1998 Cover Photo: Susan Anderson | Cover Model: Cynthia Plaster Caster
The Green Mill The iconic Uptown club, in its earliest incarnation, opened in 1907, but achieved real fame as a speakeasy during Prohibition (now a hundred years past, a fact that is—paradoxically—sobering). Walking into the Mill today feels like traveling back in time; often the crowd is so thick you can half-believe it’s the only watering hole within twenty-five blocks. But the real attraction, beyond the ambience, is the entertainment, with longtime residencies by Alfonso Ponticelli, Alan Gresik, the Uptown Poetry Slam and the Paper Machete revue. (Robert Rodi) 4802 N. Broadway, greenmilljazz.com
Public League High School Basketball Chicago is not “a” but “the” basketball center of America. And the Public League is—and will forever be—where the best basketball in Chicago is forever played. (Scoop Jackson)
Eternal Construction Projects At some point Kedzie Avenue (north of the Stevenson Expressway) will be construction-free and the Kedzie Avenue Revitalization finished. When? No one alive at this point will ever know. But for the sake of what has seemed like the residential version of the Jane Byrne Interchange Construction times twenty years, here’s hope that one of the city’s greatest boulevards finds freedom. (Scoop Jackson)
Gene & Georgetti Walking into Gene & Georgetti, a rare Loop building built of wood (in 1872, one year after the Great Fire), you feel like shooting your cuffs and straightening your tie, because stepping through the door of this Chicago classic, you, male or female, will feel just a little like Frank Sinatra. Turns out, Sinatra was a friend of Gene’s (because, of course), and it seems the right beverage to order when you belly up to the bar is Jack on the rocks…and the right menu item to order for dinner is a steak (perhaps with a side of spaghetti). (David Hammond) 500 N. Franklin, geneandgeorgetti.com
Garfield Park Conservatory This four-and-a-half acre glass palace may not look like the work of a Prairie School master, but it may be the one Prairie School building that best meets one of the design philosophies of its geniuses, namely to be at one with the natural world. The whole purpose of the conservatory, once the world’s largest greenhouse, is to create an outdoor environment inside. Much of what lies in the always-warm inside feels tropical. Thank Jens Jensen, Chicago’s great Prairie School landscape architect who shaped many of the city’s parks. He designed the conservatory as a home for the densely wild natural environments most Chicagoans could never travel to. The palms, including the banana tree, certainly are, um, transplants from steamier climes. Many of the ferns and seasonal flowers just pretend to be from warmer places. There may be no better place to plan a few hour escape from the Chicago winter than under the conservatory’s glass. (Ted C. Fishman) 300 N. Central Park, garfieldconservatory.org
Robbie Fulks We’ve grown accustomed to losing talents to the lure of the coasts; singer-songwriter Robbie Fulks is the rare original who actually came here instead. He’s become a much-loved legend on Chicago’s alt-folk and alt-country scenes—in fact, on Chicago’s scene, full stop. Which is somewhat ironic, because when he arrived in 1983, his style was fully formed—and it’s a style that reflects the gravel and grit, sweetness and wit of the small towns in North Carolina and Virginia where he kicked around in his youth. But if Chicago didn’t shape Fulks, Fulks has shaped Chicago. We’re lucky to have him. (Robert Rodi)
2001 Cover Photo: Nicole Radja
Poetry Scene Chicago turned over a bright new leaf in 2023 by asking the public to nominate candidates for our city’s first-ever poet laureate. The call was met with an onslaught of responses—poetry really makes things happen here. Our deep bench of poetic talents, too numerous to list, animates our schools, churches and universities, bars and bookstores, magazines, presses, parades and proclamations. I want a poet laureate and I also want our poets to run for mayor, to sit on city council, to be considered the ultimate stewards of our lake and river and people. (Alison Cuddy)
Tony Hu A Culinary Impresario. The food scene in Chicago’s Chinatown has grown in excitement ever since the tireless Tony Hu opened Lao Sze Chuan in 1998. Hu trained as a chef with Chengdu’s exacting masters at The Culinary Institute of Sichuan, the standard-setter of Sichuan cooking, for one of the world’s great cuisines. Hu brought authentic Sichuan taste and Chinese fine dining to Chicago and introduced a family of tastes that made the restaurant a smash. And that was before it was legal to import ma la, the bewitching, slightly narcotic Sichuan peppercorn. Chef Tony cleared the way for non-Cantonese-style Chinese restaurants to open throughout the city. Lao Sze Chuan’s success also made it all but mandatory for nearly any Chinese restaurant in the city to spice up its menu. Hu opened more restaurants with other regional Chinese cuisines, including one with a funky, post-modern retro-Communist theme. Legal woes set him back briefly and Hu divested of his restaurants. Now back and fully engaged in new ventures, Hu is helping bring cutting-edge, Chinese fine-dining chains to Chicago. His latest venture is a gorgeous Sichuan-style hot pot restaurant, Shoo Loong Kan (at the corner of Cermak and Wentworth) that recreates the style of an old-time luxury Chinese inn. And ma la perfumes the air. (Ted C. Fishman)
Chicago Botanic Garden Three hundred and eighty-five acres. Twenty-eight landscaped gardens. Millions of plants and flowers. Breaking ground in 1965 and opening seven years later, Chicago Botanic Garden is the garden in the city. Diverse flora and ecosystems, tree-lined pathways and a tranquil vibe, contribute to a destination that keeps you wondering if you’re in the city at all. With a vibrant events calendar that features gardening classes, botanical drawing and yoga, Chicago Botanic Garden is a treat that lasts beyond the summer months—an opportunity to escape the noise and traffic of the city and get your nature fix simply by traveling about twenty miles north. (Vasia Rigou) 1000 Lake Cook Road, Glencoe, chicagobotanic.org
2019 Best of Chicago item
Vienna Beef It was the Columbian Exposition, 1893. It was hot, and millions of people wanted a small, portable sausage. Austrian emigrants Emil Reichel and Sam Ladany had a recipe and a plan, and named their creation after their native Vienna. Opening a factory at Fullerton and Damen, they at first competed with fellow Northsider Oscar Mayer. But while Mayer’s sausages turned to smoke flavoring, Vienna kept the crispy-skinned, European tradition. This flavoring made it the ideal base when Depression-era stands, giving the customer more for their money, added a cascade of ingredients including relish, cucumber, onion and sport peppers to make a “Depression sandwich.” But no matter what the toppings, Vienna Beef will forever be the one and only true Chicago Hot Dog. (David Witter)
Printers Row Lit Fest Founded in 1985, Printers Row Lit Fest is the largest free outdoor literary book fair in the Midwest, and it’s a nerd carnival, to bootl. Book-lovers can meet favorite authors, wander around looking at first editions they really shouldn’t buy but will, and let the kids get their faces painted, or listen to a drag queen read stories. Since it’s held outside, Lit Fest always comes with the thrilling risk of bad weather. There was that time it rained all day and we got sick, or it was so brutally hot someone fainted by the antique map display, but we still stood in line for Sara Paretsky’s autograph. Some of us didn’t realize how much we missed it until the pandemic shut it down in 2020—now we hope never to miss it again. (Mary Wisniewski) Printersrowlitfest.org
The Jazz Showcase Joe Segal. The only two words you need to know. Because if you know those two words, and the spirit of jazz music and culture that it rests in and cultivated, you know that the place Joe Segal called home, The Jazz Showcase, is—and will remain regardless of where it is—a Chicago landmark whether the city officially recognizes it or not. The best “room” in all of Chicago will always be open. Just go there now or in twenty years and introduce yourself to Joe’s son Wayne, give him love and tell him, “Joe sent me.” (Scoop Jackson) 806 S. Plymouth, jazzshowcase.com
