS restaurants, and one of the most BEST LOCAL FRANCHISE PUBLIC IMPLOSION accomplished practitioners of this vogueApogee is Proxi. Located in proximity to Sepia Bow Truss Coffee (get it?), Andrew Zimmerman’s otherA good bar is always about more than restaurant, Proxi offers high-end versions The tsunami of negative press coveragejust the booze, and Benjamin Schiller’s of street treats such as bhel puri, a snack that played out in the pages of Crain’sApogee is way better than just a good of puffed rice and herbs hailing from Chicago Business and across otherbar. You can get an excellent Manhattan- Mumbai, and tempura elotes, a battered media this year surrounding Phil Tadrostype drink of wheated bourbon, Dark and fried version of Mexican corn with and his Bow Truss and Budlong chickenMatter coffee essence and pipe tobacco mayo and spices. It’s all good, if about a franchises was a business disaster ofin a straight rocks glass, but most hundred times more expensive than the epic proportion. Between employeedrinkers at this rooftop tavern atop the original street versions. walkouts over claims of bouncedDana Hotel go for the exotic packaged 565 W. Randolph, 312.466.1950, paychecks, money squabbles withbeverages, like the 1-UP, served in a large proxichicago.com partners and an August allegation ofceramic fly agaric mushroom, or Mr. domestic battery charges, it wasn’t longNice-Guy, which is served in a smoke- BEST NEW CLUB before franchise locations shutteredfilled, flower-bedecked bong. Add to the across the city. But Tadros is trying toblitzed-out beverages a sky-high vantage Mariano’s Bronzeville strike back with a $38-million defamationpoint of the city beneath, and you’ve claim against Crain’s.going to have a good trip. When it opened last year, its claim to bowtruss.com2 W. Erie, 312.202.6060, fame was that it was by square footageapogeechicago.com supposed to be the largest Mariano’s. YBOEUSTWFRAINENDACSHKICIPKEHNARTHOALDT’MSIGHT MAKE But what it has turned into—usuallyBEST ITALIAN PLACE FOR CARBONARA between 3pm-7pm—is the best social Roister meeting place in Bronzeville since PoorSal’s Trattoria Woods shut down the upstairs bar on Many have tried: J&J’s thirty or so years 35th Street. The bar area, where wine ago, Chicago’s Home in Bronzeville inThe fettucine, tender, although with good and other adult beverages are served, is 2008, Art Smith’s version during histooth, is made in-house at Sal’s Trattoria; beautifully loud and local. It’s black eight-year run at Table Fifty-Two, Gus’sthe pancetta is generously apportioned Chicago Facebook come to life. Grocery World Famous two years ago, but theand soft-cooked egg yolk takes center shopping should not be this fun. attempts to bring chicken — just a singlestage, surrounded by noodles rich with 3857 S. Martin Luther King, piece of fried chicken — into the city tocheese and cream. This is one of those 773.268.2839, marianos.com dethrone Harold’s generational reigndishes that’s both simple and complex: have all failed. Not saying the friedthe elements are not too exotic, but the BEST SINGLE DISH TO MAKE SOMEONE NOT portion of the $67 Whole Chicken andbest versions of its preparation require FARSOBMONCHAIPCPAÉGTOITUCNLADIEMRESDTA, NTHDEWHY WE ARE, Chamomile plating at Grant Achatz’sundeniably high-quality ingredients, “RESTAURANT CITY OF THE YEAR” Roister is better than Harold’s, justskillfully prepared. Sal’s Trattoria delivers saying that no one else has come thisa beautiful version of this classic dish. Fontina Tortelli at Boka close to second.2834 N. Southport, 773.857.1401,salstrattoria.com So many choices, so much insanely BEST NEW WTF, WYKAT (“WHAT YOU KNOW amazing food, so many never-taste- ABOUT THIS?”) SPEAKEASY IN THE CITYBEST PLACE TO STOCK UP ON ECUADORIAN anything-like-this-again culinaryDRY GOODS innovations, so many ingenious chefs, so Blind Barber little time to get it all in, especially for aEl Condor visitor who insists on understanding why Speakeasies are popping up all over the Chicago got the title. (Or why Condé city like Whole Foods and Targets. TheEl Condor specializes in Latin American Nast Traveler claimed we were the “Best latest in Fulton Market (in the back ofgoods, notably the food of Ecuador. Inthis small, ethnically focused grocery, 47

one of the most nondescript, no-frills BEST PASTRAMI OUTSIDE BROOKLYN barber shops ever created)  is one that got it right. It’s as if the Tiki Room went Wild Onion Tied House underground… with better drinks. So Chicago. Al Capone—and even Richard J. Pastrami is delicious, but halfway Daley—would be proud. through a typically over-stuffed deli 948 W. Fulton Market, 312.366.2969, sandwich (about 400 calories in), it’s blindbarber.com hard not to feel that you’re over-indulging the lushly fatty, tasty meat. That’s what’s BEST CINEMA IN-HOUSE RESTAURANT so awesome about Wild Onion Tied House’s sides of house-smoked pastrami, Carbon Arc tender and just enough to fully satisfy even if you have the belly real estate to Taking a page out of such food and film eat just a little more. innovations as Brooklyn’s Nitehawk Wild Onion Tied House, 1111 South Cinema, Carbon Arc blends the best of Boulevard, Oak Park, 708.628.3553, both. Opened with the unveiling of the wildoniontiedhouse.com renovated Davis Theater next door, the food and drink menu here has both BEST DEALS ON REALLY RIPE PRODUCE depth and breadth: artisanal popcorn for that good old-fashioned movie Angelo Caputo’s Fresh Markets experience? Check. How about some Thai mussels, Baja fish tacos or maybe For the best deals on fruits and some fried chicken and “wiscuit”? vegetables, Angelo Caputo’s Fresh They’ve also got a cocktail menu of an Markets, with seven locations, specializes impressive variety and a completely in bargain-priced products at the peak of separate brunch menu, including a ripeness, as in, you better use what you generous selection of “breakfast beers” buy in the next few days. At mainline and bottomless mimosas. All prepared stores, you might pay a buck or more for savory and delicious, and served a red pepper; at Caputo’s, a buck will buy conveniently right next door to the a pound. Want an even better deal? On cinema for either those necessary the west wall of the produce section, warm-up drinks or theater experience there are boxes filled with fruits and post-mortem. Either way, it’s a delightful vegetables for as little as three dollars for new way to gather. five pounds. These, you use on the day 4614 N. Lincoln, 773.961.8946, you buy them. davistheater.com/carbon-arc-bar/ 2400 Harlem, Elmwood Park, 708.453.0155, caputomarkets.comNewcity NOVEMVER 2017 — BEST OF CHICAGO SBPESECTINAOLTRIETSH SIDE PLACE FOR SOUTH SIDE BEST PICNIC DATE DESTINATION The Delta Horner Park The South Side of Chicago historically At nearly fifty-five acres, Horner Park was has been fertile ground for regional once the site of an industrial brick kiln. culinary specialties, including the Today, it’s one of the largest public park Mother-in-Law, a corn-roll tamale on a areas on the city’s North Side. Its hotdog bun with chili, and the Jim Shoe, topography, ranging from its famous a submarine sandwich with roast beef, high-elevation hilltop to shady groves corned beef, gyros meat, chopped along its southern edge, were drawn in lettuce, tzatziki sauce, mustard, and any by city planners as picnic areas. For number of other ingredients. The case romantic, natural vistas, you can’t do can be made that elements of these better than an outing in the tall grasses, South Side specialties came to Chicago especially next summer, once when the by way of the Mississippi Delta, and city’s conservation efforts along the that’s why they’re served at this new riverfront open access to the water along place in northerly Wicker Park. its eastern edge for fishing and kayaking. 1745 W. North, 773.360.1793, 2741 W. Montrose, 773.478.3499, thedeltachicago.com chicagoparkdistrict.com/parks/Horner- Park48

Goods&SERVICES

Never A Stranger: But those were minor cues; my political Eight Cities On, Chicago education was in the office of U.S. Remains My True Love Senator Alan J. Dixon, a meet-me-in- the-middle downstater. When I wasn’tNewcity NOVEMVER 2017 — BEST OF CHICAGO By Stephen Rodrick Hamlet on Howard Street and the brokering settlements between donors Smashing Pumpkins at the Metro. Back and the U.S. Postal Service over getting Since leaving Chicago in 1992, I’ve lived then you didn’t feel, you just assumed, posher mailing addresses, I wrote in Washington, Boston, Philadelphia, you were going to live forever and the statements in favor of a flag-burning Brooklyn, Los Angeles, Montreal and 11pm three eggs, bacon and hash amendment and Clarence Thomas. I now the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania, browns at the Salt & Pepper on Lincoln watched his top aide raise money for the where steel mills have long stood silent was my fuel. insurgent Carol Moseley Braun or been turned into casinos. In senatorial campaign; the thinking being December, I head to Vancouver, British There was politics. I was a white kid her liberal base would splinter with Columbia. Still, it’s Chicago that will getting involved in causes and worlds I another white jackass Al Hofeld, the always remain my true love, as will the could never understand. I worked for other opponent. This backfired now-for-me digital pages of this and watched as Mel Reynolds went from spectacularly with Braun’s victory publication. Rhodes Scholar—I was too naïve to in a way that seemed uniquely just know that a scholarship named after and Chicago. I moved to Chicago at seventeen, just Cecil Rhodes might not be viewed so another Michigan boy fleeing to the kindly in the black community—battling It was also a blessing. I got out of nearest big and functional city. (I should against anti-semite Gus Savage reading politics and wrote for Newcity. I covered say in 1985 Detroit was a biggish city, off all “Jewish-sounding” names on a drag queen running for mayor, the but to say it was functioning would be Reynolds’ contributor list. I read as the great Chicago flood, Clinton’s untrue). There was so much I didn’t Sun-Times’ Vernon Jarrett wrote about inauguration, and the 1993 march for know. Not that I would ever know even a Reynolds’ “powerful Jewish sources.” gay rights in Washington. (I also wrote scintilla of it. But I tried. I watched Andy Jarrett was libelously wrong about the an obnoxiously glib, negative review of Shaw talk about Council Wars, I saw the specifics, but not about Reynolds’ Clint Eastwood’s “Unforgiven”—the less Cubs rally from nine runs down against general shadiness. He became a said about that, the better.) There were the Astros, and sat entranced through a congressman, con man and a felon with lessons learned about letting my voice couple hundred double features at the a weakness for underage girls. (I wasn’t speak for itself that I still try to remind Music Box. There was Aidan Quinn as the only one disappointed. JB Pritzker was an early supporter.) I volunteered for Joe Gardner, a now- forgotten African-American pol who died before he could be fully implicated in the Operation Silver Shovel scandal.50