The intersection of Damen, North and Milwaukee
Starbucks people have their Starbucks. The nightlife is deadly loud and supertanked with clueless suckaholic new-to-town transplants. Tacos and hotdogs and soul food and vegan stews all simmer in this grand locus of liquor and libidinousness and misdirected attitude. Witness the static of real estate, commerce, youth and beauty, with the occasional non-piercing tossed in. Day or night, traffic swims, viewers of “Real World Chicago” point at the series’ abandoned home, artists pretend Bucktown does not exist to the north, musicians wander in that do-I-really-need-a-job haze. It is a walk through the pages of dozens of never-to-be-written novels, a narrative of the city in postmodern mutation.
Best of Chicago 2002