Bloomingdale Trail/The 606 Eat your heart out High Line. Chicago’s repurposed train line is almost twice as long—the second-longest in the world after the Promenade Plantée in Paris—and infinitely more functional than New York’s famous linear park. The 606 is a triumph of public space design, an elevated greenspace for leisure strolls or jogs uninterrupted by intersections, a flyover highway for east- or westbound bicycles, and a site of rotating public art installations. Perhaps most importantly, it’s become a catalyst for similar parks in the works in North Lawndale, Bronzeville and Englewood. (Sharon Hoyer) Between Ashland and Ridgeway, the606.org
Diner Grill Edward Hopper’s painting, “Nighthawks,” portrays a classic scene of late-night loneliness. Lakeview’s Diner Grill is Chicago’s “Nighthawks.” Opened in 1937, it is Chicago’s oldest diner and survived the end of the Great Depression, World War II and multiple turnovers of neighborhood clientele. A fire burned it to the ground in 2016 and nearly tolled its doom, but it reopened two years later. You can still count on this diner to provide hot coffee, eggs and hash, burgers, chili and, if you want them all at once, their famous “Slinger” which combines hash browns, two burger patties, cheese, grilled onion and two eggs, all covered with chili. (David Witter) 1635 W. Irving Park, dinergrill.com
DOC Films The nation’s longest-lived student film society, a ninety-year-old Hyde Park staple at the University of Chicago, run entirely by volunteers most nights of the academic year, DOC Films, born “The Documentary Film Group” in 1932, provides programming to expand the mind and considers on a nightly basis what future the feature-length film form might hold. In a theater named for patron Max Palevsky, an electronics pioneer, philanthropist and occasional film producer (“Fun With Dick And Jane”), DOC intends to continue for decades to come, currently seeking a spot of cash to upgrade its ragtag 35mm projection and install state-of-the-art digital equipment. (Ray Pride) 1212 East 59th, docfilms.org
Myopic Books Myopic Books, the full-to-bursting three-story cupboard of 60,000-plus books in a closely curated range of desirable categories, especially mid-list fiction, continues to ply its trade under new ownership (since May 2022) on the alternately neglected and gentrified commercial expanse of Milwaukee Avenue below North. After a couple of previous longtime owners, the store is now under the close eye of stellar music journalist and book buyer of nearly two decades, J. R. Nelson and his business partner and longtime co-worker Matthew Revers. Their business plan? Uniqueness and longevity. (Ray Pride) 1564 N. Milwaukee, myopicbookstore.com
Chicken Vesuvio The dish of chicken with potato quarters and peas, dressed with little more than olive oil, oregano, and white wine, originated, or, at least, was first listed on the menu, at the old Vesuvio’s Restaurant on Wacker Drive. Of course, it’s highly likely that some Greek and Italian home cooks, over the millennia, made a similar dish… But they didn’t document it, and Vesuvio’s did. We’ve seen this dish on menus from New York City to Los Angeles, and it’s a guaranteed crowd-pleaser, perhaps Chicago’s best known culinary creation. (David Hammond)
Stony Island Arts Bank Artist and urban planner Theaster Gates renovated the once-condemned Stony Island State Savings Bank building at 68th and Stony Island Avenue into a stunning treasury of Black art and cultural history that houses a community center, breathtaking library, museum and archives. Collections include more than 60,000 glass lantern slides from the Department of Art History at University of Chicago and the personal record collection of house legend Frankie Knuckles. The Arts Bank is a cultural institution at its best: preserving the past and laying stones to ease the way forward. (Sharon Hoyer) 6760 S. Stony Island, theastergates.com/project-items/stony-island-arts-bank
1997 Cover Illustration: Charise Mericle
Chicago Cultural Center Featuring free public events and exhibitions, music performances and the largest Tiffany glass dome in the world (at forty feet in diameter and more than 50,000 pieces of glass), the Chicago Cultural Center has been a city landmark since 1897, when it was the Chicago Public Library and a Civil War memorial. Dubbed “The People’s Palace,” it was the nation’s first free municipal cultural venue. One of Chicago’s finest architectural gems, its Beaux-Arts style was influenced by the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, with architectural influences both Greek and Roman. Today, vibrant as ever, it serves as Chicago’s official Visitor Information Center as well as a cultural hub supporting and expanding the arts across the city. (Vasia Rigou) 78 E. Washington
The Transformation of South Shore (via The Obama Library, The Tiger Woods Golf Course and the Reconstruction and Renaming of LSD)
When it comes to change—especially to those who are not used to it or distrust it—oftentimes patience remains far from a virtue. South Side long-haulers have been wanting change for generations, now they’re getting it and many of them ain’t happy. But patience, once arrived, has a way of making those forget why they were mad in the first place, especially when that change uplifts. Check back in with South Shore in ten, fifteen, then twenty-five years. See if the current haters feel the same. (Scoop Jackson)
Neighborhoods There’s seventy-seven of them. All similarly different, all uniquely unique, all built by-and-for the people who define and remain indigenous to them, all culturally independent of one another, all beautiful. If there’s been one singular thing that has been the best of what Chicago is and will always continue to be, it’s the neighborhoods. (Scoop Jackson)
2011 Best of Chicago item
The Lakefront Trail The walking and biking path that stretches over eighteen miles along the Lake Michigan shoreline is one of the city’s greatest amenities. Just try to traverse the dramatic curve behind the Shedd Aquarium, zoom down the hill toward Oak Street beach or take a leisurely stroll through the Burnham wildlife corridor and not think, “I love this town.” And the separation of walking and biking trails in 2018 made the trail safer and low-stress for users on foot and wheels. (Sharon Hoyer)
Flaming Saganaki Cheese, in the pan, flaming, accompanied by shouts of “Opa!” It’s a familiar spectacle at many Greek restaurants in Chicago. First served at either Dianna’s or The Parthenon (both claimed to be creators of the dish), flaming saganaki is pretty much unknown on the Greek islands. Now considered old-timey, saganaki at newer places—like Avli’s downtown—serve it warm but un-flambéed; it’s still tasty, but it’s not iconic, so when we go out to eat Greek, especially with out-of-towners, we prefer our saganaki lit. (David Hammond)
The Chicago Skyline The buildings comprising our bold Chicago skyline are like our own pyramids, taken for granted most days, the way we would the ancient builds if we lived near them in Cairo. Dead dollars built them in hope of eternal returns, while latter-day real estate investors and contractors seek sooth sooner. What do our own pyramids memorialize? (The handicraft, the earnings, the effort, the blood of countless, nameless thousands.) Let the skyline bristle as the city’s own; it stands for a particular civilization, from inland or from the water or the sky. Today’s bristling clusters of build-up bulk rather than rise, more modest, more economical, less egotistical? They’re perhaps most impressive, seen from the air like ancient burial mounds. The likes of the Fulton Market zone’s mid-level skylines are but stubby kin to the tall sprawl of what came before, with buildings like SOM and Bruce Graham’s John Hancock (now indecorously 875 North Michigan) and SOM and Bruce Graham’s Sears Tower (now blandly Willis Tower); and the new beanpole in town, Studio Gang’s 101-story St. Regis. What planner or architect has their own dream version of a Burnham plan for a taller Chicago? Or even a mid-rise city of our future? (Ray Pride)
