This week's Reader ran a pretty cool, thoughtful article detailing various staff favorites about Chicago as a resource for students moving to Chicago for the new school year. As a nod to The Reader's publishing such uncharacteristically interesting and useful content, I here treat you to some of my favorite things about this fair city:
10) The Drive Between Logan Square And The Felony Courts: you can take Sacramento all the way from LS to 26th and Cali and the drive is both laid-back and gorgeous. For much of the way Sacramento is a boulevard that takes you, sans stop lights, through Frederick Law Olmsted-designed emerald necklace parks with a striking view of the skyline once you get south of Garfield Park.
9) Sam's Wines: this is what liquor stores are going to be like in heaven. The stock is phenomenal, whether you're looking for single malt Scotch, sake, cheap Champagne or any other spirit (although they no longer carry the Mortell family favorite, "Smokin' Dog" halbittern). It's in Lincoln Park, but almost not even, because it's hidden on a little back road by the River, next to a junk yard.
8) The Red Apple Polish buffet: on Milwaukee Avenue near Belmont there is a place where it doesn't matter how many dumplings you eat with your sausage and schnitzel, plus they serve pretty good imported beer and you get ice cream at the end or something.
7) The Swatch Store: is located at 520 N. Michigan Avenue. It's true; they still exist, at least in Chicago. Plus, North Michigan Avenue is always full of people who look like they're going to the beach all year around. If a family of tourists asks you to take their picture for them, go ahead--do it.
6) Smoking In The Bleachers At Wrigley Field: Sorry I have to geek out about this one, but even though I grew up nowhere near Chicago, my dad--a baseball fan in the truest sense--raised me to love the Cubs unconditionally. Plus, as my friend Rob showed me, the bleachers are a really good place to drink a lot of beer, ignore smoking laws, and meet cute girls. Yeah, I know we all hate Lake View. If they ever fuck around with modernizing Wrigley, maybe we can get them move it right behind Lane Tech.
5) University of Chicago Doc Films: the oldest student-run film society in the country, Doc Films plays only the most bad-ass classic, foreign, high-brow, or crazy disturbing movies possible every night of the week. Plus, it's really cheap and the no drinking policy is almost not enforced at all.
4) There Is Mexican Food Everywhere: do you like Mexican food? Then you might want to move here. Chicago is a city where people tell you where they live by telling you which Tacqueria they live near. Some are better than others, but the vast majority are varying levels of awesome. Plus, it's good for you.
3) The CTA: runs like a charm and always will, no matter what the funding-hungry suits talking about service cuts say. If you move to Chicago, leave your parents' car at home; it's not even worth the gas money. I live at a pretty sleepy intersection in a pretty secondary neighborhood, and buses blow by here every which way till the cows come home.
2) Johnnie's: easily the coolest bar in Chicago, Johnnie's has been the preferred locus for all celebrations in my inner circle ever since Rudy's friend Colin introduced us to the place a few years ago. Located at Lincoln/Roscoe/Paulina, the place is huge, is almost always empty, and has a jukebox that features "Careless Whisper," "Nothing Compares 2 U," and "Strokin'" among many other effing awesome songs that I will be playing all night long.
1) The Fact That Every Fall Bazillions Of Teen Girls Move Here To Start Art School: more of them than you can count, than American Apparel can clothe, or than their parents can keep from making huge mistakes. They're all crazy, they all have ridiculous hair, and they all think that the $4.00 bottle of Champagne you bought at Sam's makes you the most intriguing, most sophisticated, tenderest man they have ever met, and there's something they want to show you back at their dorm.
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